Ecuador | Galapagos Land and Sea Adventure | Tortuga

Your trip begins in Ecuador’s capital city, Quito. If you’re flying in early today, you’ll have a chance to journey to the city from the airport (or your hotel) to explore the beautiful town squares, quaint cafés and colonial architecture. Quito sits in a beautiful valley surrounded by towering volcanoes just 14 miles from the equator, giving it a mild, spring-like climate year round. In the evening, you’ll meet your trip leader and the rest of your group back at the joining hotel, for a full briefing and our first dinner together.

About Hotel EB

A stunningly modern accommodation, this hotel offers all the contemporary amenities and more for visitors. An outdoor swimming pool provides a place for true relaxation and enjoyment of the sunshine. Indoors, you’ll find stylishly decorated rooms stocked with luxury linens, adjustable comfort sleep system beds, flat screen TVs and wifi.

This morning we’ll take a short flight to San Cristobal, the easternmost island of the Galapagos Islands chain and home of the provincial capital, Puerto Baquerizo Moreno. After lunch, we’ll head to the town of La Soledad to bike down through the lush highland cloud forest that blankets the top of the island. With stunning views of the coast, we’ll ride to La Loberia, a beach that is home to a large sea lion colony and nursery. This evening, we’ll dine on local produce and fresh fish.

About Casa Blanca

Family-owned and operated, Casa Blanca is an artist’s paradise with its colorful Mission Revival-style architecture and uniquely themed rooms. Every room is decorated and named, not numbered, to offer a personal touch for each visitor’s stay. Wifi, and air conditioning is provided at this accommodation.

About Blue Marlin

The Blue Marlin Hotel offers spacious, colorful rooms with private entryways to a community outdoor patio for sunbathing and access to the pool. This accommodation is located in the heart of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, the capital of the Galapagos, not far from the shoreline.

Today we’ll cruise to Kicker Rock off the coast of San Cristobal, where we’ll don wet suits, snorkels and masks (and tanks for the divers – diving option add US$250) and explore around the remains of an underwater volcano with a rock face rising 500 feet above the surface of the water.

Your trip leader will give you a full briefing and then we’ll take to the water to explore the walls of the volcano. There will be chances to see beautiful tropical fish, turtles and sharks as they skirt the edges of Kicker Rock! Afterwards we’ll visit a picturesque bay to have lunch and a rest before returning to port. Then it’s off to the interpretation centre to learn a little about the history and biology of the islands. Later there will be an optional hike to Frigate Hill Lookout to see the acrobatics of the local frigate birds as they dart around the cliff tops stealing the catch from other birds.

After an early breakfast, our boat will take us away from San Cristobal Island towards the magnificent Floreana Island. Floreana is the sixth largest island in the Galapagos chain and one of the least inhabited (by humans at least!). With a population of around 120, this place has a pretty relaxed atmosphere. On the way, we’re often visited by friendly dolphins, so keep an eye out! And later, we’ll hike into the highlands of Floreana, where we’ll learn about the mysterious history of the islands as we visit the pirate caves and the area where the first inhabitants once lived. Then it’s back down to our accommodation in the tiny port of Puerto Velasco Ibarra – a fantastic hideaway lodge with incredible sea views and a great sunset!

About Hotel Wittmer

The Hotel Wittmer has spacious and comfortable rooms with a sea view, equipped for relaxation and feeling at home. Each of the rooms are equipped with private bathrooms and hot water. Large windows provide excellent lighting and a beautiful ocean view. Wittmer Hotel is located in Beach Black, Floreana Island. It was founded by Margret Wittmer, who was one of the authors of the book “Floreana”. Distinguished for its warm hospitality, facilities and unique service.

This morning we’ll head to Isabela Island, the largest of all the islands in the Galapagos archipelago. we’ll start with an early morning kayak in the calm waters of Isabela Bay. Here we’ll have the chance to see some of the Island’s most amazing wildlife up close. Marine iguanas bask in the sun, blue-footed boobies sit in pairs on the rock tops, and Sally Lightfoot crabs scurry out of our way along the water’s edge. In the clear waters below us, rays gracefully swim by and turtles pop up for a breath of air. After lunch we’ll hop out for a short walk at Tintoreras or Shark Alley, an isolated islet and popular iguana-nesting site that’s home to hundreds of marine iguanas. Afterwards, you can test the waters for a snorkel in a calm inlet that’s home to a variety of colourful fish and green sea turtles who like to rest on the calm, sandy bottom.

