Happy Gringo Travel Agency

A Wandering Doc
Jan 5
3 min read

Planning for the Galapagos was pretty intense. I typically like to book with people who contribute to online communities so my first contact was with Heather at CNHTours because she is a wealth of information on the trip advisor forum. Sadly, she just wasn't the right agent for me. She was really pushing the Samba as her agency has an affiliation with that boat. The Samba looked ok, and I'm sure that the Naturalist on the Samba would have been great, but the dining arrangements really turned me off (look at photos of how cramped everyone is, and many rooms are bunk beds). After a very brief telephone conversation with Heather, I realized we were not a good match. I'm sure she does a nice job for many, but she just wasn't 'my people'. I started interviewing other agencies. In fairness to Heather, one of the ladies on my voyage did use her and said she was fine.

But as fate would have it, I stumbled upon Jacky at Happy Gringo and never looked back!! This lady is on the ball and she will bend over backwards to make sure that your trip runs as smooth as possible. That's not to say we didn't have a couple issues (described below), but Jacky handled them promptly and with amazing attention to detail. I will ALWAYS book with Jacky if given the opportunity.

Jacky was able to book us on the Natural Paradise for an exceptional price compared to the Samba!!! I was quoted $5,150 for the Samba and $4,534 for the Natural Paradise (same time frame/same length of cruise). Please take a look at the Natural Paradise compared to other yachts. It's absolutely a cut above. We ended up upgrading to a balcony room for $5,545. That's only $400 more than I was quoted for the Samba. Please please please, shop around for prices.

As mentioned, things didn't run completely smooth (but you wouldn't expect that with a trip of this magnitude). The first issue was with the booking link having mixed up our names. This could have been an issue with trip insurance (we use trip insurance associated with our CC). Jacky was able to get Happy Gringo to send a document explaining the mix up so that, in the event we needed to use trip insurance, we would have documentation. I'm still not sure how that would have panned out in the end, but luckily we didn't need to cancel anything.

The second issue came at time departure. Happy Gringo closed Thursday-Monday (Jan 1-5) for the holiday. As luck would have it, we were departing January 4th. The travel documents did not arrive on the 31st as promised, and I could not get thru to the office. I did contact Jacky by whatsapp and she worked with me tirelessly to make sure that I got all the documents and had all my questions answered before leaving for the airport. She did all this WHILE ON HER VACATION! I had so many last minute questions, but she was always available with prompt reply. It was a little stressful the final days before departure, but I had confidence that Jacky would take care of any issue even though Happy Gringo office was closed. That's really going above and beyond for her customers!!!

This is the Yacht that Jacky hooked us up with. I couldn't be more happy!!! We are planning to do the 8A itinerary in 2028.