Galapagos Aboard the M/Y Grace

Arrive in either Quito or Guayaquil, Ecuador, where you will be met and transferred to your local hotel*. Quito is located in a huge valley of the Andes Mountains at an altitude of 9,455 feet; it’s a great place to extend your stay to explore the city or the surrounding volcanic mountain range. Guayaquil is Ecuador’s largest city, and with its low elevation and more coastal location, it is an ideal point from which to fly to Galapagos. Stay at a local inn in Quito or Guayaquil for two nights. (*Hotel/city tour package is not included in cruise rate.)

Quito city tour: Stroll down cobble stone streets and through flowering plazas; visit the old colonial center of Independence Square, the elegant cathedrals of San Francisco, La Compañía and San Agustín, Quito’s oldest monastery; drive through the residential section and past the Legislative Palace (Congress); Panecillo Hill overlooks the city and snow-capped mountains. The rest of the afternoon is at your leisure to explore or relax.
Guayaquil city tour: Your first stop is Malecon 2000, an 80-million-dollar riverside complex built along a two-mile stretch of the Guayas River. The waterfront boardwalk features a myriad of restaurants, cafes and shops, and museums with art exhibitions as well as free weekend jazz and classical music concerts. Drive through the colorful streets of Guayaquil, one of Ecuador’s most important port cities. Visit the Public Market, the waterfront and the docks, and Simon Bolivar Park, which is famous for its tree iguanas; admire the watchtower, La Rotonda, Old Santa Ana Fort, and Las Penas, a charming colonial section of town that is occupied by artists. The rest of the afternoon is at your leisure to explore or relax.

Meals: Breakfast

Today you will fly to Puerto Baquerizo, the administrative capital of the islands and a sleepy little port town. You'll meet your guide after passing through Park Inspection. The first stop is the Galápagos National Park Visitor Centre, which was opened for the benefit of islanders and travelers alike and presents a comprehensive exhibit of the islands’ natural history, human interaction, ecosystems, flora, and fauna. Next, it’s a very short ride to the harbor where your captain and crew will be waiting to greet you. Get settled in and relax as you head off to your first landing, Isla Lobos. This basalt island outcropping lives up to its name of “Sea Lion Island” with its noisy population of frolicking and barking beasts. It is also a nesting place for blue- footed boobies and an excellent spot for snorkeling. This is your first chance to share the water with a playful colony of the ‘wolves of the sea’.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Lodging: M/Y Grace

Gardner Bay, located on the northeastern shore of Hood, is the first stop today.  It offers a magnificent long white sandy beach where colonies of sea lions laze in the sun, sea turtles swim offshore, and inquisitive mockingbirds boldly investigate new arrivals. The snorkeling by Tortuga rock and Gardner Island offer peak encounters with playful young sea lions and large schools of tropical fish, including yellow tailed surgeonfish, king angelfish and bump-head parrot fish. This afternoon you'll go to Punta Suarez, which boasts a remarkable quantity and variety of wildlife. A few steps inland are the largest variety of marine iguana in the Galápagos. Further east along the cliffs is the “Albatross Airport” where “waved albatross” line up to launch their great winged bodies from the cliffs. In the trees set back from the cliff is one of only two places in the world where the waved albatross nests. In fact, the 12,000 pairs that inhabit Hood Island comprise all but a tiny fraction of the world’s population of this species.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Lodging: M/Y Grace

Floreana has had a colorful history: pirates, whalers, convicts, and a small band of somewhat peculiar colonists—a Baroness among them—chose a Robinson Crusoe existence long ago on this island that ended in mystery and death. Today roughly fifty Ecuadorians inhabit the island. Punta Cormorant offers two highly contrasting beaches; the strand where the yacht anchors are composed of volcanic olivine crystals,  while a beach of very fine white sand, formed by the erosion of coral skeletons, lies just beyond an isthmus. Afterwards you'll visit Post Office Bay and and Devil's Crown. In 1793 British whalers set up a barrel as the island’s Post Office to send letters home on passing ships. To this day you can send a post card simply by dropping it into the barrel without a stamp. The catch is you must take a post card from the barrel and see that it gets to the right place. Some claim that this system works better than the post office. Two hundred and fifty meters (820 feet) north from Punta Cormorant stands Devil's Crown, an old submerged volcanic cone worn down by waves. It is home to a myriad of marine species including corals, pencil sea urchin, wrasses, angelfish, amberjacks and many other creatures, making for some of the best snorkeling in Galápagos.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Lodging: M/Y Grace

