Galapagos Discovery

DAY 01: QUITO
Arrival at the airport and transfer to your Hotel.

DAY 02: QUITO
After breakfast you will have a city tour of Quito. Visit starts in Orellana’s way, drive around the colonial center of Quito and see the “stone-carved façade” of Ecuador’s House of congress depicting scenes from Ecuadorian history; Independence Square, with the presidential Palace, the Cathedral and El Sagrario. Visit the Church of La Compañia (1605), with its breathtaking gilded altars, considered the finest example of baroque art in America and the church and monastery of San Francisco (1535). Visit the art and crafts gallery of Tianguez. Finally, drive up to el Panecillo Hill to have a spectacular view of Quito and to see the only winged Virgin in South America.

DAY 03: GALAPAGOS - SANTA CRUZ ISLAND
Early morning transfer from your hotel to the airport to take a flight to Baltra.
Fly from the Ecuadorian mainland to the islands on an early morning 90-minute flight. As you prepare to land in Baltra, peer out the window. The landscape below will seem out of this world - and it is for you have come to a place like no other.
The Galapagos Islands are unique to the world and you are about to see why. We will meet you at the airport and transfer you to your hotel.
In the afternoon we will have a Bay tour. Departure from the Port of Puerto Ayora to take a panoramic visit of the "La Loberia" island named after the big sea wolf colony living in the island. Here you cab do snorkeling and play with the friendly sea wolfs, observe colorful fish and sea turtles. Visit the Love Channel where you will be able to see white sharks and the possibility of swim and do snorkeling among them. Finally visit to the Port of Punta Estrada for a walk to see the know sea iguanas at the Playa de los Perros. Return to your hotel.

DAY 04: GALAPAGOS - SANTA CRUZ ISLAND
Departure early in the morning from your hotel and transfer to the port of Itabaca channel to board the Yatch GRAY LINE ATLANTIDA II where you will enjoy the tour. Lunch is included North Seymour Island was lifted from the ocean floor by a seismic event, and its origins as a seabed give the island its low, flat profile. Cliffs only a few meters high form the shoreline, where swallow-tailed gulls sit perched in ledges. A tiny forest of silver-grey Palo Santo trees stand just above the landing, usually without leaves, waiting for the rain to bring them into bloom. This island is teaming with life! You might have to give way to a passing sea lion or marine iguana; blue-footed booby nests sit beside the trail where mating pairs perform their courtship dance. Further along, the rocky shore displays white sand, and large flocks of pelicans mass for a dive-bomb feeding frenzy, rendering a tableau for us from ages long past. The trail turns inland to reveal the largest nesting site in the Galápagos of the “magnificent frigate bird.” These huge, dark acrobats have two-meter wingspans, and males, with puffed up scarlet throat sacks, sit precariously perched in low bushes to watch over their equally large chicks. Return to your hotel.

DAY 05: GALAPAGOS - SANTA CRUZ ISLANDDeparture early in the morning from your hotel and transfer to the port of Itabaca channel to board the Yatch GRAY LINE ATLANTIDA II where you will enjoy the tour. Breakfast and lunch are included. Bartolome is famous for Pinnacle Rock, a towering spearheaded obelisk that rises from the ocean’s edge and is the best known landmark in the islands. Galápagos penguins—the only species of penguin found north of the equator—walk precariously along narrow volcanic ledges at its base. Sea lions snooze on rocky platforms, ready to slide into the water to play with. Just below the surface, shoals of tropical fish dodge in and out of the rocks past urchins, sea stars and anemones. A perfectly crescent, pink-and-white sandy beach lies just to the east of the pinnacle. Sea turtles use the beach as a nesting site and can sometimes be found wading in the shallow water near the shore, or resting in the sand to recover from the arduous task of digging nests, laying eggs and covering them over. Penguins dot the nearby rocks of the next landing site, less than a kilometer along the eastern shore. Here the submerged walls of a tiny volcanic crater give the impression of a fountain pool. This dry landing—no wet feet!—is the entrance to a 600-meter (2000-foot) pathway complete with stairs and boardwalks leading to Bartolome’s summit. The route is not difficult and presents a museum of volcanology; a site left untouched after its last eruption, where cones stand in various stages of erosion and lava tubes form bobsled-like runs from the summit. At the top you will be rewarded with spectacular views of Santiago Island and James Bay to the west, and far below, Pinnacle Rock and our beach, where the crystal blue waters of the bay cradle your yacht. Return to your hotel.

DAY 06: GALAPAGOS – GUAYAQUIL
After breakfast transfer to Baltra Island to catch our plane back to the mainland. Arrival in Guayaquil and transfer to your hotel.

DAY 07: RETURN
After breakfast transfer to the airport for your return flight