Extensive Galapagos Adventure

Arrive in Galapagos - San Cristobal

Arrive at the airport in San Cristobal & transfer to the dock. Check-in to your cabin before attending an introductory briefing and safety drill. After lunch you head to your first visitor site Ochoa Beach, a beautiful white coral sand beach next to a turquoise bay and home to a small colony of sea lions. End your day at Kicker Rock, a spectacular rock formation 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 piercing the sea. Return on board for a welcome cocktail and dinner.

Overnight: M/V Evolution (L, D)

South Plaza & Daphne Island

After breakfast, it’s your chance to see land iguanas on South Plaza Island. As you wander through the interesting flora, including bright red carpet weed you will see nesting swallow-tailed gulls, red-billed tropicbirds, frigatebirds and shearwaters flying with dancing displays. After lunch, enjoy some snorkelling at Punta Carrion followed by a visit to Daphne Island. The geology of this island is extremely interesting thanks to the large tuff cone – a huge pile of compacted volcanic ash shaped like a cone.

Overnight: M/V Evolution (B, L, D)

Chinese Hat & Santiago Island

There is a small sea lion cove on the north shore, where boats anchor and land at the visitor site. Later that morning you’ll have an opportunity to snorkel with sea lions and penguins and to swim in the cove. After lunch take a visit to James Bay, where you land on a black beach with intriguing eroded rock formations. The trail leads to a series of crystal-clear grottos formed of broken lava tubes, which are home to sea lions, fur seals, marine iguanas and tropical fish.

Overnight: M/V Evolution (B, L, D)

Genovesa Island

Here you will enjoy a stroll past several species of birds, including iconic frigatebirds, red-footed boobies, Nazca boobies and lava gulls. You will also get the opportunity to swim and snorkel at this beautiful, natural harbour. After lunch, your team will take you to Prince Phillips Steps as you walk up this steep staircase you will discover a huge seabird colony full of life. Once at the top, the land is flat which allows for a gentler walk to the other side of the island observing large numbers of red-footed boobies, large frigatebirds and storm petrels. A real birder’s paradise!

Overnight: M/V Evolution (B, L, D)

North Seymour & Santa Fe Island

From here a trail will take you to see sea lions, land and marine iguanas, blue-footed boobies, pelicans and magnificent frigatebirds. In the afternoon you will visit Santa Fe Island, home to one of the most beautiful and sheltered bays of the archipelago; its crystal clear waters make it ideal for snorkelling. It’s certainly one of the best locations to see sea turtles, swim with sea lions and get a glimpse of the Galapagos white-tipped shark. After a wet landing you will walk up to a nearby cliff to see the land iguanas through an area of Opuntia Cactus.

Overnight: M/V Evolution (B, L, D)

Floreana Island

Floreana Island has a colourful history, please do just ask your guides and they will be more than happy to regale the stories. In the morning you visit Post Office Bay, where 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 and crossing your fingers that it may eventually arrive at its destination. After lunch, visit Punta Cormorant which offers two highly contrasting beaches; a green-olivine beach and an iron-red beach. Between the two beaches is a salt lagoon frequented by flamingos, pintails, stilts and other wading birds. Late afternoon snorkelling at Devil's Crown, which is home to a myriad of marine species including a variety of corals, pencil sea urchin, wrasses, angelfish and amberjacks, makes for some of the best snorkelling in the Galapagos.

Overnight: M/V Evolution (B, L, D)

Santa Cruz Island

Santa Cruz is the second largest island in the Galapagos and its economic capital. In the morning you can visit the Charles Darwin Research Station to visit the Giant Tortoise and Land Iguana Breeding and Rearing Program. After lunch on board you head off to the highlands where dry coastal vegetation transitions into lush wet fields and forests overgrown with moss and lichens. Your destination is the Tortoise Reserve, where you will have chance see these animals in the wild, walk through lava tubes and see Los Gemelos, the twin collapsed craters.

Overnight: M/V Evolution (B, L, D)

Depart San Cristobal

Today your Galapagos cruise comes to an end, but before you say your goodbyes to your home from home, the Evolution and her crew, you pay a visit to the Galapagos National Park Visitor Centre on San Cristobal Island. This centre presents a comprehensive exhibition of the islands’ varied history and your naturalist will use the exhibits to provide an illustrated overview of life on the islands. A short trail arrives at Frigate Bird Hill, where both “magnificent-frigates” and “great-frigates” can be seen in the same colony. Next you return to the airport where you began your journey in the Galapagos for the flight back to Ecuadorian mainland.