Baltra:

The island Baltra is the only island of all Galapagos, not included in its totality in the National Park Area. The Americans built the airport of Baltra in 1941-1948, using it as their air force base in the Pacific during the Second World War. The airport and harbor are now Ecuadorian military territory. Unfortunately, both of the military presences have left back their traces.

The flight from Guayaquil to Galapagos takes about 90 minutes. Arriving at the airport, the visitors have first to pay the entrance fee of US$ 100 for the National park. Leaving the arrival hall, the National Park Guide is waiting for you and accompanies the whole group to the harbor of Baltra, where your “Yacht Angelito I” is anchored. The cruise can begin!

North Seymour:

It’s a flat uplifted island in the “rain shadow” of the island Santa Cruz and for this reason, with dry vegetation of the Arid Zone. Loop trail.

The dry landing on a landing peer is often somewhat tricky depending on the swell. 

The arrival on the rocky coast is full of surprises with the sea lions, swallow-tailed gulls, sally lightfoot crabs, and marine iguanas. The trail leads through the nesting area of colonies of blue-footed boobies and frigate bird.

Sombrero Chino:

Only a 200-meter wide channel separates this small island from the big island Santiago. The shape of the island looks like a Chinese hat, and the island is beautiful because of the landscape. 

The wet landing is on a small white coral beach with sea lions. The smooth and short trail leads along the coast with very fragile lava. There are a lot of small lava tubes and little but very attractive vegetation. Pillow lava can be found on the turning point of the trail.

Bartolome:

The dry landing is on a jetty. The summit trail leads to the top of Bartolome on a wooden footbridge and stairs to protect the fragile landscape. The view from the top across Bartolome, Santiago with Sullivan Bay and the surrounding islands is wonderful. All the secondary cones, lava flows, and lava tubes mimick a moon landscape.

We have the possibility for snorkeling around Pinnacle Rock, the famous landmark of Bartolome.

In the late afternoon, we go with the dinghy along the coast to look out for the Galapagos penguins. The penguin lives and nests in the lava tubes of the rocky shore, where he also fishes.

Island Genovesa

Darwin Bay:

Wet landing on a small white beach made of coral sand. The trail follows the shore vegetation of red mangrove and saltbush. The particular prickly pear cactus grows on Genovesa often like a hanging cactus with only soft hairy spines. Under the shore vegetation, the swallow-tailed gulls are nesting, and in the bushes and trees, there are the nests of the red-footed boobies and magnificent frigate birds. A few Nazca boobies are nesting on the ground. The trail leads along small tidepools up to the cliff with a spectacular view over the caldera. By low tide, there are thousands of Galapagos fiddler crabs in the sandy ground.

Prince Philip Steps:

Dry landing by the cliff. The Prince Philip’s Steps offer the only possibility to climb the steep basaltic cliff. The following easy trail leads first through a small nesting colony of masked boobies and crosses a low and dense forest of palo santo trees where the red-footed boobies have their nests. Arriving on the edge of the island there are thousands of the small petrels nesting in the crevices and tubes of the fragile lava. They are the favorite food of the short-eared owls. On both sides of the trail, there is a big Nazca booby nesting colony.

Puerto Egas:

The landmark of Puerto Egas is the tuff formations of the cliffs with the relief structures. The wet landing is on a black beach. The walk with the intertidal life shows during the always changing tide levels an unusual, peculiar fauna. Often we can observe lava herons fishing in the isolated tidal pools.

On the whole walk, we can see Galapagos sea lions, sally lightfoot crabs, and marine iguanas. Depending on the season, there are also a lot of migrant shorebirds, living on these rich coasts during wintertime. On the turning point of the trail is the start of a Galapagos fur seal colony. The Galapagos fur seal has found an ideal living space in the crevices and caves of the rocky lava coast. 

Rabida:

Rabida looks red with the lava containing a lot of ferric oxide in the lava. Very special is the red sand of the beach with the saltbush vegetation and the silvery palo santo trees on the slopes. The batch of Rabida had before the last “El Niño) one of the biggest Galapagos sea lion colony. This colony has to recuperate again from the small remaining population. There is a small lagoon behind the zone of saltbush vegetation with (depending on the season) flamingos and white-cheeked pintail ducks.

Charles Darwin Research Station:

The visit to the Charles Darwin Research Station gives the opportunity to get to know the scientific work taking place in the National Park. Especially the raising programs for the different subspecies of the giant tortoises are very well documented.

 In the Van Straiten Exhibition Hall, there is interesting documentation about the Galapagos Islands with photos and diagrams. The vegetation on this hike is exuberant green, and a lot of Darwin’s finches are easy to spot.

-End of the five days cruise: passengers flying back to Mainland are escorted to the Itabaca Channel; from there, you go to the airport of Baltra to take you flight back to the Mainland.