8 days cruise yacht Natural Paradise – B

Morning – Arrival at Baltra Airport: At the mainland airport, you have purchased your TCC or Ingala card and a luggage inspection has already been conducted to ensure that no foreign plant or animal species are introduced. Upon your arrival at Seymour Ecological airport, 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. In addition, the Galapagos National Park entrance fee is due upon entry (US$100), if not already paid. Your guide will meet you at the airport, help you with your lug-gage and will accompany you on the short bus ride to the port. Here you will board the yacht.
After greeting the crew and captain, you will be assigned your cabins and then have your first lunch together.

Afternoon – Eden Islet: Eden is a paradisiacal tufa cone island just in front of the west coast of Santa Cruz.

Meals: Lunch / Dinner

Morning – Vicente Roca Point (Isabela): You will drive to Vicente Roca Point, located at the entrance of the seahorse-like shape Isabela Island. Entering a dark cave under a spectacular arch, the echoes of the waves will accompany you. Just around the corner, the collapsed amphitheater of 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, however, an excellent place to snorkel among different species of sharks, penguins, pufferfish and seahorses.

Afternoon – Espinoza Point (Fernandina): Espinoza Point is the only visitor site on land of Fernandina Island and one of the few places where you can find some bizarre outgrowths of natural selection. The flagship species is the flightless cormorant, which lives exclusively on the remote western side of the Galapagos and represents a kind of holy grail of evolution. You will also love the almost alien view of the cone of La Cumbre volcano with its spectacular scenery. The narrow headland you walk along is the end of the lava tongue that reached the coast and solidified due to the contact with the cold sea water.

Meals: Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner

Morning – Urbina Bay (Isabela): Urbina Bay is located on the west coast of Isabela, between Elizabeth Bay and Tagus Cove. It is close to the base of the Alcedo volcano. The coastline went through a major uplift in 1954, ex-tending the shore for a kilometre. Here you will find corals, shells and many other calcareous organisms above water. Urbina Bay is home to the large and colourful land iguanas and giant tortoises of the Vulcan Alcedo population. There are also many Darwin’s finches to be seen.

Afternoon – 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 complex of several coastal lagoons. The main attraction is various species of birds that can be found at the lakes and in the mangrove forests.

Meals: Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner

Morning – Sierra Negra: The Sierra Negra volcano is known for its basaltic collapse crater, and is with a diameter of 9×10 km the largest of all Galapagos. This place offers an impressive view and also 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, Turtle rearing centre: The wetlands of Isabela Island can be found directly in front of Puerto Villamil. They consist of lagoons, marshes and mangrove forests and are home to a wide variety of unique bird species, such as the common stilt, the whimbrel, the Bahama duck and the moorhen. The wetland can be easily explored on foot along a path that winds through the marsh.
Back in Puerto Villamil, you visit the Arnaldo Tupiza Turtle Breeding Centre. Hundreds of Galapagos giant tortoises can be seen here. The number of giant tortoises on Isabela has declined sharply since the 16th century. The centre was established to preserve or save the species.

Meals: Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner

Morning – Chinese Hat Islet (Santiago): Chinese Hat is a 52mt high volcanic cone that forms another island just in front of the rocky coast of Santiago, where a small colony of Galapagos penguins has settled.
If you approach Chinese Hat from the north, you will understand the significance of the name. This is an excellent place to learn about volcanoes, lava bombs and lava tubes.
You are just in time to see how this barren islet is colonized by pioneer species that have started to sprout! Beautiful beaches of white coral sand and holes in the eroding lava fields are covered with lava sand that allows rooting to take place. Galapagos sea lions and countless marine iguanas add to the fertility and overall create many options for newcomers, such as the saltbush.

Afternoon – Mosquera: Mosquera is located in the middle of the Itabaca Channel, between Baltra and North Seymour. Mosquera offers beautiful white coral sand and simplifies the landing unlike their neighbors Seymour and Baltra with their rocky coastline. The Galapagos sea lions are real beach lovers. These flink fishermen come through the Itabaca Channel, which is a natural trap for marine life due to the submerged elevation between Baltra and Santa Cruz. Here you will have time to snorkel or take a walk on the beach. Among the rocks, red cliff crabs are waiting to play hide and seek while you try to snap the perfect photo. If you’re lucky, you might even see crab egrets or even a red-footed booby.

