| Day | Visitor Site |
|---|---|
| Sunday | AM - Baltra Island Airport: Arrival and Transfer to the boat |
| PM - North Seymour | |
| Monday | AM - Twin Craters (Santa Cruz) |
| PM - Puerto Ayora & Charles Darwin Stations (Santa Cruz) | |
| Tuesday | AM - Punta Moreno (Isabela) |
| PM - Urbina Bay (Isabela) | |
| Wednesday | AM - Tagus Cove (Isabela) |
| PM - Punta Espinoza (Fernandina) | |
| Thursday | AM - Puerto Egas & Salt Mines (Santiago) |
| PM - Espumilla Beach & Buccaneer Cove (Santiago) | |
| Friday | AM - Rabida |
| PM - Sullivan Bay (Santiago) | |
| Saturday | AM - Prince Philip's Steps (Genovesa) |
| PM - Darwin Bay (Genovesa) | |
| Sunday | AM - Daphne |
| Transfer to the Airport |
Day 1 – Baltra Island & North Seymour Island
AM: Arrival in airport and transfer to the boat. Briefing on board about the boat and the island.
PM: 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.
Day 2 – Santa Cruz Island
AM: 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.
PM: 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.
Day 3 – 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: The waters of Urbina Bay are a good place to see turtles and rays and ashore is a short trail leading to a coral reef, which is evidence of an uplift from the sea which occurred in 1954. This provides the rare experience of walking in the middle of a bed of coral. Marine iguanas, flightless cormorants and pelicans can be seen at this site.
Day 4 – 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.
Day 5 – Santiago 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: This large coffee-coloured sand beach is just north of the prized fresh water supply that once attracted pirates and whalers. A short walk inland will take you through a mangrove forest normally inhabited by the common stilt. Sea turtles also visit these mangroves to nest. Beyond the mangroves is a brackish lagoon where flocks of pink flamingos and white-cheeked pintails can be seen. Sea turtles often lay their eggs on Espumilla Beach.
Buccaneer Cove is a testament to the fact that Santiago Island was once a refuge for British buccaneers. These pirates would anchor in the protected bay to make repairs and stock up on tortoise meat among other things. The steep cliffs, where hundreds of seabirds perch in front of the dark red sand beach, are a magnificent site.
Day 6 – Rábida Island & Santiago Island
AM: 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.
PM: The Sullivan Bay lava field has a variety of interesting patterns made by the shapes and textures of trees that once existed there and hornitos caused when pockets of gas or water trapped under the lava exploded. The low-lying mollugo and the lava cactus are the only plants that have managed to take root in this harsh environment. On the shoreline black and white oystercatchers can be seen fishing for crabs and molluscs in the tide pools.
Day 7 – Genovesa Island
AM: Prince Phillip´s step is an extraordinary, steep path that leads through a seabird colony full of life, up to cliffs that are 25m high. At the top the trail continues inland, passing more seabird colonies in a thin palo santo forest. Leaving the forest you can overview a rocky plain. You could get a view of masked and red-footed boobies, great frigate birds, swallow-tailed gulls, red-billed tropicbirds and hundreds of storm petrels at the edge of the cliff.
PM: The beach of Darwin Bay is a coral beach where a 750m trail takes you through more seabird colonies. You get to see the cliffs from the seaward side, which are home to a large red-footed booby colony. Once ashore the number of birds seems overwhelming – Nazca boobies soar overhead, great frigate birds display their pouches while resting on the nearby rocks and plants, and mockingbirds scamper quickly across the sand.
Day 8 – Daphne Island
AM: Daphne Island is a volcanic tuff cone, formed by successive explosions produced by the mixture of lava and water. On this island, Dr. Peter Grant has made a long-term study of Darwin’s finches, which is why you can see these birds are banded. The palo santo present herein Bursera malacophyla is endemic to the Daphne Islands, North Seymour and Baltra. The blue-footed booby nests inside the craters and the masked booby nests on the flanks of the cone and the edge of the craters and the tropical bird that nests in cavities in the cliffs.
Transfer to the Airport.
| Departure | Arrival | |
|---|---|---|
| Sunday 12th of May 2024 | Sunday 19th of May 2024 | [request availability] |
| Sunday 26th of May 2024 | Sunday 2nd of June 2024 | [request availability] |
| Sunday 9th of June 2024 | Sunday 16th of June 2024 | [request availability] |
| Sunday 23rd of June 2024 | Sunday 30th of June 2024 | [request availability] |
| Sunday 7th of July 2024 | Sunday 14th of July 2024 | [request availability] |
| Sunday 21st of July 2024 | Sunday 28th of July 2024 | [request availability] |
| Sunday 4th of August 2024 | Sunday 11th of August 2024 | [request availability] |
| Sunday 18th of August 2024 | Sunday 25th of August 2024 | [request availability] |
| Sunday 1st of September 2024 | Sunday 8th of September 2024 | [request availability] |
| Sunday 15th of September 2024 | Sunday 22nd of September 2024 | [request availability] |
| Sunday 29th of September 2024 | Sunday 6th of October 2024 | [request availability] |
| Sunday 13th of October 2024 | Sunday 20th of October 2024 | [request availability] |
| Sunday 27th of October 2024 | Sunday 3rd of November 2024 | [request availability] |
| Sunday 10th of November 2024 | Sunday 17th of November 2024 | [request availability] |
| Sunday 24th of November 2024 | Sunday 1st of December 2024 | [request availability] |
| Sunday 8th of December 2024 | Sunday 15th of December 2024 | [request availability] |
| Sunday 22nd of December 2024 | Sunday 29th of December 2024 | [request availability] |
| Sunday 5th of January 2025 | Sunday 12th of January 2025 | [request availability] |
| Sunday 19th of January 2025 | Sunday 26th of January 2025 | [request availability] |
| Sunday 2nd of February 2025 | Sunday 9th of February 2025 | [request availability] |
| Sunday 16th of February 2025 | Sunday 23rd of February 2025 | [request availability] |
| Sunday 2nd of March 2025 | Sunday 9th of March 2025 | [request availability] |
| Sunday 16th of March 2025 | Sunday 23rd of March 2025 | [request availability] |
| Sunday 30th of March 2025 | Sunday 6th of April 2025 | [request availability] |
| Sunday 13th of April 2025 | Sunday 20th of April 2025 | [request availability] |
| Sunday 27th of April 2025 | Sunday 4th of May 2025 | [request availability] |
| Sunday 11th of May 2025 | Sunday 18th of May 2025 | [request availability] |
| Sunday 25th of May 2025 | Sunday 1st of June 2025 | [request availability] |
| Sunday 8th of June 2025 | Sunday 15th of June 2025 | [request availability] |
| Sunday 22nd of June 2025 | Sunday 29th of June 2025 | [request availability] |
| Sunday 6th of July 2025 | Sunday 13th of July 2025 | [request availability] |
| Sunday 20th of July 2025 | Sunday 27th of July 2025 | [request availability] |