Galapagos Lammer Law
ITINERARY DAY BY DAY
8 days / 7 nights
Saturday to Saturday
Day 5
Darwin Bay Beach / Prince Philip’s Steps (Genovesa Island)
Landing on the white coral sands of Darwin Bay and walking up the beach, you will be surrounded by the bustling activity of “great frigate birds. A trail beside the pools leads up to a cliff overlooking the caldera, where pairs of swallow-tailed gulls, the only nocturnal gulls in the world, can be seen nesting at the cliff’s edge. Here you can see red–billed tropic birds enter and leave their nests trailing exotic kite-like tails. This is also an intriguing place to go deep-water snorkeling.
Tower Island could serve as a film set for a secret submarine base. The southwestern part of the island is an ocean-filled caldera ringed by the outer edges of a sizeable and mostly submerged volcano. It is also known as “Bird Island,” a name it lives up to in a spectacular way. Red-footed boobies wrap their webbed feet around branches to perch in the bushes, and, in contrast, their “masked-booby” cousins dot the surface of the scrublands beyond.
Day 6
Punta Espinosa / Punta Vicente Roca (Fernandina Island)
Punta Espinosa, a narrow spit of land in the northeast corner of the island, where a number of unique Galapagos species can be seen in close proximity. A short walk through the vegetation leads to a large colony of marine iguanas resting a top one another in friendly heaps along the rocky shoreline, spitting water to clear their bodies of salt. Nearby, sea lions frolic in a sheltered lagoon. This is one of the few places you can glimpse iguanas grazing on seaweed underwater.
Located at the ‘mouth’ of the head of the sea horse, which forms the northern part of the Isabela is Punta Vicente Roca. Here the remnants of an ancient volcano form two turquoise coves with a bay well protected from the ocean swells. The spot is a popular anchorage from which to take panga rides along the cliff where a partially sunken cave beckons explorers. Masked and blue-footed boobies sit perched along the point and the sheer cliffs, while flightless cormorants inhabit the shoreline.
Day 7
James Bay (Santiago Island) / Bartolome Island
Puerto Egas, offers access to three unique sites. One landing is on a black beach with intriguing eroded rock formations inland. A trail crosses the dry interior eastward and rises to the rim of an extinct volcanic crater; cracks within it allow sea water to seep in, which then dries to form salt deposits that have been mined in the past. Another path leads south, where hikers are treated to a series of crystal-clear grottos formed of broken lava tubes. These are home to sea lions and tropical fish, and are the only place in the islands where fur seals can be seen. Further to the north, another landing and path lead to a series of inland lagoons, home to flamingos.
Bartolome Island is famous for Pinnacle Rock, a towering spearheaded obelisk that rises from the ocean’s edge and is the best known landmark in the Galapagos. Galapagos penguins walk precariously along narrow volcanic ledges at its base. Sea lions snooze on rocky platforms, ready to slide into the water to play with passing snorkelers.
Day 8
Kicker Rock / San Cristobal Island departure
Leon Dormido, also know as Kicker Rock, is a spectacular formation in San Cristobal Island, that rises 152 meters (500 feet) out of the Pacific. It takes the form of a sleeping lion, but from another angle you can see that the rock is split, forming a colossal tablet and, piercing the sea, a great chisel ready for etching. Following this visit you return to Puerto Baquerizo Moreno and flight to the Ecuador mainland to Quito or Guayaquil.