Galapagos Islands Cruise Vacation Package (7N)

Travel to the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador and experience its natural wonders with this 8 Day / 7 Night Cruise Vacation Package and Tour that includes Cruise aboard the M/V Galapagos Explorer II ship - visiting the the islands and their unique fauna - transportation and much more.

Destinations Visited

Galapagos Islands

The islands lie in the Pacific Ocean about 1,000 km from the South American coast and straddling the Equator. There are 13 large islands, 6 smaller ones and 107 islets and rocks, with a total land area of about 8,000 square kilometres. The islands are volcanic in origin and several volcanoes in the west of the archipelago are still very active. Galapagos is a province of the Republic of Ecuador and five of the islands are inhabited, with a total population of around 18,000 people. The capital is Puerto Baquerizo Moreno on San Cristobal Island, although the largest town is Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz. There is always something interesting happening in Galapagos, whatever the time of year, and there is no off-season. From about June to November is the 'garua' season when the weather is relatively cool and dry, considering the equatorial position, with sunny or overcast skies and occasional drizzle or garua. August is the coolest month with average daily temperatures ranging from a minimum of 19 to a maximum of 24 degrees centigrade. The sea is cool and can be rather rough. During this period most of the animals which rely upon the sea for their food will be breeding. These include sea and shore birds, marine iguanas, sea lions and fur seals. Between about January and April is the warm season, with higher temperatures and occasional heavy rains. The hottest month is March with an average maximum temperature of 30 degrees. The islands turn green as the arid lowlands bloom, and all the land birds and reptiles start to breed. The sea is also warmer and calmer. During El Nino years, these seasons can vary considerably and the animals' breeding seasons and behavior are often affected greatly.

Day-by-day Itinerary

Day 1: Wednesday - San Cristobal Island, Puerto Baquerizo Moreno

Fly to the Galapagos to begin the cruise, arriving on San Cristobal, easternmost of the Galapagos Islands. Puerto Baquerizo Moreno is the capital of the Galapagos province and the location of the extraordinary Interpretation Center for Galapagos National Park. You will board ship and settle into your cabin. Your seagoing home is the M/V Galapagos Explorer II, a 293-foot, first-class ocean-going cruise ship that carries 100 passengers. Comfortable cabins feature air-conditioning, private bathrooms and a small sitting area. Experienced naturalists lead shore expeditions to seek out wildlife and help you to learn about the fascinating natural history of these volcanic islands. When you are not exploring, you and your children can enjoy the ship's pool, solarium and reading room without experiencing the motion of a smaller vessel.
Your first day in Galapagos you will visit one location near San Cristobal Island. At Ochoa Beach you can take a short trail to a good swimming beach. It is an excellent spot to view Pelicans and other Galapagos sea birds. Free time to walk on the beach.
Beautiful beach for swimming, sea anemones, beach vegetation, sea birds, seashore birds lagoon birds, mangrove trees.

Day 2: Thursday - Española Island & Santa Cruz Island

Morning: Punta Suarez, Española Island
This morning you will visit Española, southernmost island of the archipelago. Because it is so isolated, the island has a large population of indigenous wildlife. You will explore Punta Suarez, one of the most spectacular spots in the Galapagos, where you will look for sea lions surfing the breaking waves and groups of iguanas basking in the sun. Further inland, Masked and Blue-footed Boobies nest beside the trails. You can hike a trail towards the cliffs to the Blowhole, a fissure in the lava cliffs where seawater jets high in the air.

Afternoon: Santa Cruz Island: Puerto Ayora Town, Charles Darwin Station
The second largest of the Archipelago and colonized since the 1920's, Puerto Ayora, the populated part of the island, is the most important harbor of the Archipelago. The headquarters of the Galapagos national Park and the Charles Darwin Station are located on Santa Cruz.

Visit Darwin Station to learn about the research conducted on the island. This UNESCO World Heritage Site is a Galapagos tortoise breeding and rearing center, where tortoises of different subspecies are prepared for reintroduction to their natural habitats. Afterwards, you can stroll through Puerto Ayora, largest town on the islands.

Day 3: Friday - Genovesa Island

Friday you will visit Genovesa Island, one of the smaller Galapagos, and the only northern island in the chain open to visitors.

Morning: Prince Phillip's Steps
Your first stop is at the southern tip of Genovesa Island at the birding paradise of Prince Phillip's Steps. This is the breeding ground for the tree-loving Red-Footed Booby and the ground-nesting Masked Booby. This is also home to four species of finch: the Large Ground Finch, Sharp-beaked Ground Finch, Large Cactus Finch and Warbler Finch. Natural history enthusiasts will recall that Charles Darwin's observation of varied adaptations of finch beaks helped inspired his theories on natural selection. Genovesa is also home to the indigenous Galapagos Mockingbird and the Galapagos Dove. If you have time, we will snorkel at El Barranco on the west side of Darwin Bay.

Afternoon: Darwin Bay
In the afternoon, you will visit the horseshoe-shaped Darwin's Bay, created by the curve of a collapsed volcanic crater. We will make a wet landing on the beach, wading ashore from our panga. Here you can observe Frigatebirds, and Red-Footed and Masked Boobies. Just behind the beach, you explore tide pools frequented by Wandering Tattlers, Whimbrels, Lava Gulls and Fiddler Crabs. Lava and Black-Crowned Night Herons are seen at times. You may also see Yellow Warblers on the beach and Swallow-Tailed Gulls swooping around the cliffs.

Day 4: Saturday - Santa Cruz Island

Morning: Bachas Beach
White sand beach where you can see some nesting site for sea turtles, a small lagoon, whimbrels, heron, pelican, Sally Lightfoot crab and other species.

