Galapagos Legend:

Places Covered:

Galapagos, Santa Cruz (Dragon Hill or Venice), Española (Suárez Point), Santa Cruz (Carrión Point).

Duration:

3 Nights / 4 Days

Detailed Itinerary:    

Day 01: Galapagos (Baltra Airport)

Departure from Quito or Guayaquil to Baltra (2 and half hour flight). Passengers are picked up at the airport by our guides and taken to the pier to board the M/VGalapagos Legend. North Seymour Dry landing. Guests will encounter swallow-tailed gulls, blue footed boobies, and sea lions. This site is a major nesting colony of blue footed boobies, and has the largest colony of the magnificent frigate bird. Travelers will also spot both the marine iguanas and the land iguanas. Visitors can also observe the endemic specie of holy stick (palo santo). Depending on the season guests can see the very peculiar courtship dance of the male frigate birds with their inflatable red pouches.

Day 02: Santa Cruz (Dragon Hill or Venice)

Wet landing. Passengers can walk towards a salt-water lagoon behind the beach, where occasionally pink flamingos can be observed. This trail leads up to Dragon Hill, which offers a lovely view of the bay. This is a nesting site for reintroduced land iguanas, and there is also a scalesia tree forest. Passengers may opt to take a dinghy to Venice islet and observe the vegetation and marine animals like spotted eagle rays, golden rays, mullets, sharks and sea turtles. Land iguanas have often been observed as well. Floreana (Cormorant Point) Wet landing on a greenish colored sand beach. Visitors will hike from the black mangrove beds to a large, brackish lagoon, which holds one of the biggest flamingo populations in the Galapagos. The island is best known for its endemic plants like the Galapagos millwork, passion flower and button mangrove. Novice snorkelers can practice on the main beach with playful sea lions.

Day 03: Española (Suárez Point)

Dry landing. Visitors will learn more about the lava terrain and hike cross the inactive lava fields.Besides the sea lion colonies, this is a very important site for bird watching. Many species, such as the hooded mocking bird and red billed tropic bird can be spotted and observed closely. You will also see a large colony of marine iguanas, lava lizards, and rally light foot crabs. After a short trek visitors encounter colonies of masked and blue-footed boobies. The nesting grounds sometimes overlap the trail. Visitors will also find Galapagos doves, hawks and swallow-tailed gulls and then reach the world’s largest colony of waved albatross. A major highlight is their mating season, from May through December. You’ll visit the famous blowhole, where water shoots into the air 23 m (75 ft) up. San Cristóbal (Interpretation Center or La Galapaguera) Dry landing at Puerto Baquerizo Moreno. Passengers will visit San Cristóbal breeding center and learn about the National Park’s breeding program with the giant tortoises. Passengers will observe some animals in their natural environment.

Day 04: Santa Cruz (Carrión Point)

During this visit you can snorkel and see a variety of fish, rays and perhaps the harmless white tipped reef sharks. From Punta Carrion the short navigation is through the beautiful Itabaca Channel with its turquoise waters. Return to the M/VGalapagos Legend, check-out and transfer to the airport. Return flight to Quito or Guayaquil.