Holiday Disappointments
Almost two years ago I was part of a very excited group who met up at the dive show in Birmingham to meet up with a specialist diving tour operator to try and organise a holiday of a lifetime to the Galapagos. We met the operator and informed them what we wanted and as they could provide the trip we wanted we signed up and were given a couple of weeks to get a full charter and pay the initial deposit, this was back in October 2005 all we had to do was sit back and get organised.
As we were going such a long way I decided I would extend my trip and visit Machu Picchu in Peru, I did my research and found a travel agent who could organise the trip for me, MP is a popular destination so I had to commit to certain aspects of the trip quite early on. I had decided to stay overnight at MP and so chose a lovely hotel close to the site, I can’t tell you how many times I have looked at their website as I looked forward to the trip.
In the summer of 2006 we were informed there would be some changes to our booking and we had to pay what should be a discretionary staff gratuity up front before our trip, some of the group weren’t happy with this and were given the option to cancel, they did and I bet they are glad they did. The rest of us agreed reluctantly as another couple of hundred pounds wasn’t going to make too much difference. We then had to find a few more people to fill the boat, we managed eventually which wasn’t too difficult as the BBC were running some programmes about Galapagos and the region.
So yet again we sat back and waited, constantly checking the same websites and dive forums for trip reports to whet our appetite, July 2007 came round and we paid the balance for the dive portion of the trip, then on July 12 came a bombshell, I read on one the US dive forums that most of the boats had been confined to port as they weren’t operating with the correct permits. We contacted our dive operator for more information and where informed that they had been notified of the problems but these would soon be sorted out, our quest for information has been constant. We are told something will happen and then it doesn’t so we wait again, then I read that the President of Ecuador has lifted the “illegal” sale of shark fins IF caught accidentally – yeh right 
so it seems he has declared open season on the sharks we are hoping to see. I certainly don’t want to see dead sharks lying dead on the seabed and I don’t think any diver does.
We heard that the boats could operate the southern islands only but then we hear that the boat we are due to be on has floated the current regulations and headed for the islands of Wolf and Darwin anyway, now they have been spotted and reported, jeopardising any future trips. We gave our dive operator a deadline for information on a go no go but they have once more come back and asked for an extension, we have no choice but to comply. I was due to pay the balance of my trip extension today (15th) but because they were not able to extend my payment date for a few days I have decided not to pay the balance and therefore have cancelled that part of the trip I was particularly looking forward to, not least that I was going to meet my friend who lives in Oz after the dive trip and continue our trip together.
I can’t explain how upset I am about the whole situation, the trip of a lifetime has turned into complete and utter frustration, the most frustrating aspect is the lack of accurate information we are getting and I seem to have more contact with a complete stranger on the other side of the Atlantic who is also in the same “boat”.