Galapagos Rachel
ITINERARY DAY BY DAY
8 days / 7 nights
Saturday to Saturday
Day 5
Darwin Station / The Highlands (Santa Cruz Island)
Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz's main population center, is home to about 10,000 people. It is on this island that you will have the best opportunity to see the famed giant tortoise while visiting the world-famous Charles Darwin Research Station.
The research center aids the National Park Service in its efforts to save the Galapagos wildlife; the museum at the station has a facility for rearing tortoises, a project to increase the depleted population.
After touring the station, journey by bus into the highlands to Los Gemelos - two deep pit craters situated in the Scalesia forest that host a variety of interesting birdlife. Here, go for a walk through the giant lava tubes and visit the Tortoise Reserve to search for giant tortoises in their natural surroundings. This afternoon, there may be some free time to explore the town of Puerto Ayora.
Day 6
Punta Suarez / Gardner Bay (Española Island)
One of the oldest of the islands, Hood is small and flat with no visible volcanic crater or vent. Located on the western tip of the island, one of the world's densest and most diversified concentrations of wildlife is found at Punta Suarez. The area is famous for its marine iguanas with unique copper-red patches, swallow-tailed gulls, lava lizards, finches, long-billed mockingbirds, blue-footed and masked boobies and oystercatchers. When heavy swells are running, Punta Suarez is also the site of a spectacular blowhole, with thundering spray shooting thirty yards into the air.
Gardner Bay, located on the eastern shore, hosts a magnificent beach 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 many fish and possibly turtles and sharks. On a trail leading to the western tip of the island, you will pass the only nesting sites in the Galapagos of the waved albatross. These huge birds nest here from April to December and represent the majority of the world's population.
Day 7
Santa Fe Island
This island, according to the latest geological studies, shows the islands' oldest rocks. The small bay on Santa Fe's northern coast provides one of the most picturesque harbors within the archipelago. A large sea lion colony inhabits most of the surrounding landing site.
Day 8
Santa Cruz Island / Baltra Island departure
The ship anchors in the morning at the entrance to Black Turtle Cove.
This is a great place to see large schools of Golden Rays, Green Sea Turtles (they are on the rare and endangered species list), White-tipped Sharks, Galapagos Sharks, Lava Herons, Yellow Warblers and a variety of other bird species. Then sail into Baltra Island this morning to board your flight back to the mainland.