Day 1: Quito or Guayaquil

 

AM or PM

Check in at Hotel Sheraton in Quito or Hotel Oro Verde or Similar in Guayaquil

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Day 2: Quito or Guayaquil - Santa Cruz

Photo By Red Mangrove

AM

Breakfast at the hotel in Quito or Guayaquil.

Fligth to Galapagos Island

Ferry crossing to Santa Cruz Island (10-minute ride). Arrival at Santa Cruz around 11:30 AM (depending on your flight schedule).

Check in at Aventura or Santa Cruz Divers Lodge.

PM

Discover Puerto Ayora in your own, walk, bike, go shopping or simply relax and enjoy the views from our own deck. It is time to enjoy at your own leisure.

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Day 3: Santa Cruz

Photo By Red Mangrove

 

Photo By Red Mangrove

 

AM

Breakfast at the hotel in Galapagos.

This is the perfect time to explore the Town by your own. You will have the opportunity to share with local people and lear more about their culture.

Lunch at Aventura Lodge. PM

Tour to Garrapatero Beach

Depart to Garrapatero beach, a 25 minutes bus ride to the right spot were an easy trail start to lead you to the beach in only 15 more minutes.

This beautiful white sandy beach is known for its flamingos and finches and a place where you can relax and enjoy the beautiful surroundings.

This is one of Santa Cruz's most peaceful and tranquil settings, the 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) of sand that compose El Garrapatero Beach is a tropical paradise.

It is about 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) northeast of Puerto Ayora.

Surrounded by beautiful mangrove trees, the beach is home to an incredible array of birds, most notably, flamingos and mockingbirds. You can also find marine iguanas, shrimp, Galapagos penguins, oystercatchers, and patillos amongst the white sands and clear blue water.

There's also a freshwater lake nearby that is home to even more tropical animals, such as herons, grebes, and many of shore birds.

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Day 4: Santa Cruz - Floreana

Photo By Red Mangrove

 

Photo By Red Mangrove

 

Photo By Red Mangrove

 

Photo By Red Mangrove

 

AM

Breakfast at the Lodge,

The adventure will start with a trip to "Los Gemelos" (The Twins), two enormous collapsed lava chambers-a breathtaking visual reminder of the power of nature. The short, easy hike to each of the twins is swarming withendemic flora and fauna, including the remaining Scalesia Forest, draped in liverwort, with large and small tree finches, the beautiful vermillion flycatcher, and more.

It's a wonderful introduction to the majestic power of the forces of nature and the great biodiversity of the Santa Cruz Highlands.
We will visit a 600-acre private reserve where the giant Galapagos tortoises freely roam, graze, and sleep.

Sometimes it's a bit muddy here, so before setting out, we provide a selection of field boots to choose from, including large sizes for men.
You will be transported through this tropical environment by truck, and from there you walk through fields to blend with these gentle giants.

As prehistoric as these creatures look, wait until you hear what they soundlike! After visiting the tortoises, we'll take a 5-minute ride to the entrance of a 450-meter (1350 feet) illuminated lava tunnel. With a ceiling nearly 20 feet high in most places, this is an incredible opportunity to wander through the remnants of one of the most powerful forces in nature-lava flows.

Stalagmites, stalactites, sulfur, mineral-colored walls, and the rippled floor formed from lava can all be experienced in this uniquely Galapagos stroll

Lunch will be served at the hotel.
After that, departure to Floreana, our navigation will take two hours approximately (According to sea conditions).

PM

Arrival at Floreana Island.

Visit to Black Beach to enjoy this beautiful spot and swim, snorkel, or simply relax by enjoying the special scenery or a walk to La Loberia.

Check in at Floreana Lodge.

Dinner at a local family restaurant to enjoy not only their typical Galapagueña cuisine, but their traditions and culture. This is a truly genuine experience with one of the first families to arrive at the island.

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Day 5: Floreana - Isabela

Photo By Red Mangrove

 

Photo By Red Mangrove

 

Photo By Red Mangrove

 

Photo By Red Mangrove

 

AM

Breakfast at the local family house.

Departure in an open-air bus that will transport you up to the highlands of Floreana while your Naturalist Guide begins filling you in on the history of this, the first settled island in the Galapagos. You will walk up to see the Asilo de la Paz (Peace Asylum), where a spring is located-a natural spring that attracted pirates, whalers, and later settlers to Floreana because it was one of the very few year-round sources of fresh water in the Galapagos.

The Cueva de los Piratas (Pirate's Cave) is quite literally where pirates carved temporary shelter out of soft stone. It is also where one of the original settlers, Margret Wittmer, gave birth to a son, Rolf, who is stillliving.

Some have jokingly referred to it as the "Stonehenge" of Floreana because of its interesting shapes. Cerro Pajas (Bird Hill) truly lives up to its name, with a multitude of Floreana finches. It also offers spectacular views of the island and the sea below. We will visit a tortoise reserve where you can watch many of the giant tortoises up close and personal.

