DAY BY BAY
DAY 1: THURSDAY
Thursday: AM:Arrival to Baltra Airport and transfer to M/C Ocean Spray
Welcome to the incredible Galapagos Islands and your luxury catamaran, the M/C Ocean Spray! Upon arrival onboard the vessel, your guide and crew members will greet you and take you to your accommodations. After freshening up, a short briefing will be given on health, safety and emergency protocols, and you will be given a description of normal routines and different areas aboard the M/C Ocean Spray.
Thursday: Santa Fe Island
The endemic pink land iguana lives one a single small island on the planet – and this is it! Santa Fe Island, home to the renowned Santa Fe Iguana, was originally created by a volcanic uplift. Today, it is home to a forest of Palo Santo and Opuntia trees. There are two trails on Santa Fe Island: one leads to a viewpoint overlooking the island and the surrounding ocean, and the other leads down to a small beach. This island once had its own population of Giant Tortoises, which was also unique to the island, but they were entirely wiped out by centuries of overhunting.
DAY 2: FRIDAY
Friday: AM Visit: Española Island – Suarez Point
Española Island is home to many incredible species and geological features, making it one of the favorite visitor sites in the entire archipelago. Suarez Point is home to only breeding site for Waved Albatrosses in the Galapagos, and if you´re lucky you´ll get the chance to see a young albatross take its first flight off to sea, where it will remain for up to five years! The waters surrounding Española Island are incredibly rich in nutrients, so visitors can often see sea lions, marine iguanas, and even sharks swimming in the surrounding waters. Other than the Waved Albatross, there are many other bird species that make Española their home, including Nazca and blue-footed boobies, red-billed tropic birds, swallow-tailed gulls, and Galapagos Doves, among others.
Friday: PM Visit: Española Island – Gardner Bay / Osborn Islet
Gardner Bay is home to a noisy colony of sea lions that enjoy playing in the clear turquoise waters surrounding it. There are several different finch species here, as well as the endemic Española mockingbird, which is well-known for being very friendly with guests! However, visitors must take care to not feed or touch the wildlife, including the friendly ones.
DAY 3: SATURDAY
Saturday: AM Visit: San Cristobal Island – Interpretation Center and Galapaguera
The Interpretation Center has been open to the public for over twenty years, and offers visitors an insight into the history of the Galapagos archipelago and Giant Tortoise breeding practices. San Cristobal, the easternmost island, is also the first island that Charles Darwin set foot on, and is currently home to the provincial capital and the Ecuadorian navy. Giant tortoises that are bred in captivity roam in a semi-natural habitat in the area surrounding the center.
Saturday: PM Visit: San Cristobal Island – Lobos Island/Kicker Rock
Lobos Island is home to a large colony of boisterous sea lions who love to bask in the warm rays of sunshine and play along the island’s rock shores. It is also home to several different bird species, including frigatebirds, pelicans, and yellow warblers, among others. There is a small channel that runs along the island where the waters are very clear, making it easy to spot huge sea turtles, furtive rays, and even white-tipped sharks!
Kicker Rock is one of the archipelago’s most iconic visitor sites. It consists of two eroded volcanic cones that rise more than 100 meters from the waves in the middle of the open water. It is one of the Galapagos’ most renowned diving sites, and visitors can often see colorful underwater species from the deck of the M/C Ocean Spray.
DAY 4: SUNDAY
Sunday: AM visit: San Cristobal Island – Pitt Point
Pitt Point is truly an “otherworldly” visitor point – it feels like you have stepped out onto another planet! The hike up to the top of the hill provides visitors with sweeping panoramic views of the island and the surrounding ocean, and the trail expertly curves around blue-footed booby nests on the ground. Toward the top of the island, visitors can see red-footed boobies nesting in the low trees, giving you up-close encounters with both incredible species.
Sunday: PM visit: San Cristobal Island – Witches Hill
Witches Hill has several deep crevices and eroding rocks along the shore where different shore birds nest and feed. Visitors will be able to get close to them on the Zodiac ride, which is often accompanied by friendly sea lions and different kinds of tropical fish visible in the clear waters along the shoreline. Afterward, you will disembark on a powdery white-sand beach where you can swim and snorkel in the crystal-clear turquoise waters.
DAY 5: MONDAY
Monday: AM Visit:Floreana Island – Post Office Bay
Post Office Bay is one of the archipelago’s most fascinating visitor points due to its human history. Centuries ago, sailors set up a barrel here where they would leave letters to loved ones back home. Other ships would also stop by and look through the addresses on the letters, and take the ones that were addressed to their own destinations – and the first Galapagos mail service was born! Today, the tradition lives on – you can leave a complementary postcard addressed to someone anywhere in the world, and someday a fellow traveler might take it with them and mail it!
Saturday: PM Visit:Floreana Island – Cormorant Point / Devil’s Crown
Cormorant Point is home to two different beaches, and there is a saltwater lagoon just a short walk beyond one of them that is a nesting site for flamingos. Ones of the beaches looks green because of its extraordinarily high content of small olivine crystals, while the other is known as Flour Beach due to its powdery white sand made of pulverized white coral. Visitors can sometimes see rays meandering along the shoreline, as well as different kinds of tropical fish.
Devil’s Crown hosts one of the archipelago’s best snorkeling sites, where snorkelers can see, just below the surface, several incredible volcanic structures that have submerged over the centuries. Today, they are home to countless colorful fish species, as well as sharks, rays, sea turtles, sea lions, and starfish, among many others!
DAY 6: TUESDAY
Tuesday: AM Visit: Santa Cruz Island – Black Turtle Cove
Located along the northern side of Santa Cruz Island, Black Turtle Cove is a shallow inlet surrounded by mangroves that provide natural protection for several juvenile marine species. Just under the calm waters of the cove, visitors can see majestic sea turtles, different kinds of rays, and both white-tip and black-tip reef sharks. Blue-footed boobies and pelicans both enjoy hunting in these nutrient-rich waters, and can often be seen dive-bombing into the water.
Transfer to Baltra Airport
On the last day of your cruise, the only visit you have is to Black Turtle Cove. Afterwards, you´ll board the M/C Ocean Spray to gather your belongings and freshen up for your transfer to the airport.
