Beware of Sarvaltours and the Merak tour of the Galapagos

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Beware of Sarvaltours and the Merak tour of the Galapagos
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The details below concern the Merak tour that I took of the Galapagos Islands, last January. I am posting this complaint only after trying for many months in vain to get an adequate response from Sarvaltours (in Quito, Ecuador), the tour operator that sold me the package.

You know that you're on a nightmare tour when you're just counting the minutes until you're finished, rather than savoring every moment of your vacation.

To sum up my complaints in a single sentence: the Merak cruise and boat materially failed to provide a safe, clean, professional, informative, and enjoyable experience and, while selling me the tour, Sarvaltours made several misrepresentations regarding the quality of the boat, the crew, the guide, and the actual time to be spent physically on the Galapagos Islands.

To the extent that the failures below relate to safety and/or basic cleanliness and ship hygiene, there may have very well been violations of law, although I am not familiar with the applicable Ecuadorian or Galapagan laws.

Here are the details about what was easily one of the worst vacations of my life. Note that I changed the names of the other passengers, to protect their privacy.

1) When I arrived at the airport, I had to search for about twenty minutes before finding someone from Sarvaltours. There was no sign for the company or anyone to greet me upon arrival. I finally asked a guide from another company to help me and he brought me to Cesar, who berated me for not responding when he called out my name (rather than

simply apologizing for not coming prepared with a sign for Sarvaltours and/or with my name written on it). Cesar apparently doesn´t realize that his elderly voice is very soft and his short stature does not at all stand out in a crowd, and that there are hundreds of people at the airport with lots of noise and other commotion and that the way to find a total stranger is not to call out the person´s name every five minutes in the hope that he or she happens to hear. The best way to pick up a total stranger at the airport is to hold up a sign with the person´s name at the point where passengers leave the main arrival area (the way the Galapagos guides from other tour operators did at the airport arrival area). I have traveled to about 60 countries, and nobody has ever tried to meet me at the airport by calling out my name at random intervals, hoping that I would hear.

2) After I arrived on the Merak boat for the first time, I assumed that I (and the rest of the passengers) would be given some very basic information about the boat -- including important safety features of the boat, where the life-vests are located, how the unique bathrooms features worked, who was in charge of what on the boat (in case of any

problems), etc. But there was no explanation of anything offered by Cesar or any crew member. This lack of communication and information would result in various problems and inconveniences throughout the cruise (for example, no one ever instructed us to keep the cabin window closed at night because water can come splashing through into one´s bed from outside).

3) There were never any proper introductions of the crew, captain, etc. and from the moment I arrived the crew seemed to keep to itself. The tone that was set from the beginning was that we should communicate with the crew as little as possible because any questions or requests were a bother to them.

4) Because one of the passengers was going to arrive late on my first day of the tour, Cesar took us to a nearby beach and told us to bring our snorkeling equipment. It turned out that there would be no tour or explanation of anything on that beach (which is the only thing that we got to see during the first day of the cruise). Thinking that it was better to leave my camera away from the water (and assuming that I could return for it later if needed), I left my camera on the boat. The two Germans on the tour with me (Hans and Kristina) did the same thing under the same assumptions. We snorkeled for a while in waters that weren´t very interesting (Cesar himself said that this snorkeling

was more to test our equipment than to see anything special) so we stopped after about an hour of testing our equipment and seeing nothing of interest. But when we walked around the beach afterwards we did see many animals and other things that we wanted to photograph during the hour that we had left on the beach. So I went up to the

captain (Luis), and asked him if he could take us back to the Merak boat (in the dinghy) so that we could all retrieve our cameras. His reply was: ¨No, there´s only one hour left. We don´t have time for that. Just keep snorkeling.¨ I tried to explain to him that I was finished snorkeling and that it would take only five minutes to go back to the boat in the dinghy so that Hans, Kristina, and I could photograph some of the things on that beach. ¨Don´t worry, tomorrow you´ll see many more beautiful things that you can photograph,¨ he said. ¨We can´t go back now.¨ And that was it. His attitude and reasoning was totally absurd and unhelpful -- as if he was too lazy to drive the dinghy for five minutes so that three of his tour customers could take some pictures of what they had paid so much to see. And, as it turns out, there were a few animals and scenes from that beach that

we didn´t encounter again during the rest of the tour (contrary to the assertions made by Luis).

