Galapagos Mistral
ITINERARY DAY BY DAY
8 days / 7 nights
Saturday to Saturday
Day 1
Arrive at Baltra / North Seymour Island
Upon arrival at Baltra travelers pass through an airport inspection point to insure that no foreign plants or animals are introduced to the islands and to pay the park entrance fee of $100 (unless prepaid).
Guides will meet you, collect your luggage and escort you on the short bus ride to the harbor. Motorized rafts, called ‘Pangas’ will transport you to the M/Y Mistral and the crew will welcome you onboard. After departure and lunch, the first island visit is made.
North Seymour Island is an uplifted island and so is generally flat and strewn with boulders. There are good nesting sites here for a large population of magnificent frigate birds. Blue-footed boobies perform their courtship dance in the more open areas and swallow-tailed gulls perch on the cliff edges. Despite the tremendous surf that can pound the outer shore, sea lions haul out onto the beach and can be found together with marine iguanas.
Day 2
Darwin Bay Beach / Prince Philip’s Steps (Genovesa Island)
Tower is a collapsed volcano and ships sail directly into its large breached caldera to anchor at the foot of the steep crater walls. Tower attracts vast numbers of pelagic seabirds that come here to nest and breed: great frigate birds, red-footed boobies, swallow-tailed gulls and storm petrels. A trail leads from a coral beach past tidal lagoons where lava gulls and yellow-crowned night herons are seen, then along the low shrubs populated by frigates and boobies, and eventually to a cliff edge where seabirds soar.
A second trail called Prince Philip Steps, leads to an open area for masked boobies, frigates, and red-footed boobies. At the end of this trail are thousands of band-rumped storm petrels at the cliff's edge, where they nest in crevices. Short-eared owls can sometimes be seen here, hunting the storm petrels during daylight hours.
Day 3
Punta Espinosa (Fernandina Island) / Elizabeth Bay (Isabela Island)
Fernandina is the youngest and most active volcano in the Galapagos with eruptions taking place every few years. The flat lava of Punta Espinosa offers a stark and barren landscape, but here flightless cormorants build their nests on the point, sea lions sprawl on the beach or play in the tide pools and marine iguanas dot the sand.
At Elizabeth Bay enjoy a panga ride through the mangrove area to see the rays, turtles, sea lions, and, circling overhead, Galapagos hawks. A colony of penguins inhabits a rocky islet at the entrance to Elizabeth Bay.
Day 4
Urbina Bay / Tagus Cove (Isabela Island)
Urbina Bay is an easy wet landing on a gentle sloping beach. This area is very interesting in that it is a perfect example of the geological activity of the islands.
On the towering cliffs of Tagus Cove, 19th and early 20th century ships’ graffiti can be seen. After hiking beyond Darwin Lake, a saltwater lagoon above sea level, you will be rewarded with extraordinary views of Darwin and Wolf volcanoes.