Galapagos Eclipse
ITINERARY DAY BY DAY
8 days / 7 nights
Saturday to Saturday
Day 1
Arrival to Baltra airport / Bachas Beach (Santa Cruz Island)
In the morning you head back to the airport for your flight to the Island of Baltra. After lunch on board the Eclipse, you begin your island adventure with a visit to Las Bachas Beach, on the north shore of Santa Cruz Island, to take a dip or simply lay back and relax on the beach with the marine iguanas, watching the Sally Lightfoot crabs scamper by. The nearby salt water lagoon is home to a variety of wading birds, including black-necked stilts and a small population of flamingos.
Day 2
Puerto Egas (Santiago Island) / Bartolome Island
After another night transfer you arrive at James Island (Santiago). This narrow, steep-sided point of land provides spectacularly beautiful landscape, complete with cliffs and pinnacles upon which rest hundreds of marine birds. Visit to the unusual setting of Puerto Egas with its black volcanic ash beach, the remnants of the area’s human history, amazing geology and its own unique wildlife, such as the Galapagos Fur seal.
Sail to Bartolome Island while having lunch, here you will climb the 359-foot peak to appreciate the beautiful panoramic view of Pinnacle Rock and the nearby islands. The nearby Pinnacle rock is the perfect location for snorkelling with Galapagos Penguins and a variety of other marine life. At the beach on the other side of the island you can often find sea turtles and white-tipped sharks playing in the shallows.
Day 3
Darwin Bay / El Barranco (Genovesa Island)
Genovesa (Tower island) is truly a bird enthusiast’s dream come true. First stop is at Darwin Bay that offers an amazing white coral beach surrounded by sheer crater walls, and is home to hundreds of magnificent frigate birds and red-footed boobies. The trail you take passes tide pools that attract swallow-tailed and lava gulls, before leading you into a forest of saltbush, where colonies of great frigate birds are nesting. The end of the trail gives you a majestic view of the bay.
When you arrive at Prince Phillip’s steps it is well worth the 25-metre climb up this natural rock formation to visit the high cliffs that surround Darwin Bay. Here you may spot red-footed boobies nesting in the mangrove trees, storm petrels and the elusive short-eared owl.
Day 4
Punta Espinosa (Fernandina Island) / Tagus Cove (Isabela Island)
Today’s outing takes you to Punta Espinoza on the island of Fernandina (Narborough), where you will see the youngest volcano of the islands.
Stroll across the island’s immense lava field and through the mangrove forest, before returning to the shoreline with its large colony of marine iguanas. Your next stop is Tagus cove. Along the trail you may see finches, mockingbirds and if you are very sharp-sighted, the furtive Galapagos Owl. A tour along the cliffs in a ´panga´ gives a good chance of seeing the exclusive Galapagos penguin, the flightless cormorant, and other sea birds.
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