2022 Trip to Ecuador & Galápagos Islands

Exciting NEWS: We are planning a return trip to Ecuador and the Galápagos Islands for June/July 2022. We held our first parent/student informational meeting in the Palmyra High School library on Thursday, February 20, 2020.

At the informational meeting, I distributed the itinerary, the enrollment booklet, and a slide show that gave parents and students information about the tour company - EF (Education First), the tour leader (me - Cynthia Hitz), why this is the “Trip of a Lifetime”, payment information, and had two students from the 2019 share their feelings about the trip and a mother of a student traveler encouraged everyone to send their son or daughter!

If you are interested in registering your son or daughter, or as a parent you are interested in going, please contact me by email and I can send the information to you.  cynthia_hitz@pasd.us

Reminder: the $200 early discount ends at the end of February 2020.

Below are several screenshots of the slides from the powerpoint presentation from the meeting. 

The combination of walking among sea lions and giant tortoises, swimming with sea turtles under the watchful eyes of Galápagos penguins and blue-footed boobys in one country, plus standing on either side of the equator can NOT be duplicated anywhere in the world. A trip to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands would be challenging to plan on your own - but EF has done the work for us. 

Other benefits that you may not think of initially are:

- The currency of Ecuador is the American dollar; no money exchange needed!

- The weather is very comfortable, even at the equator due to Quito’s high altitude. The temperatures on the island are warm but the ocean breeze sweeps away the humidity.

- There will not be crowds, unlike many other popular destinations. In fact, Ecuador limits the amount of people that can be on the islands on any one particular day.

- Ecuador is a safe destination. Although terroristic attacks can occur anywhere in the world, Ecuador is not on the radar for that type of threat.

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Our requested travel dates are June 27-July 5. However, EF reserves the right to start the trip 4 days before the 27th or 4 days after the requested date. Make sure to keep the dates June 23-July 9 open in case those 9 days are shifted a few days earlier or later.