SA-81/82 SOUTH AMERICA TRIP
Date of travel: Dec 10, 1981 – Jan 5, 1982
ITINERARY: Evening departure from Los Angeles (LAX) to COLOMBIA
(2.5 days: Bogota and trip to salt mines with “salt cathedral”), flight ECUADOR
(2 days: Quito, trip Avenue of Volcanoes, Ambato), flight PERU (4.5 days: Lima, flight Cusco, train to Machu Picchu, Cusco, flight Lima, ruins Pacha Camac), flight BOLIVIA (2 days: La Paz, bus trip Tiahuanaco and boat ride on Lake Titicaca), flight CHILE (3 days: Santiago, bus trip Valparaiso and Vina del Mar, Santiago flight Puerto Montt, by buses and boats over Andes) to ARGENTINA
(2.5 days: Bariloche, flight to Buenos Aires), flight to PARAGUAY (1 day: in Asuncion), flight BRAZIL (7.5 days: Iguacu Falls, flight Sao Paulo, flight Rio de Janeiro, flight Brasilia, flight to Manaus with a boat ride to confluence of Amazon and Rio Negro rivers), flight via Miami to Los Angeles.
Travel office: Globus (through May Company Travel)
Who took part: 33 travelers, trip leader from Globus and local guides
GI-96 Galapagos Islands 1996 – ECUADOR
Date of travel: Oct 15 – Oct 22, 1996
ITINERARY:
On Oct 15, 1996 at 3:40 AM I drive in a rented car from Vista to LAX. There I take a Carnival Air plane to Miami. In Miami I switch to an Ecuador company Saeta plane via Guayaquil to the capital of ECUADOR, Quito, where I land at 10:30 PM. A local guide takes me to my hotel by taxi. The following morning I explore the city on my own and in the afternoon I have a sightseeing of Quito, but there is very bad and rainy weather, so I cancel it (I was here once before).
On Oct 17 I leave Quito by plane. There is a short stop in Guayaquil. Then 1.5 hour flight to San Cristobal Island, my first GALAPAGOS ISLAND. Here our group is getting to know each other. First, there is a tour around the island. Then we board the ship. We were to be on a large comfortable ship, but because we are a little group of 7, the travel office put us on a small sailboat. There are miniature cabins in it and though I was to have a cabin just for me, I am to share it with the captain. I refuse that. So the captain will sleep on the open deck. But the beds, one above the other, have very little space above them, I get claustrophobic and most of the night sleep also on the deck.
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