About Hotel Albermarle

Relax in pristine peace at this accommodation, where white sandy beaches lie just outside your window. This hotel was voted as one of the top 25 hotels in Ecuador in 2018 by TripAdvisor and provides a fresh water swimming pool, wifi, air conditioning, sun terraces for lounging, and high-ceiling rooms with stylish beachy auras.

Our hike today will take us to the summit of Sierra Negra volcano. See the lowland vegetation change before your eyes as we ascend through a lunar-like landscape on our way to the top. It’s a challenging hike to the top of the volcano, and the views across the seven mile wide crater and surrounding coastline are well worth the climb! This is one of the largest volcanic calderas in the world, and one of the most active. As we hike, we might be lucky enough to see Galapagos hawks, short-eared owls, finches and fly-catchers that inhabit this region. We’ll continue to traverse the vast lava fields of Volcan Chico en route for a lookout that boasts breath-taking views reaching to the north of Isabela. After enjoying a hearty sense of accomplishment, we’ll make our way back to town late afternoon for some free time to curl up with a book or venture down to the water for a relaxing swim before dinner.

This is our last day on Isabela Island, and we get to choose how to spend our morning; relax and explore the beach or take the optional snorkel tour to Los Tuneles.

Optional: Snorkel “the tunnels” (add US$150)
If you think sleeping sharks, seahorses, sea turtles and strange lava tunnel formations sound intriguing then you’re going to need your mask, snorkel, and flippers, because you get all that and more at Los Tuneles.  Also called Cabo Rosa, this area is about one hour from town was created when lava flows reached the ocean, forming tunnels, arches, and sheltered bays perfect for snorkelling. We’ll take a boat ride to the tunnels, where you’ll see an intricate network of arches and islets all formed from past lava eruptions. There are a few spots to walk on the rocks, though the main activity is snorkelling to explore the water channels, where you’ll see sleeping reef sharks, hungry sea turtles, colourful starfish, and tiny seahorses! In terms of biodiversity, this is one of the very best spots in the Galapagos Islands.

After lunch, we’ll take a short walk to a nearby wetland home to pink flamingos and pintail ducks. This mangrove-lined path will lead us to Isabela’s Giant Tortoise Breeding Center where we’ll meet these majestic prehistoric creatures in all stages of development. The center has almost a thousand giant tortoises training for life on their own!

We’ll depart Isabela Island early this morning bound for Santa Cruz Island, where we’ll hike into the amazing cloud forest highlands. Once there, we’ll have our only chance to see giant tortoises in their natural environment, along with intriguing birdlife like the vermillion flycatcher, and we’ll take a look inside the lava tunnels scattered throughout the highlands. These tunnels were formed by molten lava flowing beneath the surface, which left behind large tube-like caves, some almost a mile long! This afternoon we’ll visit the Charles Darwin Research Station to learn about the breeding programs that are saving vulnerable species of tortoises and land iguanas. Also there will be a chance to see different types of carapace that help differentiate the tortoise species.

This morning we’ll visit Los Gemelos on the Island; twin craters that are sink holes created when the volcanic roof of empty magma chambers collapsed from tectonic shifts and erosion over time. This area has a very different climate from other parts of the island and is surrounded by scalesia (scalesia pedunculata) forests, or “broccoli trees”. It is also the habitat for bromeliads, orchids, mosses, lichens and many birds such as the 8 species of Charles Darwin finches. Afterwards, we’ll take a short flight back to Quito on the mainland. This evening, we’ll share our final celebratory dinner together in Ecuador.

Today is the last day of your ‘Tortuga’ trip. We’ll make sure you return home relaxed and refreshed from all the great activities, fine food and friendly people you will have met while travelling with us in the Galapagos Islands. See the itinerary for the ‘Tapir & Tortuga’ trip if you want to take a few more days to see more of mainland Ecuador as well.