Galapagos Lammer Law
ITINERARY DAY BY DAY
8 days / 7 nights
Saturday to Saturday
Day 1
Arrival at airport Puerto Baquerizo Moreno (San Cristobal Island)
Arrival at San Cristobal. Motorized rafts, called 'Pangas' will transport you to the M/S Lammer Law and its crew will welcome you on board. After departure and lunch, your check-out dive will be made.
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.
Day 2
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.
Day 3
Punta Suarez / Gardner Bay (Espanola Island)
The quantity and variety of wildlife at Punta Suarez is remarkable. A few steps inland are the largest variety of marine iguana in the Galapagos. They bear distinctive red and black markings, some with a flash of turquoise running down their spine, and nap in communal piles. The trail then takes us beside the western edge of the island where masked boobies nest along the cliff’s edge, and then descends to a rocky beach before rising to an open area and a large gathering of nesting blue-foot boobies.
On the northeastern shore of Hood, Gardner Bay offers a magnificent long white sandy beach, where colonies of sea lions laze in the sun, sea turtles swim offshore, and inquisitive mockingbirds boldly investigate new arrivals. You will be lured into the turquoise water for a swim, but just a little further off-shore, the snorkeling by Tortuga rock and Gardner Island offers peak encounters with playful young sea lions and large schools of surprisingly big tropical fish, including yellow tailed surgeonfish, king angelfish and bump-head parrot fish. Sleepy white-tipped reef sharks can be seen napping on the bottom.
Day 4
Highlands / Puerto Ayora (Santa Cruz Island)
A highlight of any trip is a visit to the Santa Cruz Highlands, where the sparse, dry coastal vegetation transitions to lush wet fields and forests overgrown with moss and lichens. Your destination is the Tortoise Reserve, where you will have chances to track and view these friendly ancient creatures in their natural setting.
Puerto Ayora is home to both the Galapagos National Park and Charles Darwin Research Station, the center of the great restorative efforts taking place in the park, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Here you can visit the Giant Tortoise Breeding and Rearing Program, which began by rescuing the remaining 16 tortoises on the Espanola Island in the 1970s. The local color of Puerto Ayora makes for an attractive stop-off.