5) Later that afternoon, back on the boat, I wanted to rinse off the seawater in a shower, but there was no water. I asked Luis about the situation and he said ¨We´re waiting for the water to come.¨ That was all the information he would offer. He didn´t say what might have happened to the shower, how long he expected the problem to last, or

even how long such problems have lasted in the past. About two hours later, I asked for an update and he snapped at me rather aggressively: ¨I already told you that the water is coming. You don´t need to ask me any more,¨ he said, as if I was wrong for wanting a more precise update as to when I could take a shower and change out of my bathing

suit and into some clean clothes.

6) On our second day of the tour, after riding for about 4-5 hours on the boat (to Santa Fe) Cesar told us that we should rest on the boat for another 45 minutes, so that we don´t go snorkeling immediately after lunch. Hans requested that we spend this 45 minute rest time on land because we had been on the boat for such a long time. I fully

agreed with him and saw no reason why the 45 minute rest that we were supposed to have after lunch couldn´t be spent off of the boat. So I tried to facilitate as an interpreter because I speak both German and Spanish. Luis then blasted the radio, just as we were trying to have a discussion with Cesar about all of this (an act that was both

obnoxiously inconsiderate and totally counter-productive). Cesar stubbornly refused Hans´ request, without providing any good reason. He said only that if we get off the boat immediately and walk around, then we would end up snorkeling later when there would be less light out. This, of course, made no sense. Whether we waited 45

minutes on the boat or 45 minutes on land before snorkeling made no difference at all to the amount of light outside. But when I tried to explain this to Cesar, he became even more irritated and then Luis started attacking me for acting as a translator with respect to a request that he considered inappropriate. ¨As the captain of this

cruise, I have to make sure that the guide is obeyed,¨ Luis warned, in an attempt to ¨pull rank¨ and cut off all further discussion. What the customers wanted seemed not to matter to anyone. Then suddenly Cesar angrily declared that we would completely break the program and do it the way Hans wanted, even though this would ruin the snorkeling for everyone. Rather than listen or give any reasonable response, Cesar tried to turn a simple and sensible request into some test of wills between him and one of his passengers. In the end, to try to ¨keep the peace,¨ we just submitted to Cesar´s obstinately unreasonable wishes and needlessly stayed on the boat for another 45 minutes, but the incident was really bizarre, unpleasant, and irrational.

7) On the night of January 14th, when we were sailing to Floreana, it was raining very hard, the sea was very wild and rocky, and the passengers seemed a bit nervous about the boat´s safety. The tour passengers were either in bed, trying to somehow sleep through or forget about the rocky ride, or sitting around the cabin, securing themselves by holding onto something and looking into the distance with heavy stares (as if they were wondering whether we would survive the trip). Nobody was talking. Everyone was alone in his thoughts about the worst that might happen on the tempestuous waters. I myself had never been on a boat ride in which -- for hour after hour -- the entire boat sways from one side to the other (almost to the point that the top deck of the boat touches the water), while cruising fast into big waves and choppy waters and heavy rain. It was difficult to walk around without being thrown around the cabin by the force of the ship´s rough and powerful movements. This rough ride went on for hours and there was never any reassurance from any crew members, no safety instructions, or anything else that might make the passengers feel safer. So the passengers just sat silently or lay in their beds while bracing themselves for the worst.

When I finally asked for a life vest, I was derided by Maurio, Cesar, and Luis, for about twenty minutes, until -- when I stood my ground and insisted on getting a life vest -- Maurio became hostile and threatening, as if he was about to start a physical altercation with me, just as the ship was about to capsize. After about twenty minutes of this psychological torture, Luis finally went up to the deck and got me a life vest.

