Aida Maria 8 Days B

Day 1 – Baltra Island & San Cristobal Island
AM: Arrival in airport and transfer to the boat. Briefing onboard about the boat and the island.
PM: Isla Lobos is a small island named after the sea lions that rest and play on its rocky shores. It is also home to blue-footed boobies, great frigate-birds, brown pelicans, lava gulls, common noddies, yellow warblers and small and medium ground finches. There is good snorkeling in the clear waters of the channel and this is one of the best sites at which to swim with sea lions underwater.

Day 2 – Santa Fe Island & South Plaza Island
AM: Santa Fe is a volcanic uplift and hosts a forest of Opuntia cactus, which are the largest of the archipelago, and palo santo. Weathered cliffs provide a haven for swallow-tailed gulls, red-billed tropic birds, and sehar-waters petrels. The Santa Fe species of land iguanas are often seen, as well as lava lizards. There is a picturesque turquoise lagoon and calm waters where you can snorkel amongst sea lions.
PM: South Plaza has one of the largest populations of land iguanas in the Galápagos. It is also home to marine iguanas and a hybrid iguana whose fathers are marine iguanas and mothers are land iguanas. There are cliffs with spectacular views and a rocky trail circumnavigates the island displaying the combination of dry and coastal vegetation zone. The island is home to enormous prickly pear cactus and the endemic succulent sesuvian.

Day 3 – Santa Cruz Island
AM: The Charles Darwin Research Station is an international not-for-profit organization that provides scientific research, technical information and assistance to ensure the proper preservation of the Galápagos Islands. Visitors can learn about natural history, issues concerning the islands, and see the tortoise breeding and rearing project at work.
PM: El Chato is a reserve in the highlands of Santa Cruz, where you have the amazing opportunity to observe the magnificent giant tortoise in the wild. This area is vegetated with transition zone vegetation and is located in the humid zone of the highlands of Santa Cruz. The walk to the reserve is one of the best places to observe ground birds, tree and ground finches, the vermillion flycatcher, cattle egrets and occasionally Galápagos rails.
The highlands are located in the northern part of the island and can reach elevations up to 1500 meters. On a journey into the higher elevations of Santa Cruz you will experience all seven different vegetation zones. The vegetation here is abundant and lush and the weather moist.

Day 4 – Isabela Island
AM: Puerto Villamil is a small peaceful town with a laid back atmosphere and long white-sand, palm-lined beaches. Behind Villamil are several brackish water lagoons where pink flamingos, common stilts, whimbrels, white-cheeked pintails, gallinules are usually seen. Villamil is also home to a tortoise breeding centre. Here you can see several species of Isabela tortoises next to each other and observe the way each evolved differently depending on their environment.
PM: Between 1946 and 1959 Isabela was a penal colony, where prisoners were made build a wall with huge blocks of lava as punishment. Due to the arduous labour and harsh conditions in which the prisoners lived, this site is known as the wall of tears. A set of stairs provides a bird’s eye view of the wall and the surrounding landscape. You can still see the foundations of a USA base from the Second World War.
The Tortoise Breeding center was created to protect animals in their first years of life from the threats of foreign species such as pigs and donkeys. Giant tortoise eggs are collected and brought to the center where they are hatched and kept for five years before being released to their natural environment.

Day 5 – Isabela Island
AM: At the Moreno Point you can see beautiful rocky shores where penguins and shore birds, including great blue herons, are usually spotted. You can also enter a grove of mangroves, where oysters can be seen at the base of the trees. A trek traverses the sharpest lava rocks in the Islands where dry lava is interspersed with lagoons and small ponds containing abundant wildlife.
PM: Elizabeth Bay is a marine visitor site. As enter you the bay Galápagos hawks can soar overhear and schools of pompanos and dorados can be seen swimming underneath you. Las Marielas, the small islets just outside the bay, are home to the largest concentration of Galápagos penguins living in the Islands. You can also see a red mangrove cove, passing through the red root and green leaf breeding ground for fish.

