With so much potential for outdoor travel enthusiasts, why have the Galapagos Islands developed as a cruise destination for retired seniors? 

It's a question Marc Patry has puzzled over and has finally done something about -- he's organized a 13-day adventure that includes hiking, mountain biking, kayaking, horseback riding to the top of a volcano, swimming with sea lions and penguins and even night-time snorkelling to see fantastic bioluminescence displays. 

"On a typical cruise, visitors would explore quiet coves in a small motorized boat -- far from ideal for viewing wildlife," says Patry, an Ottawa native who has lived in the Galapagos Islands since 1998. "With kayaks, you can get surprisingly close to sea turtles and white-tipped reef sharks resting in the shallows."

 This is the first "active" tour for Patry's company, Cultural and Natural Heritage Tours, which has organized Galapagos cruises for three years, as well as trips to the Yucatan, Mexico's monarch butterfly reserves and Patagonia before that. This trip runs from March 5 to 17 and includes some sightseeing around Quito in Ecuador, where the adventure begins.

 "The cruise is designed for active people who want to get out there and do things. Usual cruises are much more sedate and a bit of a turnoff for the young and the young at heart."

Patry, who rents out his home in Kemptville and whose parents live in Ottawa, now works for conservation in Galapagos and lives in the main town in Galapagos.

"It's kind of like if you put Kemptville on a small island in the middle of the Pacific. My wife and I have a two-year-old son and apart from appalling health services, it's a great place to raise a kid. Our son's life includes lizards, geckos, iguanas, Darwin finches and even giant tortoises." 

Now "pushing 40," Patry arrived in the Galapagos in a roundabout way. After university in Ottawa and Guelph, he worked for the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, which led to volunteer work in the Eastern Ontario Model Forest, which led to a four-year job in the Yucatan, where the Canadian and Mexican governments were establishing model forests. This experience helped him get into ecological conservation work in Galapagos. 

The Galapagos is a quiet place to live but recently available cellphones and Internet service make communications easier. 

"We have cable TV at home and for the first time, we're watching Seinfeld!" he says. 

His tours have traditionally attracted the "I've-been-to-Cancun-and- have-had-enough-of-that" set -- and they tend to be older. "I guess you can say it takes a few years of doing Cancun and that kind of place before some folks realize that there's so much more out there for them to experience and see."

 The active tours are guided by Greg Estes, a 20-year veteran of the Galapagos and a self-made Darwin expert, having published an academic article on Darwin's visit to Galapagos in 1835. 
"He's a fantastic guide -- the kind of guide who will have everybody snorkelling at 5:30 a.m. and not complaining," says Patry.

 

Estes will lead the group -- maximum 16 people -- on a five-hour hike to the largest colony of giant tortoises accessible to visitors in the wild. 
"Because it's so remote, this is one of the least frequented visitor sites," said Estes. "We should get up close to dozens, maybe over 100 tortoises." 

The activities are quite safe. 

"There is no more danger here than there would be swimming around a lake outside of Ottawa," said Patry. "The sharks are not aggressive, sea lions are playful and penguins swim about, ignoring you completely." 

The cruise ship has air conditioning and private bathrooms. 
About 97 per cent of the Galapagos Islands are part of the Galapagos National Park and subject to regulations that require tourists be with a park-certified guide. Studies have shown the impact of the 60,000 tourists who visit each year to be minimal. 

If You Go: 

For more details:
Contact Marc Patry directly at mpatry@cnhtours.com or visit the Cultural and Natural Heritage Tours Web site at www.cnhtours.com . 

To book a tour: Contact the CNH Tours travel agent, La Joie de Voyager at 1-877-315-5505 (toll free) or at passion.voyage@videotron.ca. 

Travel dates: March 5 to 17, but another tour may be set up if there is sufficient demand. 

Cost: Regular cost is $2,250 U.S. from Quito, Ecuador. 

Condition: Anyone in decent physical condition should have no problem. You don't have to know how to ride a horse or paddle a kayak, although any experience helps. The longest hike is five hours. The trip is suitable for those 12 and older.