– (B, L) – North Seymour / Plazas / Bartolome / Santa Fe Island
On day 3 & 4 you will visit the islands of the below list (one island per day). Depending on your departure and availability, the visits to the islands will vary. Each island is unique in itself and has different highlights to offer. This is an amazing chance to reach out to inhabited islands in the archipelago. Each day tour will include lunch onboard, a walking tour, and a snorkeling activity to maximize your experience.
North Seymour
AM: North Seymour is a small flat island, with a trail about two kilometers long. Palo santos trees are endemic to the island and 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 food for the land iguanas.
Swallow-tailed gulls sit perched on the ledges of the cliffs, only a few meters high, forming the shoreline. Amongst the emblematic fauna of the island, you will be able to see sea lions basking on the lava rock. During the walk, you can find land iguanas and colonies of blue-footed boobies and magnificent frigates.
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 white soft sand. Several brackish lagoons, only a few steps away from the sea, are feeding grounds for various wading birds, from stilts to flamingos. – Wet Landing
Bartolome Island
Bartolome offers one of the most emblematic sceneries of the Galapagos Islands. A 600-meter pathway, complete with stairs and a boardwalk, will take you to the highest point of the island, where you will learn firsthand about the volcanic origins of the Galapagos Islands.
After the walk, a dinghy ride along the coastline will give you the opportunity to see the Galapagos penguin. This curious bird nests among the fissured lava flows and ventures into the crystal-clear waters of Bartolome to fish.
After lunch, you will disembark on the beautiful beach of Bartolome Island. From here, you can enjoy snorkeling off the beach or from our dinghy, depending on your comfort level with the activity. Swimmers will follow the rocky coast of Bartolome beneath the iconic Bartolome Pinnacle Rock. Enjoy the company of tropical fish, penguins, white-tip sharks, turtles, and unique lava formations. For those preferring a relaxed afternoon, you can unwind on the beach.
Plazas Islands
AM: The Plazas Islands (North and South) – Only South Plaza is open to visitors. Here, vegetation is represented by annual plants like sesuvium and opuntia cacti. Sesuvium serves as ground cover for a grove of luminescent green prickly-pear cacti. Yellow-brown land iguanas sit beneath, waiting patiently for pears to drop.
Depending on the dry or wet season, the island wears a red carpet from May to December.
You will disembark on South Plaza, where a colony of sea lions will greet you. The trail takes you gradually 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 in the sky.
PM: Enjoy snorkeling in the calm waters of Punta Carrión, where you can observe tropical fish, sea turtles, rays, yellowtail mullets, and white-tip reef sharks resting peacefully on the sandy bottom.
Santa Fe
AM: Santa Fe offers a beautiful bay, where the lagoon turns into a stunning turquoise blue under the midday sun. The white sandy bottom lies only a few meters below the surface.
You will disembark on a small sandy beach to see a colony of sea lions basking lazily in the sun. A trail leads inland to the top of a cliff, offering breathtaking views. Santa Fe is home to one of the two species of land iguanas endemic to the archipelago, distinguished by their larger size and whitish color, sometimes chocolate brown when molting. The Galapagos hawk often overlooks the beach.
This island is also known for its forest of giant prickly pear cacti and radiate-headed scalesia, a bush with white flowers and an exquisite fragrance.
PM: After your land visit, enjoy snorkeling in the clear waters of Santa Fe’s anchoring site. You will see a variety of tropical fish and may swim with sea lions, sea turtles, small white-tip sharks, spotted eagle rays, and round stingrays, which are common in the bay.