Day 6 – Isabela Island & Fernandina Island
AM: Tagus Cove was named after a British warship which anchored here in 1814, this cove is located to the west of the island and you can take a panga (zodiac) trip below the high cliffs. Here there is an opportunity to see penguins as well as marine iguanas, Sally Lightfoot crabs and sea lions. Blue-footed boobies are also in abundance.
PM: Punta Espinosa is a narrow stretch of land where hundreds of marine iguanas gather largely on black lava rocks. The famous flightless cormorant inhabits this island and Galápagos penguins, pelicans and sea lions are also abundant. Different types of lava flows can be compared and the mangrove forests can be observed.
At the Vicente Roca Point the remnants of an ancient volcano form two turquoise coves with a bay well protected from the ocean swells. The spot is a popular anchorage from which to explore the cliffs, where masked and blue-footed boobies perch while flightless cormorants inhabit the shoreline. The upwelling of coldwater currents in this part of the Galápagos give rise to an abundance of marine life, which make Punta Vicente Roca one of the archipelago’s sough after dive spots.

Day 7 – Santiago Island & Rábida Island
AM: Puerto Egas, with its black sand beaches, was the site of small salt mining industry in the 1960s. A hike inland to the salt crater is an excellent opportunity to sight land birds such as finches, doves, and hawks. A walk down the rugged shoreline will turn up many marine species. Iguanas bask on the rocks and sea lions laze in the tide pools. At the end of the trail there is a series of grottoes or sea caves where fur seals and night herons are found.
PM: The high amount of iron contained in the lava at Rábida gives the island a distinctive red color. White-Cheeked Pintail Ducks live in a salt-water lagoon close to the beach, where brown pelicans and boobies have built their nests. Up until recently, flamingos were also found in the salt-water lagoon, but they have since moved on to other islands, likely due to a lack of food on Rábida. Nine species of Finches have been reported in this island.

Day 8 – North Seymour Island & Baltra Island
AM: The 2km trail crosses the inland of the island North Seymour and explores the rocky coast, passing colonies of blue-footed boobies and magnificent frigatebirds. Daphne Major and Minor can be spotted in the distance and body surfing sea lions play close to the shore. Along the shoreline marine iguanas, white coral and black lava rocks complete the visit to North Seymour.

Transfer to the Airport.

Departure	Arrival
Sunday 19th of May 2024	Sunday 26th of May 2024	[request availability]
Sunday 2nd of June 2024	Sunday 9th of June 2024	[request availability]
Sunday 16th of June 2024	Sunday 23rd of June 2024	[request availability]
Sunday 30th of June 2024	Sunday 7th of July 2024	[request availability]
Sunday 14th of July 2024	Sunday 21st of July 2024	[request availability]
Sunday 28th of July 2024	Sunday 4th of August 2024	[request availability]
Sunday 11th of August 2024	Sunday 18th of August 2024	[request availability]
Sunday 25th of August 2024	Sunday 1st of September 2024	[request availability]
Sunday 8th of September 2024	Sunday 15th of September 2024	[request availability]
Sunday 22nd of September 2024	Sunday 29th of September 2024	[request availability]
Sunday 6th of October 2024	Sunday 13th of October 2024	[request availability]
Sunday 20th of October 2024	Sunday 27th of October 2024	[request availability]
Sunday 3rd of November 2024	Sunday 10th of November 2024	[request availability]
Sunday 17th of November 2024	Sunday 24th of November 2024	[request availability]
Sunday 1st of December 2024	Sunday 8th of December 2024	[request availability]
Sunday 15th of December 2024	Sunday 22nd of December 2024	[request availability]
Sunday 29th of December 2024	Sunday 5th of January 2025	[request availability]
Sunday 12th of January 2025	Sunday 19th of January 2025	[request availability]
Sunday 26th of January 2025	Sunday 2nd of February 2025	[request availability]
Sunday 9th of February 2025	Sunday 16th of February 2025	[request availability]
Sunday 23rd of February 2025	Sunday 2nd of March 2025	[request availability]
Sunday 9th of March 2025	Sunday 16th of March 2025	[request availability]
Sunday 23rd of March 2025	Sunday 30th of March 2025	[request availability]
Sunday 6th of April 2025	Sunday 13th of April 2025	[request availability]
Sunday 20th of April 2025	Sunday 27th of April 2025	[request availability]
Sunday 4th of May 2025	Sunday 11th of May 2025	[request availability]
Sunday 18th of May 2025	Sunday 25th of May 2025	[request availability]
Sunday 1st of June 2025	Sunday 8th of June 2025	[request availability]
Sunday 15th of June 2025	Sunday 22nd of June 2025	[request availability]
Sunday 29th of June 2025	Sunday 6th of July 2025	[request availability]
Sunday 13th of July 2025	Sunday 20th of July 2025	[request availability]
Sunday 27th of July 2025	Sunday 3rd of August 2025	[request availability]