7 days cruise catamaran Treasure – C

Morning – Arrival at Airport. Upon your arrival at Seymour Ecological Airport, the first step is a baggage check to ensure that no foreign plants or animals are being imported. Furthermore, your TCC (transit control card) will be stamped. This must be kept in a safe place during your trip, as it must be presented again on your return flight. If you have not already paid the Galápagos National Park entrance fee (US$ 200), you will have to pay it upon arrival. Your guide will meet you at the airport, help you with your luggage, and will accompany you on the short bus ride to your hotel in Puerto Ayora.

Afternoon – Fausto Llerena Breeding Center (Santa Cruz). The Fausto Llerena Breeding Center, you will have the opportunity to take amazing photos of the turtles! The tour starts at the GNP information booth. The trail continues to the Van Straelen Interpretive Center, the breeding center, and from there a path will take you to see the Española Island turtles, ending at the turtle exhibit enclosure. The turtles of this enclosure are used to people; it is an excellent place to be photographed with them!

Meals: Lunch / Dinner

Morning – Eden Islet. Eden is a paradise-like tufa cone island just in front of the west coast of Santa Cruz.

Afternoon – Dragon Hill. Dragon Hill has two main species that are most likely to appear on any visit to the Galápagos, although not spread too widely across the islands: Galápagos land iguanas and American flamingos. You climb a hill with huge Opuntia cacti where these “dragons” feed and breed. The short trail crosses the coastal vegetation zone as well as the slightly higher dry zone with endangered tropical dry forest. During the warm and humid season in the first half of the year, everything turns green. Evergreen giant opuntias with internal water reservoirs chose a different survival tactic in this dry climate than the leaf-dropping palo santo trees; in the end, both were successful. It’s also a very photogenic place, with stunning panoramas over the bay and onto a fascinating, steep volcanic spout of red lava that overlooks the area. Dragon Hill has become famous for its salty lagoons behind the beach; these contain seaweed and shrimp and attract American flamingos seasonally. Dragon Hill is the best place on Santa Cruz to see them.

Meals: Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner

Morning – Tintoreras (Isabela). The guided walk follows a bumpy volcanic rock path (easy/moderate level) to a unique tidal channel. A collapsed lava grotto forms a channel that fills at high tide and closes the entrance at low tide. Marine life is caught, including turtles and elegant spotted eagle rays or golden rays. In the crystal clear waters at this site you can also spot whitetip reef sharks (in Spanish they are called “tintoreras”, hence the official name of the site) resting from their hunt. Here, snorkeling is on the program for the first time.

Afternoon – Sierra Negra, wetlands, wall of tears Sierra Negra is the third highest volcano on Isabela and the 5th highest of the Galapagos Islands (1124m). It is the only major volcano on Isabela whose crater area is open to tourism. A mysterious half-day hike through the cloud forests will lead you to a viewpoint on theedge, offering fantastic views into the impressive caldera (clear weather required, though unpredictable; prevailing winds mean clouds usually tend to disappear at the viewpoint). The caldera measures about 7 x 9km and is the largest in the archipelago. Since the discovery of so-called supervolcanoes like Yellowstone, it is no longer listed as one of the largest craters in the world. Puerto Villamil and the surrounding wetlands are home to the historic “Wall of Tears” (national heritage site). Prisoners had to build this long wall of lava stones as a punitive measure. You will also have the chance to see flamingo colonies. At the end of the afternoon, you will have free time to explore the area.

Meals: Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner

Morning – Moreno Point (Isabela). Punta Moreno is located between the Sierra Negra and Cerro Azul volcanoes, on the north coast of Isabela Island. The trail leads along the lava river Pahoehoe to a group of several coastal lagoons. The main attraction are different species of birds that can be found at the lakes and in the mangrove forests.

Afternoon – Tagus Cove (Isabela). At noon you will sail through the Bolivar Channel to Tagus Cove (travel time 3 h). After enjoying your delicious buffet lunch at full speed on the way, you will snorkel in Tagus Cove. Explosive eruptions have broken off portions of the volcanoes that now form the hoof-shaped Tagus Bay. The inner crater rim encompasses Lake Darwin. In the past, it was a tradition for sailors to write the names of their ships on the eastern cliffs of Tagus Bay. While walking along the crater rim of Darwin Lake, you will have a great view of the outer collapse crater and the extensive lava slope on Darwin Volcano. The arid interior of the island is overgrown with tropical dry forest vegetation with a special variety of palo santo, Galapagos cotton and yellow cordia (muyuyu). During the hike you may also observe Darwin finches, flycatchers and Galápagos buzzards.

Meals: Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner

Morning – Puerto Egas. Puerto Egas, west of Santiago Island, is famous for its fur seal caves, where you will take a special guided walk along the coast. The artificially sculpted coastline of black basalt and multi coloured ash layers form a photogenic backdrop of collapsed lava tunnels, natural arches, caves and holes like “Darwin’s toilet”. In a grotto just below a spectacular stone arch at the end of the beach, a colony of sea lions cavorts in the shade. Hundreds of red cliff crabs glow bright orange on the pitch-black stones.

Afternoon – Rabida. Oxidized iron particles give the stones and sand their rusty colour. A green-fringed lagoon hides behind the beach. This oasis is the most fertile place on the otherwise dry island, which is overgrown with Palo Santo trees. The salty pool is attractive to all kinds of water birds, such as pintail ducks and sometimes American flamingos. Hidden among the evergreen foliage of the surrounding mangrove bushes, many species of songbirds breed. An outstanding attraction is the large breeding colony of brown pelicans, the only species that dive.

Meals: Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner

Morning – Espinoza Point (Fernandina). Espinoza Point is the only visitor destination by land on Fernandina Island, and one of the few places where you can find some bizarre outgrowths of natural selection. The poster child for this is the flightless cormorant, which lives exclusively on the remote western side of the Galápagos and is a kind of Holy Grail of evolution. You’ll also love the almost alien view of the cone of La Cumbre volcano with its spectacular backdrop. The narrow headland you walk along is the end of the lava tongue that has reached the coast and solidified through contact with the cold seawater.

Afternoon – Vicente Roca Point (Isabela). During lunch you will cross the Bolivar Channel for the last time to reach Vicente Roca Point, at the mouth of the seahorse-like shape of Isabela Island. Entering a dark cave under a spectacular arch, the echoes of the waves will accompany you. Just around the corner, the collapsed amphitheatre of the Ecuador volcano offers you another impressive view. The calm waters of the bay are well protected from the ocean waves. The water is quite cold, but an excellent place to snorkel among various species of sharks, penguins, puffer fish and seahorses.

Meals: Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner

Morning – Bachas Beach. The two small beaches of Bachas are located to the west of Turtle Bay. The sand is made of decomposed corals, so it is very white and soft, making it the favorite place for nesting sea turtles. Behind one of the beaches there is a small salty lagoon. From time to time, you can see flamingos or other shorebirds here, as well as the American stilt and the whimbrel. The other beach is longer, with two old barges from World War II, when the U.S. used Baltra Island as a strategic point to protect the Panama Canal. Over time, however, these ship ruins have been washed over by the sand and are currently barely visible.

After this excursion, you will be transferred to the airport and say goodbye to the guide and crew!

Meals: Breakfast