Galapagos Athala
ITINERARY DAY BY DAY
8 days / 7 nights
Saturday to Saturday
Day 1
Arrival at San Cristobal Island
Arrival at San Cristobal. Heading up the coast from Wreck Bay and Puerto Baquerizo, you will see Isla Lobos across a small channel off the coast of San Cristobal. This basalt island outcropping lives up to its name of “Sea Lion Island” with its noisy population of frolicking and barking beasts. It is also a nesting place for blue-footed boobies and an excellent spot for snorkeling. This is your first chance to share the water with a playful colony of the ‘wolves of the sea’.
Day 2
Gardner Bay / Punta Suarez (Espanola Island)
One of the oldest of the islands, Espanola Island is small and flat with no visible volcanic crater or vent. Punta Suarez is one of the most outstanding wildlife areas of the archipelago, with a long list of species found along its cliffs and sand or pebble beaches. In addition to five species of nesting seabirds there are the curious and bold Hood Island mockingbirds, Galapagos doves and Galapagos hawks.
Gardner Bay is on the eastern shore and has a magnificent beach. This beach is frequented by a transient colony of sea lions, and is a major nesting site for marine turtles. Around the small islets nearby, snorkelers will find lots of fish and sometimes turtles and sharks. On a trail leading to the western tip of the island you'll pass the only nesting sites in the Galapagos of the waved albatross, huge birds with a 6-foot wingspan.
Day 3
Post office bay / Punta Cormorant (Floreana Island)
In 1793 British whalers set up a barrel as the island’s Post Office, to send letters home on passing ships. The tradition continues to this day, simply by dropping a post card into the barrel without a stamp. The catch is you must take a post card from the barrel and see that it gets to the right place. That is how the system began and continues to this day. Some claim it works better than the post office. Seen 250 meters north from Punta Cormorant is an old submerged volcanic cone that has been worn down by waves, Devil's Crown is home to a myriad of marine species including a variety of corals, pencil sea urchin, wrasses, angelfish, amberjacks and many other creatures, making for some of the best snorkeling in the Galapagos. The eroded crater walls form a popular roosting site for seabirds including boobies and pelicans.
Punta Cormorant: Floreana has had a colorful history: Pirates, whalers, convicts, and a small band of somewhat peculiar colonists—a Baroness among them—who chose a Robinson Crusoe existence that ended in mystery and death. Today roughly fifty Ecuadorians inhabit the island. Punta Cormorant offers two highly contrasting beaches; the strand where the yacht anchors is composed of volcanic olivine crystals, giving it a greenish tint that glitters in the sun. From here a trail crosses the neck of the isthmus—that rises to form a cinder cone—to a beach of very fine white sand, formed by the erosion of coral skeletons. Between the two beaches is a salt lagoon frequented by flamingos, pintails, stilts and other wading birds.
Day 4
Darwin Research Station / Bachas Beach (Santa Cruz Island)
The Charles Darwin Research Station and the Galapagos National Park offices are also based here. The station is also a tortoise breeding centre, where tortoises of different species are prepared for reintroduction to their natural habitats.
The most famous inhabitant is probably Lonesome George, the only survivor of this specific turtle species. The lush green scenery of the Santa Cruz highlands is a welcome contrast to the aridity of the lower islands. The fine white coral sands of Bachas Beach are a fantastic nesting site for sea turtles. Behind the beach there is a small brackish lagoon, where flamingos and other coastal birds are often seen.