Ironically enough, when we went to Puerto Ayora, on the fourth night of my trip, all of the tour passengers were required to wear a life-vest during the dinghy ride to the port so that the crew wouldn´t be fined by the local authorities. Before that night we had already made about a dozen dinghy rides from the Merak boat to the shore (or from the shore back to the Merak) -- sometimes in deeper and/or more dangerous waters -- but this was the first time that we were ever given life-vests as a group (and we were told that this was just to avoid a fine in the busy port area, where I am assuming that the Merak´s safety practices are easier to monitor than in the remote and isolated areas where we before). But during long stretches of travel in the open sea, and during stormy weather and dangerously rough seas, we were given nothing (except for me, after my lengthy negotiations and countless requests in the middle of a tempest). Apparently the only thing that mattered to the crew was avoiding a fine from the local authorities rather than

ensuring that their passengers actually felt safe and had adequate protections.

What I listed above are specific incidents that come to mind and which I detailed in roughly chronological order. Now here are some more general observations about the problems with the boat, the staff, and the tour in general.

A) The guide, Cesar, seemed tired and utterly disinterested in his work. At one point during the trip he told me that he just wanted to retire already so that he could stay home and watch football, and I wasn´t at all surprised to hear this. I´m sure he has worked hard all of his life and is entitled to retire, but if he is still taking money to give tours, then he should still provide the the attitude and the service for which the people on the tour paid good money.

Whatever services and explanations Cesar provided during the tour were usually offered begrudgingly and lazily. Often times it seemed like if we didn´t ask him for the information, he wasn´t going to give it to us. On many occasions he simply avoided a follow up question (apparently either because he didn´t know the answer or didn´t feel

like replying). He usually gave his explanations to the one or two people who happened to be standing next to him, rather than first getting the group´s attention before starting his talk. I ended up having to do most of the translation for him, either because he forgot to translate into English for some of the passengers, or because he

just didn´t bother and people got tired of asking him for the translation and just started looking to me for the translation.

B) The captain, Luis, was very arrogant and lazy. Talking to him felt like he was doing me a favor by listening. He sometimes acted as if he were the customer and the tourists were working for him. He handled each small request from a passenger begrudgingly, as if we were pests that were ruining his relaxing boat cruise.

C) The cook, Maurio, as detailed above, was extremely hostile and menacing, and created an atmosphere of severe tension on the boat. He was also very inconsiderate on multiple occasions:

---One time, when Cesar was trying to address the group after a meal, Maurio turned on the radio and someone had to tell him to turn it off so that the group could hear Cesar.

---On at least two occasions, Maurio defecated in the bathroom and walked out without cleaning the toilet. Not only is this just plain disgusting and unpleasant for the next person using the bathroom, but it also raises questions about how sanitary the handling of the food was (after all, if the cook doesn´t do even minimal cleaning after

using the bathroom, who knows how he handles the food or how clean his hands are when he is preparing meals?).

D) The second captain, Lenin, was the only member of the ship´s crew who did his job professionally and seriously, and who treated the passengers with respect and consideration. I´m sure that the serious safety infraction during the stormy night (when I had to repeatedly request a life-vest) would have been prevented by him had he not been

busy up on the deck navigating the ship through the storm. Lenin is an excellent service provider who should be commended for his good work, and it is thanks to him that the experience was at all tolerable.

E) Sarvaltours gave me the impression that the boat would run with the sail much of the time (which is a much more pleasant experience than the loud and smelly gas motor running all the time), but in the end, we used the sail only once and we did so with the loud and smelly gas motor running. In other words, for about four days the loud and smelly gas motor on the boat was running almost non-stop. Also, I was unable to sleep one night when the Argentine couple ran the air conditioning in their room all night. Of course, they have the right to have cooler air (even though no other rooms on the boat have air-conditioning), but if the motor from their private air-conditioner is so loud that it

keeps other passengers awake the entire night, then this is a defect in the boat.

F) For at least my first night the toilet seat in one bathroom was broken.

G) For the entire trip, the faucet in the other bathroom was barely functional, so that only small drops came out.

H) In the bathroom with the broken faucet, the shower head spewed out water that often smelled a little bit strange and rotten (like sewer water).

I) The sheets and towels were never changed or cleaned, even though one´s towel and sheet become quite dirty after four nights on a ship with lots of dirt from the sea/beach and from a small space divided among eight tourists (plus a crew of four people) in very cramped quarters. Isn´t there some regulation that requires more sanitary practices?

