Galapagos Lodges (8 Day)

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DAY 1: ARRIVE QUITO
Quito Accommodations
Airport pickup and transfer to hotel. We highly recommend adding an extra day in Quito before your cruise to accommodate potential flight delays and to enjoy historic Quito and its surroundings. Overnight Quito hotel.

DAY 2: QUITO – BALTRA – SANTA CRUZ (Highlands)
Red Mangrove Aventura Lodge
AM – Hotel pickup and transfer to airport for flight to Galapagos. After arrival at Baltra airport, you will have a ferry crossing to Santa Cruz Island (10 min-ride). Ferry crossing to Santa Cruz Island (10 min-ride). Arrival at Santa Cruz around 11:30 AM (Depending on your flight schedule). The adventure will start with a trip to “Los Gemelos” (The Twins), two enormous collapsed lava chambers – an awe-inspiring visual reminder of the power of nature. The short, easy hike to each of the twins is teeming with endemic flora and fauna, including the remaining Scalesia Forest draped in liverwort, large and small tree finches, the adorable 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.

PM – Lunch will be served in one of the farms. Afterward, 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 we set out, there is a selection of field boots to choose from, including large sizes for men, are available. You will be transported through this tropical environment by truck, and from there you walk through fields to mingle with these gentle giants. As prehistoric as these creatures look, wait until you hear what they sound like! 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 ramble through the remnants of one of the most powerful forces in nature… lava flows. Stalagmites, stalactites, sulfur and mineral-colored walls and the rippled floor formed from lava can all be experienced in this uniquely Galapagos stroll. Check-in at Red Mangrove Aventura Lodge. Dinner at the lodge (B,L,D)

DAY 3: SANTA CRUZ – SANTA FE – FLOREANA
Red Mangrove Floreana Lodge
AM – Wake-up call at 6:30 AM. Staff will call for your luggage at 7:00 AM for transport to dock. After breakfast, 8:00 AM Depart to Floreana via Santa Fe. Our navigation will take us to Santa Fe, home to one of the most beautiful coves in all the Galapagos formed from an uplift (rather than a volcano) giving the island a relatively flat surface rather than the typical conical shape of the other islands. Santa Fe hosts a forest of Opuntia cactus, which are the largest of the archipelago, and Palo Santo. Good opportunity for bird-watching at weathered cliffs that provides a haven for swallow-tailed gulls, red-billed tropic birds, sehar-waters petrels. Santa Fe species of land iguanas are often seen, as well as lava lizards. There is a turquoise lagoon and calm waters where snorkeling can be done along with sea lions and florescent fishes. Or visit a submerged rock where several manta rays and marine turtles can be found.

PM – Lunch on board. We will continue sailing to reach Floreana and on our way another great opportunity to snorkel cove called Luz del Dia (Light of Day). There is an abundance of life in this cove. You will most likely see penguins and sea lions on the steep, rocky shore and rays and tropical fish beneath the clear waters. Arrival in Floreana Island. Visit to Black Beach to enjoy this beautiful spot, swim, snorkel or simply relax by absorbing the special scenery or walk to La Loberia. Check in Floreana Lodge. BBQ Dinner at a local restaurant to enjoy Galapaguena food and warm hospitality of one of the first families to arrive at the island and learning from them about the mysteries of Floreana. (B,L,D)

DAY 4: FLOREANA (Highlands) – TORTUGA ISLAND – ISABELA (Las Tintoreras)
Red Mangrove Isabela Lodge
AM – Wake-up call at 6:30 AM. Staff will call for your luggage at 7:00 AM for transport to dock. Breakfast. 8:00 AM 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 the island, the first settled in the Galapagos. You will walk up to see the Asilo de la Paz (Peace Asylum) where an artisan spring is located. This spring attracted pirates, whalers and later settlers to Floreana as 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 and is also where one of the original settlers, Margret Wittmer, gave birth to a son, Rolf, who is still living. Some have almost jokingly referred to it as the ‘Stonehenge’ of Floreana due to 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 entailed the mysterious deaths of several inhabitants. It has never been solved. Departure at 11:00 AM for Isabela. Sailing time is 1.5 – 2 hours.

