ISLAND EXPLORATION FROM SANTA CRUZ (B, L)
During these days, you will have the opportunity to visit any two islands from the list below, with one island visit scheduled per day. The choice of islands may vary based on your departure schedule and availability. Each island offers unique highlights, providing you with an incredible chance to explore the inhabited islands of the archipelago. Your daily tour will include lunch onboard, as well as walking and snorkeling activities to enhance your experience.
Option 1: NORTH SEYMOUR
AM: North Seymour is a small, flat island with a trail approximately two kilometers long. Palo Santo trees, endemic to the island, stand just above the landing site, usually without leaves, waiting for the rain to bring them into bloom. Opuntia, the local prickly pear cactus, is the main food source for the land iguanas. Swallow-tailed gulls perch on ledges of cliffs only a few meters high along the shoreline. Among the emblematic fauna of the island, you will be able to see sea lions basking on the lava rock. During the walk, you may also encounter land iguanas and colonies of blue-footed boobies and magnificent frigatebirds.
PM: Las Bachas, a beautiful coralline beach located on the north shore of Santa Cruz Island, is the perfect place for snorkeling, swimming, or simply enjoying the soft white sand. Several brackish lagoons, only a few steps away from the sea, serve as feeding grounds for various wading birds, from stilts to flamingos.
Option 2: SOUTH PLAZAS
AM: The Plazas Islands (North and South), with only South Plaza open to visitors, feature unique vegetation represented by annual plants such as sesuvium and opuntia cacti. Sesuvium serves as groundcover for a grove of luminescent green prickly-pear cactus. Yellow-brown land iguanas sit patiently beneath, waiting for pears to drop. Depending on the dry or wet season, the island is adorned with a red carpet from May to December. Upon disembarking on South Plazas, you’ll be greeted by a colony of sea lions inhabiting the island. The trail gradually leads towards the southern cliff of the island, where you can observe nesting swallow-tailed gulls and several seabirds such as tropicbirds, frigates, Nazca and blue-footed boobies, Audubon shearwaters, and pelicans gliding through the sky.
PM: You’ll have the opportunity to snorkel in the calm waters of Punta Carrión, where you can observe a variety of tropical fish, sea turtles, rays, yellowtail mullets, and white-tip reef sharks peacefully resting on the sandy bottom.
Option 3: SANTA FE
AM Santa Fé offers a beautiful bay where, in the middle of a sunny day, the lagoon turns into an eye-catching turquoise blue. The white sandy bottom is only a few meters below the surface. Upon disembarking on a small sandy beach, you’ll witness a colony of sea lions basking lazily in the sun. A trail leads inland to the top of a cliff, offering breathtaking views. One of the archipelago’s two species of land iguanas, the endemic, dwells only on Santa Fé; it is larger, with a whitish color, sometimes turning chocolate brown during molting. The Galapagos hawk often overlooks the beach. The island is also characterised by its forest of giant prickly pear cactus, or radiate-headed scalesia, an attractive bush with white flowers and exquisite fragrance.
PM: After the land visit, you’ll be taken to enjoy snorkeling in the clear waters of the anchoring site of Santa Fé. Here, you’ll have the opportunity to observe a variety of tropical fish, and there’s a possibility of swimming with sea lions, sea turtles, small white-tip sharks, spotted eagle rays, and round stingrays, common to the small bay.
Option 4:
BARTOLOME / SULLIVAN BAY
AM: Bartolome: This is the classic beauty spot of the Galapagos. The view from the top of the island of the volcanic landscape is spectacular and offers one of the most emblematic scenes of the Galapagos Islands, and is the most photographed view in Galapagos.
Is a very impressive little island located in front of Sullivan Bay, featuring a landscape of real volcanic desolation: tuff cones, spatter cones, scoria formations, and black volcanic sand. A 600-meter trail with stairs leads to the summit of the central volcano, from the top to the east, a field of spatter cones punctuates the island, while to the west, one is amazed by the isthmus of Bartolome, covered by mangroves and bordered by two small coves of golden sand in the shape of half moons.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Basing on the boat’s permission, you may also have the opportunity to snorkel in one of both places: either in the north cove under Pinnacle Rock stands like a finger pointed to the sky on the north beach.(is the eroded remains of a tuff cone) with its golden bay or in Sullivan Bay, which is clear evidence of the volcanic past of the islands. Both places offer a unique experience.
Sullivan bay: The chief attraction at this site is the large black lava flow created by an eruption in 1889. The trail takes you from the small sandy beach, across the lava, with dramatic examples of pahoehoe or ropy lava, to a series of small cinder cones. The shapes and formations of the lava are remarkable and it looks so fresh that it might have been formed last week. Moulds formed by Leatherleaf trees are visible in the lava. This is an excellent site to see the very first plant colonisers of bare lava, particularly Mollugo crockery and Lava Cactus (Brachycereus nesioticus)