Santa Cruz is the second largest island in the Galápagos and a hub for the archipelago. The small town of Punta Ayora in the southwest of this large volcanic island is the economic center of the Islands, with the largest population of the four inhabited islands (approx. 10,000). It's home to both the Galápagos National Park and Charles Darwin Research Station, which is the center of the great restorative efforts taking place in the park as well as a UNESCO World Heritage site. You'll visit the Giant Tortoise Breeding and Rearing Program run by the research station, which began by rescuing the remaining 16 tortoises on the island of Española in the 1970s. This program has restored the population of animals there to over 1,000 today. You will see many of these animals, from hatchlings to large, distinguished individuals like Lonesome George, who is the last of his particular race of tortoise—and may be 150 years old! In the afternoon you'll visit the Santa Cruz Highlands. Your destination is the Tortoise Reserve, where you'll have chances to track and view these friendly ancient creatures in their natural setting. The best times to see tortoises here is during the cool dry season from June through December. Another nearby attraction is a large lava tube, which you may visit before the end of the day.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Lodging: M/Y Grace

Landing on the white coral sands of Darwin Bay and walking up the beach, you will be surrounded by the bustling activity of “great frigate birds.” Puffball-chicks with their proud papás—who sport their bulging scarlet throat-sacks—crowd the surrounding branches, while both yellow-crowned and lava herons feed by the shore. Swallow-tailed gulls, the only nocturnal gulls in the world, can be seen nesting at the cliff’s edge of Tower Island. A brief panga ride will bring you to the base of the cliffs, revealing the full variety of species sheltering in the ledges and crevices. This is also an intriguing place to go deep-water snorkeling, where the truly fortunate swimmer can spot one of the giant manta rays that frequent the inner bay. In the afternoon you'll visit Phillips Steps. Named for a visit by the British Monarch in 1964,  the 25-meter (81-foot) Phillips Steps lead to a narrow stretch of land that opens out onto the plateau surrounding Darwin Bay and extends to form the north side of the island. A broad lava field forms the island's north shore. “Storm petrels” flutter out over the ocean in swarms, then return to nest in the cracks and tunnels of the lava field where their predator, the short-eared owl, is a frequent visitor.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Lodging: M/Y Grace

The big news on this youngest and westernmost of the islands is the La Cumbre volcano that erupts frequently – most recently in May 2005. Your destination is Punta Espinosa, a narrow spit of land in the northeast corner of the island, where a number of unique Galápagos species can be seen in close proximity. A short walk through the vegetation leads to a large colony of marine iguanas—a schoolyard of Godzilla’s children—resting atop one another in friendly heaps along the rocky shoreline, spitting water to clear their bodies of salt. This is one of the few places you can glimpse iguanas grazing on seaweed underwater.  Farther down this stretch of shore, the world’s only species of flightless cormorants have established their colony. Because these birds evolved without land predators, they progressively took to the sea. They developed heavier, more powerful legs and feet for kicking, serpent-like necks, and fur-like plumage, while their wings became mere vestiges. The next leg of your journey takes you to Isabela, the largest island in the archipelago. Isabella was formed from six shield volcanoes that merged into a single landmass. It is also home to the highest point in the Galápagos – Wolf Volcano, which stands at 1707 meters (5,547 feet). Located at the ‘mouth’ of the sea horse, which forms the northern part of Isabela, is Punta Vicente Roca. The upwelling of coldwater currents in this part of the Galápagos give rise to an abundance of marine life, which, in combination with the protection of the coves, make Punta Vicente Roca one of the archipelago’s most sought-after dive spots.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Lodging: M/Y Grace

This island is famous for Pinnacle Rock, a towering spearheaded obelisk that rises from the ocean’s edge and is the best known landmark in the Galápagos. Galápagos penguins—the only species of penguin found north of the equator—walk precariously along narrow volcanic ledges at its base. Penguins dot the nearby rocks of the next landing site, which is less than a kilometer away along the eastern shore. Here the submerged walls of a tiny volcanic crater give the impression of a fountain pool. This dry landing 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 vulcanology; it is 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 your beach. Your next stop is North Seymour Island, which is teaming with life! You might have to give way to a passing sea lion or marine iguana as you explore the island. 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 (6.5 ft) wingspans, and males, with puffed up scarlet throat sacks, sit precariously perched in low bushes to watch over their equally large chicks.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Lodging: M/Y Grace

Today your voyage comes to an end. But before you bid farewell to the ship and her crew, you'll pay a visit to Leon Dormido, also know as Kicker Rock. It is a spectacular formation that rises 152 meters (500 feet) out of the Pacific. It takes the form of a sleeping lion, but from another angle you can see that the rock is split, forming a colossal tablet and a great chisel ready for etching. You'll also have the opportunity to go to the Galápagos National Park Visitor Centre again before visiting Frigate Bird Hill. Both “magnificent-frigates” and “great-frigates” can be seen in the same colony here—ideal for learning to distinguish the two bird species. Following this visit you return to Puerto Baquerizo, where you’ll have time for some last minute island shopping before returning to the airport for your flight back to the Ecuadorian mainland. Transfer to your hotel for your overnight.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Lodging: M/Y Grace

Transfer to the international airport for your flight home.