8 days cruise yacht Aida Maria – B

You will be picked up in time and transferred to the airport.

Your TCC (Transit Control Card), also known as the Ingala card (US$20 per person), will be issued digitally after you complete an online form. At the airport, this digital card will be checked, and your luggage will be inspected to ensure that no non-native plant or animal species are introduced. In addition, the Galápagos National Park entrance fee (US$200) must be paid upon arrival if it has not already been paid. Your guide will meet you at the airport, help you with your luggage and take you to the ship. After greeting the crew and captain, you will be assigned your cabins and then have your first lunch together.
Afternoon – Interpretation Centre (San Cristobal). You will drive to the Interpretation Centre near the capital Puerto Baquerizo Moreno. Information panels in English and Spanish, photos, models and diagrams explain the origin of the Galapagos Islands. The detailed exhibition also offers insights into the volcanic formation of the archipelago, the distance to the mainland, ocean currents, the special climate, the arrival of different species and their distribution, and more. After this visit, you will have plenty of time to explore the place.

Meals: Lunch / Dinner

Morning – Santa Fe. After lunch, you will be met directly by a Galápagos sea lion colony on the beach, where you will have time for either a refreshing swim or exceptional snorkeling surrounded by tropical reef fish in the crystal clear waters of Barrington Bay. In addition, you will see vast opuntia cactus forests. The largest cacti on the island have extremely thick trunks and can grow over 10 meters tall. After a wet landing on Santa Fe beach, take a guided nature walk. This extraordinary island is a remnant of what is probably the oldest volcano in Galápagos. Your guide will decide if an easy, short walk or a strenuous, longer hike inland will follow (moderate difficulty, approximately 3 km).

Afternoon – South Plaza. You will take an unforgettable guided walk on South Plaza, the best place to encounter the native Galápagos land iguanas. Also, note the unique mix between a male marine lizard and a female land iguana. Once on the top ledge, you’ll get an impressive view of booming waves crashing against the cliffs some 20 meters below. Clouds of petrels, storm petrels, shearwaters and noddi terns delight you with their spectacular flights.Take your binoculars and watch the red-billed tropicbirds with their graceful tails and and their spectacular mating fights. These cliffs are also the nesting sites of the native fork-tailed gulls.Before lunch you will sail to Santa Fe, possibly accompanied by bottlenose dolphins.

Meals: Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner

Morning – Charles Darwin Station. After breakfast, rubber boats will take you to the tourist pier of Puerto Ayora, from where you will continue to the Charles Darwin Research Station. Here biological research and indispensable conservation of the unique archipelago are carried out. The complex houses the Interpretation and Information Center of the National Park and the Galapagos Marine Reserve. The most unforgettable part of your visit will most likely be the successful hatchery and encounter with the Galapagos giant tortoises. Before lunch you will have some time to explore the area.

Afternoon – Highlands (Santa Cruz). In the highlands of Santa Cruz you can admire different species of birds, such as the small and large tree finches, ground finches, Galapagos flycatchers and cattle egrets (often standing on the backs of turtles). As you drive into the island’s protected area, you can see the contrasts of this diverse ecosystem. The path leads from the coast through the agricultural land and directly to the dense wet forests. Often you can see the Galápagos giant tortoises in the middle of the trail or walking across the pastures and through the grass. This place is a paradise for ornithologists, because almost all birds either live on the island or pass through here.

Meals: Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner

Morning – Sierra Negra. The Sierra Negra volcano is famous for its basaltic collapse crater, with a diameter of 9×10 km, the largest of all Galapagos. This place offers an impressive view and besides that the opportunity to observe seven different species of finches in this vegetation richness. Traces of the last eruption in 2005 can still be seen on the north side of the crater.
Afternoon – Wetlands. The wetlands of Isabela Island are found just before Puerto Villamil. They consist of lagoons, marshes and mangrove forests and are home to a great variety of unique bird species, such as the common stilt, the whimbrel, the Bahama duck or moorhens. The wetland can be easily explored on foot along a path that winds through the marsh.

Meals: Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner

Morning – Moreno Point. Punta Moreno is located on the north coast of Isabela Island between the Sierra Negra volcano and the Cerro Azul volcano. The trail leads along the former wavy lava flow Pahohö to a complex of coastal lagoons whose main attractions are various species of birds.

Afternoon – Elizabeth Bay. Elizabeth Bay can only be visited from the water. Passing the Marielas Islands, home to the largest penguin colony in the Galapagos, you will enter the bay. Here you can admire the red mangroves, their red roots and green leaves. Sea turtles, cormorants, spotted eagle rays, golden rays, brown pelicans and sea lions can be seen here!

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 Galapagos 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 – 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 multicolored 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. Oxidised 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 pin tail 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 – North Seymour. The small island of North Seymour is an elevated part of the seabed. Among the scraggy bushes you can spot Galapagos iguanas. You will also see many seabirds such as the brown pelican, red-billed tropicbirds, fork-tailed gulls and, depending on the season, Nazca boobies. However, the main attraction is Galapagos’ largest breeding colony of blue-footed boobies and frigatebirds. At the beginning of the breeding season, the adult male frigatebirds inflate their vibrant red pouches into football-sized balls.

After this tour, you and your luggage will be transferred to Baltra where you will take the airport shuttle.

Meals: Breakfast