Galapagos Land Based

ARRIVAL TO GALAPAGOS

Your Guide will pick you up at the Baltra airport and will take you to Puerto Ayora, a transfer that goes first from the airport to the Itabaca channel, you cross the channel on a ferry to Santa Cruz island and then your 45-minute drive will take you to Puerto Ayora and you will visit the highlands of Santa Cruz Island.

Santa Cruz has all the vegetation zones. Here you can see the contrast, from the arid coastal zone to the remarkably refreshing highlands. The humid zones provided some of the drinking water consumed in town. The highlands house unusual trees and ferns, colorful land birds, and healthy population of giant tortoises.

Arrive to your boutique hotel ACACIA for two nights in one suite (double occupancy) breakfast and local taxes included.

NORTH SEYMOUR ISLAND

Your Guide will see you at the lobby of your hotel and will take you to the other side of the island where you will start your day to North Seymour Island. This is one of the most action-packed visitor sites in the archipelago, since it serves as an active seabird breeding colony throughout the year. A circular, 2.5 km long interpretive trail follows the coastline and passes through the island’s interior, providing visitors with a comprehensive, dynamic view of the island’s abundant wildlife.

Along the beach, visitors should expect to see blue-footed boobies and pelicans fishing, swallow-tail gulls and frigate birds flying, and marine iguanas resting on the rocky shore. Taking a rest on the rocks to witness the frenetic activity offshore may even provide the lucky traveler with a glimpse of some playful sea lions surfing the waves. On the inland portion of the trail, visitors are bound to see hordes of nesting male frigate birds, attempting to draw the females’ attention to their puffed-up red, guttural sack. Land iguanas are often observed in this part of the trail as well.

Regardless of the time of year, visitors are likely to observe some kind of courtship, mating, or nesting on North Seymour. And since both boobies and frigate birds often make their nests close to the trail, it is easy to get close to the action.

(B, L)

SANTA CRUZ – ISABELA ISLAND

Your Guide will pick you up from your hotel and will take you to the pier of Puerto Ayora for your check in with the boat that will take you to Isabela Island; your ride is of about three hours. At your arrival in Isabela Island, you will be met at the pier of Puerto Villamil and will take you to your hotel IGUANA CROSSING for two nights in one ocean front room (double occupancy) with breakfast and local taxes included.

PM: Las Tintoreras is one of the most well-known places of Isabela Island. This small islet receives its name from the reef sharks also known as white-tip sharks that can be seen swimming along with fish and sea lions in the channels when the tide is low. To get there we will need to navigate approximately 10 minutes from the port. The islet is mainly formed by lava rocks.

(B, L)

SIERRA NEGRA – ISABELA ISLAND

Your adventure starts with a journey from Puerto Villamil to the beginning of the trail. Once there, you will prepare your backpacks and start your walk through the relatively young woods, which suffers from constant geological changes. On the trail, it is possible to observe Darwin’s finches, flycatchers, mockingbirds, and occasionally, the Galapagos Gavilan.

Your finishing point is the edge of the Sierra Negra Volcano’s crater. This volcano is still active, and its last eruption was in June 2018, which deposited a new layer of lava in this already inhospitable landscape.

Once at the edge of the crater, you will have spectacular views from the crater and the volcanoes that surround it. The circumference of the crater is huge, with a diameter of almost 10 km along its widest point. You will continue the hike up to the Chico volcano, a secondary crater with an interesting landscape, active fumaroles and impressive lava formations, as silent witnesses to the island’s geological past.

Enjoy a boxed-lunch at the volcano’s viewpoint, to later descend back to Puerto Villamil to enjoy the rest of the evening on our own.

(B, L)

ISABELA ISLAND – SANTA CRUZ ISLAND

Your Guide will pick you up from your hotel and will take you to the pier of Puerto Villamil for your check in with the boat that will take you to Santa Cruz Island; your ride is of about three hours. At your arrival in Santa Cruz Island, you will be met at the pier of Puerto Ayora and will take you to your hotel IKALA for two nights in one suite (double occupancy) with breakfast and local taxes included.

PM: TORTUGA BAY:

There is a walking path, which is 1.55 miles (2,490 m) and is open from six in the morning to six in the evening Tortuga Bay has a gigantic, perfectly preserved beach that is forbidden to swimmers and is preserved for the wildlife where many marine iguanas, Galapagos crabs and birds are seen dotted along the volcanic rocks. There is a separate cove where you can swim where it is common to view white tip reef sharks swimming in groups and on occasion tiger sharks.

(B)

BARTOLOME ISLAND

Your Guide will see you at the lobby of the hotel in time for your tour to Bartolome Island. Bartolomé is the most recognizable and photographed island in the archipelago given its distinctive Pinnacle Rock, a towering rock face eroded to a sharp point, and its appearance in the film, Master and Commander. Visitors can climb a wooden staircase to the island’s 114-meter summit and take in some of the most spectacular panoramic views and pictures in the archipelago. The island also has a truly unique lava landscape, complete with pioneer plants like the candelabra cactus.

The other visitor site is a series of small, white-sand beaches at the tapered center of the barbell-shaped island. Here visitors can snorkel around Pinnacle Rock, one of the best overall snorkel sites to search for tropical fish as well as Galápagos penguins, marine turtles, and white-tipped reef sharks. Or they can walk along a sandy trail to an identical white-sand beach on the other side of the island, where white-tipped reef sharks in the surf hungrily await baby green sea turtles that have been hatched on land.

(B, L)

TRANSFER OUT TO QUITO

Your Guide will see you at the lobby of the hotel in time for your transfer to the Baltra airport and your flight back to Quito.

End of our services.

The Galapagos and Ecuador schedule and all touring arrangements herein are subject to change without notice and can be operated in a different sequence, depending on operational considerations or Galapagos National Park alterations. All hotels are subject to availability and can be substituted for similar hotels.

All payments for custom-designed itineraries are non-refundable in the event of cancelation by passengers. Travel insurance is highly recommended.