Afternoon: Dragon Hill
A bay located at the northwest site of the Santa Cruz Island, known as Cerro Dragon since long time ago by the whaling men because of the important colonies of land iguanas that lived in this area.

During almost all the year, you can see flamingos in marshland lakes as some migratory birds. You will also have the opportunity to see Darwin Finches, hood mockingbird, lava lizards. This area has arid vegetation where you can find some oppuntia cactus, palo santo (bursera) and some other endemic plants.

This place has a wonderful landscape as you can see the Rabida Island at the west and Santa Cruz Island at the East. In the beach zone you can see some endemic coast plants and also some marine iguanas, sea lions, American oystercatchers, pelicans and a small blue-footed bobbies colony.

The visit has a wet landing and a 2 km flat trail (2 hours hiking), we suggest comfortable walking shoes, walking sticks (if it is necessary) and binoculars for bird watching at the marshland lakes.

Today some passengers disembark and others will join us for the remainder of our cruise.

Day 5: Sunday - Bartolome Island & James (Santiago) Island

Morning: Bartolome Island
The first destination is Bartolome, an island of varied volcanic formations with a 350-foot summit and a fabulous 360º view. Depending upon the weather, you may be able to spot five other islands, one of the most spectacular views of the archipelago. You will make a wet landing in a cove to see a small colony of Galapagos penguinsthe only penguins north of the equator. Sea lions are also found here. Behind the beach can be found red and white mangroves, salt bush, morning glory and prickly pear cactuses.

Afternoon: Puerto Egas, James (Santiago) Island
This afternoon you will visit Puerto Egas on James (Santiago) Island. The landing is on a black beach with eroded rock formations in the background. The trail crosses the dry interior, where the remains of a salt-mining enterprise can still be seen and then continues along the coast. Intertidal pools are home to a variety of invertebrate organisms. Land iguanas are scattered around feeding on exposed algae while Oyster Catchers try to capture Sally Lightfoot Crabs. The trail then leads to the Fur Seal Grottos, one of the only places in the islands where Fur Seals can be seen. Puerto Egas is a good spot for taking pictures.

Day 6: Monday - Fernandina Island & Isabela Island

Morning: Fernandina Island
On the youngest and westernmost island in Galapagos, you will land at Punta Espinoza, a narrow stretch of land where some of the most unusual Galapagos species can be seen. While the panga driver skillfully eludes the reef to reach the landing site near a small mangrove forest, look for penguins diving off the rocks into the water. Sally Lightfoot Crabs disperse on the lava near the shore and herons, sandpipers and wimbrels explore the mangrove roots. Marine iguanas congregate in larger groups here than on any other island. They are everywhere: basking in the sand, swimming near the shore, grazing on the exposed seaweed in the lava and blocking the way at the landing dock. This is one of the few places where there is the opportunity, if the water is clear, of watching them feed underwater while snorkeling.

Following a trail inland, two different types of lava flows can be seen and compared. At the tip of one of the small peninsulas, Flightless Cormorants are found. Without predators on the island, these serpent-necked birds adapted for swimming and not for flight, another example of evolution at work in "nature's laboratory".

Afternoon: Punta Vicente Roca, Isabela Island
Largest of the Galapagos Islands, Isabela is composed of six shield volcanoes merged into a single land mass. Wolf Volcano on Isabela is also the highest point in the archipelago. The Galapagos Explorer II is one of only a few faster, better-equipped boats able to make the long journey from the central islands to the visitor sites on the western side of Isabela. The trip is more than worthwhile, however, for the unique species that occur only in this part of the archipelago, and because the landscape, with massive volcanoes silhouetted against the sky, offers a striking contrast to the lower-lying islands of the east.

Located on the north-western tip of Isabela island, the visit of Pta Vicente Roca is completely by dingy.
The dingys are launched on a coastal dingy-ride that skirts 400-500-feet cliff sides. Blue-footed boobies, masked boobies & pelicans can be seen here. Also, very many sea-turtles feed along this shoreline. Reaching a rocky pile of large basalt, there are colonies of fur-seals & marine iguanas in groups, basking in the sun. Sea lions are also present.
Continuing along the sheer cliffs, the dingy now, approach a secluded cove where, at it's end, dark and yellow rock are superposed. Now we are close to the large cave that allows for snorkeling or sight seeing.
Snorkeling at the cave produces a great variety of marine life, specially marine invertebrates. One starts at the intersection between the dark and yellow rock and swims all the way around the small point into the cave, all the way into the cave and then out of the cave until the next point.

The water is often murky and very cold as it is called the Galapagos Ice-box. Therefore, one must snorkel very close to the rock in order to see anything but it may produce some of the most exiting snorkeling in Galapagos. Manta rays, sea turtles, sea-lions, sting-rays, many fish, even dolphins and sunfish have been seen and snorkeled with in this bay.
Along the cave there are Galapagos penguins, marine iguanas, swallow-tailed gulls, masked boobies, brown noddy, blue footed boobies and breathtaking scenery unparalleled.

Day 7: Tuesday - North Seymour & Santa Cruz Island

Morning: North Seymour
A small flat island. Rocks then a long sandy stretch where sea lions and marine iguanas hang out next to a surf wave. The interior has a Palo Santo small Opuntia cactus forest with Bluefooted boobies and magnificent Frigate bird colonies. An hour and a half visit. Dry landing.

Afternoon: Highlands & Lava Tunnels
You and your family will board a bus for a 45-minute ride through changing vegetation zones to the Santa Cruz Highlands. Here, about 40 giant tortoises live in the wild. By approaching quietly, you can find and observe a turtle on your own. You also hike to tunnels made by cooling lava.

Day 8: Wednesday - San Cristobal Island/Guayaquil - Quito

Afternoon: Return flight to Quito or Guayaquil.