MID-DAY: Weather and tides permitted, as we approach Isabela by sea, we will cruise by Tortuga Island which is full of frigates, blue-footed boobies and other birds that rely on the sea for their food. If you brought binoculars, this is a good time to pull them out. We will arrive into Isabela between 12:30 and 1:00 PM. Arriving in the port is a visual feast with stunning green and turquoise waters so clear, you can see sea turtles, sea lions and penguins as though looking through glass. We will check-in to the Red Mangrove Isabela Lodge and have a hot, wholesome lunch.

PM – 2:30 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, sunning space before turning a bend and docking. From there, we take an intriguing walk through a jagged ‘A’a 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 2 feet below the surface. The views from here are something you may carry 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 is the sort of afternoon backdrop you are not likely to ever forget. Once you return to the dock, you can snorkel 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 at the Lodge at 7:00 PM. (B,L,D)

DAY 5: ISABELA (Sierra Negra Volcano, Camp Duro)
Red Mangrove Isabela Lodge
AM – Wake-up call 6:30 AM. Breakfast. Depart for Sierra Negra at 8:00 AM. 4×4 vehicles will drive us up through the transitional zone and into the humid highlands that are the slopes of Sierra Negra Volcano to the point of where vehicles can go no further. The views are breathtaking! We will relax a bit and have a snack on the edge of the caldera. For the more hardy of the group, the option exists to walk an especially difficult hour further to Chico Volcano, where fumarole activity is abundant, and again, the views are spectacular. This is not an easy hike, however, as it is mostly across lava fields on slopes.

PM – After returning from Sierra Negra, we will have lunch at Campo Duro. Campo Duro offers a ‘tortoise patronage’ program that doesn’t involve money changing hands. Guests have the opportunity to become a patron to their chosen tortoise at the reserve merely by choosing a tortoise (they’re all numbered), naming their tortoise and then entering a story in the Patron’s book such as information on why they chose the name they chose and their contact information. Then, the Patron invites any and all of their friends to go visit their tortoise and provide them with updates. Return back to Lodge. Briefing and dinner at the Lodge. (B,L,D)

DAY 6: ISABELA (Cerro Orchilla, Las Lagrimas) – SANTA CRUZ (Darwin Center)
Red Mangrove Aventura Lodge
AM – Wake-up call 6:30 AM. Staff will call for your luggage at 7:00 AM for transport to dock before breakfast. 8:00 AM departure for tour. We begin with a drive out of town along the most beautiful, white sand, palm-lined beach in the whole of the Galapagos, Long Beach. This travel magazine cover stretches on for 3 kilometers before we hit the National Park and begin with a stop to walk up the stairs for astounding vistas from the top of Cerro Orchilla. As you drive down the road, you very likely will see the largest of the Galapagos marine iguanas sunning by the side of the road, and don’t be surprised if you have to wait for a Galapagos tortoise to cross the road in front of you. You will visit the “Muro de Las Lagrimas” (Wall of Tears), backbreaking effort carrying jagged volcanic rock distances when constructed by prisoners of a penal colony built there. The path to the Wall of Tears is abundant with lava lizards; the males are larger and striped and the females red-throated. If you visit during breeding season, be careful not to step on or disturb the many nests along this trail. They appear as holes that a gopher might have dug, but in fact are nests. At roughly 11:00 AM, we will depart Isabela for Santa Cruz. Sailing time is 1.5 – 2 hours.

PM – We arrive into Puerto Ayora around 12:30 / 1:00 PM. We will check into the Aventura Lodge and have lunch. We depart at 3:00 PM for a guided tour of the fascinating Charles Darwin Research Station. After the Darwin Station, there will be some free time to shop for souvenirs or browse the shops along Charles Darwin Avenue. Dinner is at 7:00, evening is free. (B,L,D)

DAY 7: SANTA CRUZ – BALTRA – QUITO
Quito Accommodations
AM – Wake-up call and breakfast will depend on your flight departure time. We will transport you from the hotel to the airport, accompany you on the ferry over to the airport and assist you the whole way with your baggage for your return flight to Quito. Departure from lodge will be 3 hrs before your flight.
Before entering the ‘gate’ to depart, you will pass through a line where you need to present the part of your Migratory Control card you have retained and now have handy for the Immigration officer. Board plane for flight to Quito via Guayaquil. Arrive Quito, airport pickup and transfer to hotel.

DAY 8: QUITO – HOME (or begin Extension Program)
Hotel pickup and transfer to airport for flight home. (B)

Key: (B)reakfast (L)unch (D)inner

*Tour Program – 2 person minimum / 14 person maximum (private tour quoted upon request)*