J) In general, we spent far too much time on the boat, and only a few hours each day on any island. When I spoke with tourists who had gone on other cruises, they told me that they did most of their traveling during the night and were able to spend most of their days on land. We traveled by night only once. Sarvaltours should have made it clear

that there would actually be on the land only a few hours each day because I would not have bought the cruise had I known this (since it doesn´t make sense to spend so much of one´s waking hours on a boat when the whole point is to see the islands).

H) Sarvaltours failed to provide any real information about what passengers should take with them for the trip. For example, they said that I could rent snorkeling equipment but didn´t say that I would need to bring my own wetsuit (and the water was quite cold at times). As another example, they never mentioned the fact that the program included a hike deep into an unlit volcanic cave that would require a flashlight (which I didn´t have with me because I didn´t know it would be needed).

F) The crew was not always available to help passengers to go from the dinghy back on to the boat, and on a few occasions it was I who was giving people a hand to make sure they didn´t slip on their way over back to the main vessel. This may be yet another safety violation, although I don´t know what the exact regulations are.

G) The tour was advertised as ¨Four nights and five days¨ but in reality the fifth day is only one hour in the Charles Darwin center. Sarvaltours claims that this is how all tour packages are marketed but if that´s the case then all of these tour operators are marketing with misleading information. They should instead say ¨4 nights and 4.04 days¨ or just ¨4 nights and 4 days¨ because one hour in the Charles Darwin center is hardly a whole day.

Charles

Ottawa, Canada
Destination Expert
for Galapagos Islands
Level Contributor
4,267 posts
18 reviews
21 helpful votes
1. Re: Beware of Sarvaltours and the Merak tour of the Galapagos
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Charles,

thanks for sharing this with us! What a disaster! I have copied your message and forwarded it off to the Galapagos Chamber of Tourism, to the International Galapagos Tour Operators' Association, and the the Association of Naturalist Guides of Galapagos, for their information. The guide and ship captain were clearly not doing their job and should be held accountable.

As for sailing, no ship ever uses sails for more than an hour or two if at all, and it's only for the sake of appearances and marketing - winds in Galapagos are notoriously fickle (Darwin spent nearly half of his 5 weeks in Galapagos sailing between islands).

I'm surprised the Merak, a tiny sailboat, is still running. This was no doubt a "low end" cruise. Though not absolving the crew and guide of their responsibilities, your experience is nevertheless less surprising given that in Galapagos, you generally get what you pay for.

Warmest regards,

Heather Blenkiron

Edinburgh
2 posts
1 review
2. Re: Beware of Sarvaltours and the Merak tour of the Galapagos
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I was just to about to book a tour on Merak when I stumbled across your thread. I was minutes away!

I wonder do you have any advice on other boats to avoid? Or which have a good reputation?

I was going economic class but after reading about your experience I will up to 'tourist'

Thanks for your advice.

Michelle

3. Re: Beware of Sarvaltours and the Merak tour of the Galapagos

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B.C.
2 posts
4. Re: Beware of Sarvaltours and the Merak tour of the Galapagos
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I am compelled to post here, since my daughter and I spent a wonderful 4-5 days on the Merak in June 2009. The other passengers - 2 Australians, 2 Dutch people and an Irishman - were also very satisfied. One Dutch person even stayed on for an extra 3 days.

Our guide was Cesar, Jr., the 24 year old son of the older Cesar you had. Our Cesar was polite, always helpful with getting on and off the dinghy, and fully involved in making our days informative and interesting.

The crew was friendly and courteous, and we all agreed that the cook was FABULOUS as well as being very cheerful! The crew must have been different from yours. We did meet Cesar Sr., who was helping by taking us to the tortoise area on Santa Cruz while his son picked up passengers arriving at the airport.

Certainly the boat was small and not luxurious, but we were quite satisfied as the price was at the bottom of the range, and the weather was fine. We actually enjoyed the backpacking mood of our group. I was the oldest at 60 and my daughter the youngest at 21. Of course, on a small boat like that, if anyone is a bad apple the trip could be spoiled.

I would happily repeat our experience. It was a budget trip but definitely a success for us. Yes, the showers were a little inconsistent and there wasn't much lounging room.

Perhaps your complaints served a purpose, resulting in improvements since your trip.

5. Re: Beware of Sarvaltours and the Merak tour of the Galapagos

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