Tip Top III – 8 Days A

Friday, Day 1

Flight from mainland Ecuador (Quito or Guayaquil) to Baltra, with TAME Airlines ; arriving at 11:00 a.m. approximately. Your guide conducts you to a bus and after a short 5-kilometer ride to the pier; we board the Yacht without delay. As the crew weighs anchor, we greet you with our first orientation and we offer a light snack. After navigating, we disembark on Playa Las Bachas, a place where we can appreciate a Flamingos lagoon. During all walks, your guide will be explaining details about the lives of the birds and animals.

Optional: time for those who would like to swim and/or snorkel, in the evening we have an orientation about the Galapagos Islands in general: their origin and evolution. Welcome cocktail with the entire crew, and dinner.

Saturday, Day 2

After breakfast we make a wet landing on Sullivan Bay, a perfect place to get a feel of the volcanic origin of the islands.

Optional: time for those who would like to swim and/or snorkel. We return to the boat for a delicious lunch. In the afternoon, we make a dry landing on Bartolomé Island, to hike to the summit; during the hike we observe colonies of marine iguanas and lava lizards. On the summit we see an impressive view of the surrounding islands, including the eroded tuff cone of Pinnacle Rock. We return to the yacht for a delicious dinner and our nightly orientation.

Sunday, Day 3

After breakfast, we take a panga ride and we make a dry landing on Prince Phillips’s Steps (Barranco), we walk and observe the interesting lives of the birds here. We come aboard for a delicious lunch. Later in the afternoon, we make a wet landing on Darwin Bay to walk and observe frigatebirds, herons, mockingbirds, boobies, shorebirds, turtles, marine iguanas, etc.

Optional: time for those who would like to swim, snorkel or kayak. Dinner on the Yacht, and then our orientation about conservation efforts made to protect the Islands.

Monday, Day 4

After breakfast, we make a wet landing on James Bay (Puerto Egas), to walk and observe sponges, snails, hermit crabs, a variety of shore birds, barnacles and the endemic four-eyed blenny, marine iguanas and sea lions.

Optional: time for those who would like to swim, snorkel or kayak. We return to the boat for a delicious lunch. In the afternoon, we navigate around Buccaneer Cove (Caleta Bucanero), an area of steep cliffs and dark beaches. The cliffs and pinnacle are used as nesting areas by several species of seabirds. This was a popular place for 17th & 18th century buccaneers to careen their vessels.

Optional: time for those who would like to swim, snorkel or kayak. Then we make a wet landing to walk along a coastal trail to visit an abandoned Salt Mines. Return to the Yacht for dinner and our nightly orientation.

Tuesday, Day 5

After breakfast, we make a panga ride on Punta Vicente Roca to observe plenty of sea lions, marine iguanas, blue-footed and masked boobies, and flightless cormorants.

Optional: time for those who would like to swim and/or snorkel. We come aboard for a delicious lunch. In the afternoon, we make a dry landing on Punta Espinoza to observe and see a large colony of sea lions, marine iguanas and the flightless cormorants and clumps of lava cactus. Return to the Yacht for dinner and our nightly orientation.

Wednesday, Day 6

After breakfast, we make a wet landing on Urbina Bay to take a walk and observe a coral area, land iguanas, flightless cormorants and giant tortoises.

Optional: time for those who would like to swim, snorkel and/ or kayak. Then we make a panga ride on Tagus Cove, a protected cove between the shoulders of two volcanic craters which protect it from the open sea; we observe penguins, marine iguanas, sea lions and a variety of birds including flightless cormorant and blue footed boobies.

Optional: time for those who would like to swim, snorkel and/ or kayak. Return to the Yacht for

lunch. In the afternoon, we make a panga ride around the islets of Elizabeth Bay to see marine

iguanas, penguins, marine turtles, seabirds and shorebirds, herons and blue-footed boobies. Return to the Yacht for dinner and our nightly orientation.

Thursday, Day 7,

After breakfast, we make our first dry landing to the islet Las Tintoreras, the islet has a small bay of completely calm turquoise waters and there we can observe hundreds of marine iguanas, sea turtles, sea lions, Galapagos penguins, rays and white tip sharks can often be seen. Then we visit Humedales, where we can see series of lagoons, mangrove species, flamingos and numerous migratory birds. After that, we visit the Wall of Tears; a historic place in Galapagos Island, this site was for 13 years a penal colony, where the prisoners built a wall with huge blocks of lava as punishment. There we observe lava lizards, Galapagos finches and hawks. Before returning to the yacht we visit Breeding Center “Arnaldo Tupiza”, where we can observe tortoises of different ages and sizes (In total there are 330 between juvenile and adult tortoises) and where we can learn about the reproduction of the giant tortoises, in the Breeding Center we can also see different native plants. Return to the Yacht for a delicious lunch. In the afternoon, we make an expedition to Sierra Negra Volcano, considered the oldest of the volcanoes on Isabela, the crater of Sierra Negra has a 10 km diameter and it’s the second largest in the world; its last eruption occurred in 2005. The Sulfur, iron and the cooled magma make up a colorful landscape. Our adventure begins with a 45 minutes ride on a bus to the highlands of Isabela, we arrive at “Paradero Sierra Negra”, from here we walk through slopes of the Volcano or we can do it by horseback.

Optional: Our guests could rent the horses (this is not included on the cruise). The trail conducts us to Volcan Chico (on the northeast of Sierra Negra Volcano), a fissure composed of scum and lava. This fissure had its last eruption on 1979 and the volcanic activity lasted for a week. From here we have an amazing view of the north of the island and if the day is clear we have a majestic view of the Perry Isthmus, a surrounding island. This expedition allows us to step through volcanic features and over lava flows formed in very recent years. We also see the formations of petrified lava of many different colors and textures and fumaroles scattered throughout this area. Return to the Yacht for dinner and our nightly orientation.

Friday, Day 8

After breakfast we disembark and a bus takes us to the highlands of Santa Cruz Island for a visit to the native forests and twin craters. Then the bus takes us directly to the airport (Baltra). Your guide accompanies you on this ride

Departure	Arrival