Meals: Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner

Morning – Baroness Lookout, Post Office Bay: In the north of Floreana Island is the beautiful “Baroness Lookout”. The island was the destination of the first colonialists in Galapagos. Among them was the Baroness Eloisa von Wagner. The viewpoint is located very close to the ruins of the house inhabited by the Baroness. From this viewpoint you have a wonderful view of the coastal landscape of Enderby Island to the Post Office Bay, Cerro Pajas, the Flamingo Lagoon and the Palo Santo Forest.
Later, you will visit the Post Office Bay. The history of this place is closely linked to a wooden barrel that was built there by the crew of a whaling ship in the 18th century. At that time, the barrel was used by sailors as a post office. Even today, visitors use the barrel in the same way. The idea is to “send” letters and postcards to their destinations by placing them in the barrel. At the same time, other mail is taken out to be sent to one’s home address. This foreign mail is then delivered. Feel free to give it a try! It could well be that your mail gets to your destination faster this way than it would with Ecuadorian mail.

Afternoon – Cormorant Point, Champion Islet: The peninsula of Cormorant Point forms the northern cape of Floreana, which was formed by a series of smaller volcanic cones covered with tropical dry forest (palo santo). The green sand on the beach at the site contains a high percentage of glassy olivine crystals that were blown out by the surrounding tuff cones. The ‘flour sand’ beach on the south side of the peninsula consists of even whiter coral sand that feels very smooth on the feet. Parrotfish have provided pulverization by grinding up calcium-bearing skeletons of still-living corals.
You may spot schools of stingrays that like to bury themselves in the sandy bottom.
During the first months of the year, green sea turtles come ashore to bury their eggs.
By rubber boat and glass bottom boats, explore Champion Islet, one of the best snorkeling sites on the islands. There are plenty of reeffish to see and maybe even a green turtle.
Along the shoreline you can spot many native seabirds including Galapagos penguins, blue-footed boobies, magnificent frigatebirds and red-billed tropicbirds, fork-tailed gulls and lava herons. Many birdwatchers wish they could also catch a glimpse of the Florean Mockingbird atop the opuntias. This mockingbird is a keystone species scientifically and historically because it lead Darwin on the trail of Adaptive Radiation theory.

Meals: Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner

Morning – Suarez Point: This rocky area is home to the most impressive and diverse seabirds of the archipelago. The endangered Galapagos Albatross returns to Española Island annually (March – December). This allows visitors to marvel at the courtship dance characterized by whistles and bows (especially in October). Blue-footed and Nazca boobies, fork-tailed gulls and red-billed tropicbirds are also native to this island. Along the southern coast, high cliffs allow spectacular views of soaring birds and seawater shooting up through air holes like fountains.

Afternoon – Gardner Bay: On the northeastern coast of Española Island, Gardner Bay offers a wonderful place to refresh in the turquoise sea and marvel at the large number of colorful reeffishs. Snorkel side by side with green sea turtles or enjoy the proximity of playful Galapagos sea lions. The white sand beach is additionally an important breeding ground for green sea turtles. You may also spot whales in the crystal clear ocean.
Afterwards, you will continue to Osborn Islet where you will have wonderful opportunities for snorkeling and swimming.

Meals: Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner

Lobos Island (San Cristóbal): The beach on Lobos Island welcomes you right away with a lively sea lion colony. As in other colonies in the archipelago, you can get within a few meters of the nursing females. During the mating season, you will also observe males visiting the colony and mating with the females. But the island offers much more: blue-footed boobies and frigate birds, which try to impress the females (and the tourists) with their clumsy dances – using their remarkably blue feet or blowing up their balloon-like red pouches. During mating season, the fluffed-up, hungry chicks call out for food, and when their wings are strong enough, they learn to fly.

Transfer to San Cristóbal Airport (SCY).
Accompanied by your guide and several crew members, rubber boats will bring you and your luggage safely ashore, where you will take a shuttle to the airport for your flight home.

Meals: Breakfast