Cruising the Galapagos
Price: $4,385 USD per person
(based on double occupancy, subject to availability)
Inclusions:
- Roundtrip International and Domestic airfare from Toronto* with LATAM Airlines
- Welcome assistance upon arrival and departure
- Private transfers and porterage between airport and hotel
- 8-nights accommodation:
- 3-nights in Quito
- 5-nights in Galapagos aboard the M/V Galapagos Legend, Junior Suite ★★★★
- Galapagos National Park Entrance Fee
- All meals and excursions while cruising in the Galapagos
- Breakfast daily in Quito
- Hotel taxes and service charges
- Airport & departure taxes**
Photo: City landscape of Quito, Ecuador
Itinerary:
Day 1: Toronto - Quito
Flight Toronto - Quito. Upon arrival, you'll be privately transferred to the hotel.
Day 2: Quito
(Breakfast)
Private Colonial Quito & Middle of the World Tour - 5hrs
After breakfast, begin your private tour of Quito, including Independence Plaza, seeing important sites such as the Cathedral, the Presidential Palace, the Municipal Building and the Archbishops Palace. Visit the temple of La Compañía de Jesús, then continue on to the Monastery of San Francisco.
Drive 15 minutes north of the city to the Equatorial Monument and Ethnographic Museum which features exhibits showing the different Native American groups living in Ecuador.
Get your certificate for having crossed the Equator before heading back to the hotel.
Photo: Galapagos Land Iguana, Galapagos
Day 3: Quito
(Breakfast, Dinner)
This morning, you'll be picked up for the shuttle transfer (shared) to the airport.
Flight Quito - Galapagos (OW -KL)
GALAPAGOS
Arriving in the Galapagos, passengers are picked up at the airport by our natural guides and taken to a ten-minute bus drive to the pier to board the M/V Galapagos Legend.
PM : Highlands Tortoise Reserve (Santa Cruz Island)
Dry landing. In the central highlands of Santa Cruz Island we have our best opportunity to interact at close quarters with totally wild, Galapagos giant tortoises.
A short walk among these huge, 600lb, reptiles will also offer the chance for more highland species, especially several species of the famed finches.
Difficulty level: easy
Type of terrain: flat & sometimes muddy
Duration: 45-minute drive / 1 ½-hour walk
Day 4: Galapagos
(Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner)
AM- El Barranco, Prince Philip's Steps (Genovesa Island)
Riding our pangas to the far side of the caldera, red-billed tropicbirds display vociferously overhead while Galapagos fur seals can be seen on the shoreline.
Once at the top of the rocky stairway we are immediately met by Nazca boobies, red-footed boobies, mockingbirds and finches that line our way through a palo santo forest until we arrive at an expansive open lava field. Wedge-rumped storm petrels swarm above the lava where we keep our eyes peeled for short-eared owls.
Difficulty level: Moderate
Type of terrain: rocky lava
Duration: 45-minute walk
PM - Darwin Bay (Genovesa Island)
From within the flooded caldera of Tower Island we set foot onto a sandy beach to be greeted by swallow-tailed gulls often said to be the most beautiful gull in the world.
Our short, flat, trail leads us past stands of mangroves and saltbush on which we have our best possible looks at nesting red-footed boobies and great frigatebirds. At the tidal lagoon we may also see the rarest gull in the world, our very own, endemic lava gull.
Difficulty level: Moderate
Type of terrain: Sand & Lava
Duration: 2 ½-hour walk approx.
Photo: Sally Lightfoot Crab, Galapagos
Day 5: Galapagos
(Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner)
AM- Dragon Hill (Santa Cruz Island)
Dry landing. Arriving to a small lava dock our first encounters are with marine iguanas that blend-in perfectly to the dark rock. As we walk past large prickly pear cacti we arrive to one end of a long, sickle-shaped, beach with Dragon Hill standing in the distance. Our walk takes us on a circular path, past a shallow lake where flamingoes frequently come to feed.
Waders such as stilts, turnstones and sandpipers work the muddy edges frenetically looking for food as we continue inland to a dry, forested habitat where land iguanas nest and burrow.
Difficulty level: moderate
Type of terrain: rocky
Duration: 2-hour walk
PM- Santa Fe Island
Wet landing. After a fabulous snorkel in the turquoise waters of the protected bay we may have enjoyed time with sea lions, turtles, reef sharks and spotted eagle rays.
Landing onto a sandy beach we are immediately distracted by the abundant sea lions there with us. We begin a walk past a forest of island-endemic giant Opuntia cacti. Here we search for another island-endemic the Santa Fe land iguana, paler than its cousins on other islands. Galapagos hawks and even endemic rice rats are also things to look out for.
Difficulty level: moderate
Type of terrain: rocky
Duration: 1 ½-hour walk / 1-hour deep water snorkeling
Day 6: Galapagos - Mainland
(Breakfast)
GALAPAGOS - MAINLAND
AM- Bachas Beach (Santa Cruz Island)
Wet landing. Named for some wrecked World War II barges whose ribs are still visible in the sand this visitor site offers great swimming, a lovely walk along the shore and a visit to a lagoon behind the high tide line with wading birds, marine iguanas and sometimes even flamingoes. The two beaches are also favorite nesting sites for green turtles which often leave tractor-like tracks in the sand.
Difficulty level: easy
Type of terrain: sandy
Duration: 1-hour walk
Baltra Airport
After the visit, passengers will be transferred to the airport for their return flight to Quito.
GALAPAGOS
Flight Galapagos - Quito (OW -KL)
QUITO
(Hotel Shuttle)Transfer Airport to Hotel
Photo: Giant Tortoise, Galapagos