Enchanted Islands Western 8-Day Cruise - Tip Top V Catamaran - Galapagos

Flight from mainland Ecuador (Quito or Guayaquil) to Baltra, with AVIANCA Airlines; arriving at 09:20 a.m. approximately. Your guide will meet you at the arrivals gate, our crew will take care of your luggage. Your guide will conduct you to a bus and after a short 5-kilometer ride to the pier; you board the Yacht immediately. As the crew weighs anchor, we greet you with our first orientation and we offer a light snack.

Santa Cruz Island: Bachas Beach

After navigating, we disembark on Playa Las Bachas, a place where you can appreciate a Flamingos lagoon. During all walks, your guide will be explaining details about the lives of the birds and animals. Optional: time for those who would like to swim and/or snorkel, in the evening you have an orientation about the Galapagos Islands in general: their origin and evolution. Welcome cocktail with the entire crew, and dinner.

Darwin Bay

After breakfast, you make a wet landing on Darwin Bay to walk and observe frigate birds, herons, mockingbirds, boobies, shorebirds, turtles, marine iguanas, etc. Optional: time for those who would like to swim, snorkel or kayak. You come on board for a delicious lunch.

El Barranco

Later in the afternoon, you take a panga ride and you make a dry landing on Prince Phillips’s Steps (Barranco), you walk and observe the interesting lives of the birds here. Dinner on the Yacht, and then your orientation about conservation efforts made to protect the Islands.

South Plaza Island

After breakfast, you make a dry landing on the pier of the South Plaza, where you can enjoy the antics of the sea lions. A walk through a cactus forest allows us to observe land iguanas and many species of tropical birds. Return to the Yacht for lunch.

Santa Fe Island

Then, you make a wet landing on Santa Fe Island to visit the cactus forest and a colony of land iguana’s native from Santa Fe. Optional: time for those who would like to swim, snorkel and/or kayak. At the end of the afternoon, we return to the Yacht for dinner and our nightly orientation.

Highlands

After breakfast, you will disembark to take the bus to the highlands of Santa Cruz Island for a visit to the native forests, Twin Craters, then, you will go to one of the ranches to see the giant tortoises in the wildlife. You will be delighted with lunch in the ranch.

Interpretation Center Fausto Llerena

After lunch, you will return to Puerto Ayora to start the visit to the Interpretation Center Fausto Llerena. You return to the Yacht for dinner and our nightly orientation.

Post Office Bay

After breakfast, you make a wet landing on Post Office Bay, a historic site that recalls the days of the whalers, who presumably placed a wooden barrel in the 18th century to use it as a post office.

Baroness Lookout

Then, you will continue to the Baroness Point view, named due to the presence of a particular character who lived on Floreana Island, it is the Baroness Eloisa von Wagner, you will enjoy of the beautiful landscape and the ruins of her house. Return to the Yacht for lunch.

Devil's Crown & Cormorant Point

In the afternoon, you visit the Devil’s Crown, a submerged volcano, for snorkeling for those who wish it (this is one of the best snorkeling sites in the Islands), then you make a wet landing on Point Cormorant for a short walk to the Flamingo Lagoon of this island. You then continue the walk until we reach the beach called "La Picona" to see marine turtles and their spawning grounds. Optional: time for those who would like to swim and/or snorkel. You return to the Yacht for dinner and our nightly orientation.

Suarez Point

After breakfast, you make an early dry landing on Punta Suarez to walk along lava beds where you will observe unique colonies of marine birds, including Albatross (May - December). Return to the Yacht for lunch.

Gardner Bay

In the afternoon, you make a wet landing in Gardner Bay for a walk on the beach and observe a colony of sea lions, which inhabit the beach in great quantity during the breeding season; this is also an important nesting area for sea turtles.

Osborn Islet

Then we make a panga ride around the Osborn Islet and the islets of Gardner. Optional: time for those who would like to swim and/or snorkel. Return to the Yacht for dinner and our nightly orientation.

San Cristobal Island: Kicker Rock

After breakfast, your experienced Captain sails easily around Kicker Rock (Leon Dormido), a massive tuff-rock that juts abruptly almost 500 feet straight from the ocean. Kicker Rock serves as a nesting place for many seabirds.

Cerro Brujo

Then you make a wet landing on Cerro Brujo to walk on a white sand beach and observe sea lions, brown pelicans, marine iguanas, and blue-footed boobies.

Interpretation Center Jacinto Gordillo

In the afternoon, you make a dry landing on San Cristobal port, after a short drive, you arrive at Jacinto Gordillo Interpretation Center where you learn about its reproductive process and the programs to maintain the species. You take the bus back to the port to visit the Interpretation Center of Human History of the Islands; this tour takes you through the geological and human history of the islands and its conservation. You return to the Yacht for dinner and our nightly orientation.

After breakfast, you make a panga ride on Black Turtle Cove, a series of mangrove-surrounded coves and islets; here you can observe white-tipped sharks, marine turtles, spotted eagle rays, and yellow cow-nosed rays. You return to the Yacht for disembarking on the pier at 09:00. Your guide accompanies you on the bus ride directly to the airport.