All the while, your Naturalist Guide will be pointing out the wildlife and filling you in on the colorful history of Floreana's first inhabitants, like the Baroness, and re-telling the legend of the "Floreana Mystery", which involves the mysterious deaths of several inhabitants. The mystery has never been solved.

Departure at 11:00 AM for Isabela. Sailing time is 1.5 to 2 hours. We will arrive at Isabela between 12:30 and 1:00 PM. Arriving in the port is a visual feast, with stunning green and turquoise water so clear you can see turtles, sea lions, and penguins as though looking through glass. We will check into the Red Mangrove Isabela Lodge and have a hot, wholesome lunch. (Time scheduledcould change according to sea conditions).

PM

Departure to "Las Tintoreras" and Bay Tour.

After lunch, we will board a smaller craft to head out across the port, slowing down to view blue-footed boobies and Galapagos penguins sharing the same rocky sunbathing space, before turning a bend and docking.

From there we take an intriguing walk through a jagged lava field, passing abundant colonies of marine iguanas, to see a small canal full of resting white-tipped reef sharks.

If the tide is low, they are sometimes a mere two feet below the surface.

The views from here are something you will take with you for the rest of your life! The black, treacherous lava field, the emerald green sea, the forest green mangrove, and the cloud-capped volcanoes of Isla Isabela create an afternoon backdrop you are not likely to ever forget.

Once you return to the dock, you can snorkel in this warm, shallow bay surrounded by mangrove, for an opportunity to see white-tipped reef sharks, sea lions,penguins, and, of course, the mystery of the mangrove below the surface. Don't worry, white-tipped reef sharks are not aggressive, merely fascinating.

We'll have a bit of time to relax and shower before briefing and dinner in the Lodge at 7:00.

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Day 6: Isabela

Photo By Red Mangrove

 

Photo By Red Mangrove

 

Photo By Red Mangrove

 

AM

Breakfast at the lodge.

Departure for Sierra Negra Tour, vehicles of local providers will drive us up through the humid highlands to the slopes of Volcan Sierra Negra.
Then we hike to arrive at the caldera (crater) of Sierra Negra.

With 4 miles across, it is the second largest in the world.

The views are breathtaking! We will relax a bit and have a snack on the edge of the caldera (crater).
For the hardiest of the group, there is the option to continue on a especially difficult one hour walk to Volcan Chico, where fumarole activity is abundant, and again, the views are spectacular.

This is not an easy hike, however, because it is mostly across sloping lava fields.

PM

After returning from Sierra Negra, we will have lunch at Campo Duro.

Campo Duro is a beautiful an organic farm whose food is prepared with their local production and a lava rock-grill, have a sight to the fruit trail and eat some of them, also have a rest in one of their hammocks and breath the clean air above a big "Mango tree".

This property also takes care of giants tortoises in liaison with the Galapagos National Park.
Back to the lodge, time to discover Isabela on your own or go snorkeling, swimming or simply relax.
Briefing and dinner at the Lodge.

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Day 7: Isabela - Santa Cruz

Photo By Red Mangrove

 

Photo By Red Mangrove

 

AM

Breakfast at the lodge.

Departure to Humedales Tour. We begin with a drive out of town along the most beautiful, white sand, palm lined beach in all of Galapagos-Long Beach.

This beach, straight from the cover of a travel magazine, stretches on for 3 kilometers before the National Park, where we will walk up the trail for astounding views from the top of Cerro Orchilla.

We visit the "Muro de Las Lagrimas" (Wall of Tears), a unique construction built by the backbreaking labor of prisoners of a penal colony centuries earlier. On the path to the Wall of Tears you will see an abundance of lavalizards-the males are larger and striped and the females red-throated.

PM

Lunch at Isabela Lodge and depart to Santa Cruz.
Sailing time is 1.5 to 2 hours

1:00 pm Depart from Isabela to Santa Cruz.

Arrive in Puerto Ayora and check in at Aventura Lodge.

Then, to a guided tour to the fascinating Charles Darwin Research Station where you can learn about the whole Galapagos and meet the most famous giant tortoise: Lonesome George.

Dinner and overnight at Aventura Lodge

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Day 8 : Santa Cruz - Quito or Guayaquil

Photo By Red Mangrove

 

AM

Breakfast at the lodge.

Depart 3 hours before your flight in order to arrive back at the Baltra Airport the requested 1.5 hours before your flight.

Transport and guide included from the hotel to the airport.

PM
Check in at Hotel Sheraton in Quito or Hotel Oro Verde or Similar in Guayaquil.

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Day 9 : Quito or Guayaquil - Home

Photo By Red Mangrove

 

AM

Breakfast at the hotel.

Check Out

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