Eastern Islands

Baltra is a small island, the only of the Galapagos that is not included in the National Park's area. The Americans built Baltra's airport in 1941-1948, using it as their air force base in the Pacific during the Second World. The airport and harbor are now Ecuadorian military territory. Unfortunately, both of the military presences have left back their traces. Even if people always speak about Baltra, the airport's official name is South Seymour, and its air code is GPS. With an essential reduction of energy consumption for lighting and ventilation, rainwater recovery, waste recycling, and more, the new building of 2013 has been promoted as the first ecological airport worldwide.

North Seymour is a beautiful place to start your tour through the Galapagos, just north of Baltra. It is a flat, uplifted island in the rain shadow of the island of Santa Cruz, and so the vegetation is typically dry in Arid Zone. The dry landing on a small peer is sometimes a bit tricky due to the waves. A dry landing means you will move from the Yacht to the zodiac and onto the island while staying completely dry. The loop trail leads from a small peer along the rocky coast and is full of surprises: sea lions, swallow-tailed gulls, sally lightfoot crabs, and marine iguanas, and walk through the nesting area of blue-footed boobies and frigatebirds.
Activities: Hiking

Sombrero Chino: Only a 200-meter wide channel separates this small island from the Big Island of Santiago. The shape of the volcanic island looks like a Chinese hat. The scenery is very charming. The wet landing is on a small, white coral beach with many sea lions. Wet landing means you will get your feet and lower parts of your legs wet while exiting the zodiac. The smooth and short trail leads along the coast with very fragile lava. There are a lot of small lava tubes and tiny but very attractive vegetation. Pillow lava is to see on the turning point of the trail. First snorkeling off this week! Fantastic and recommendable, even if you never did it before. Snorkel equipment is included in cruise prices. If you need a wetsuit, you can rent it on board.
​Activities: Hiking, Snorkeling

Bartolome: With the Pinnacle Rock, a classic beauty, and the most photographed scenery of the Galapagos! The dry landing is on a jetty, and then the summit trail leads to Bartolome's highest point on a wooden footbridge and steps to protect the fragile environment. The view from the top across Bartolome, Santiago with Sullivan Bay, and the surrounding islands is superb! All the secondary cones, lava flows, and lava tubes mimic a moon landscape. In the later afternoon, enjoy a panga ride to look out for the Galapagos penguins; they live and nest in the lava tubes of the rocky shore.
​Activities: Hiking, Panga Ride

The bird island Genovesa is low and flat, the most northern and isolated to visit by cruise ships, and one more of the highlights of the itinerary. The longer navigation is during the night, crossing the equator!

Darwin Bay: The wet landing is on the small white beach of coral sand. The trail follows the shore vegetation of red mangrove, saltbush, and the unique prickly pear cactus that here often grows like a hanging cactus with soft hairy spines. Under the shore vegetation, the swallow-tailed gulls do nest, and in the bushes and trees nest the red-footed boobies and magnificent frigate birds. A few Nazca boobies nest on the ground. The trail leads along small tidepools up to the cliff with a spectacular view over the caldera. By low tide, there are thousands of Galapagos fiddler crabs in the sandy ground. The snorkeling in the blue water of this bay is delicious!
​Activities: Hiking, Snorkeling

Prince Philip's Steps: The dry landing is at the cliff, and Prince Philip's Steps are the only possibility to climb the steep basaltic cliff. Then, the easy trail leads first through a small nesting colony of masked boobies and then crosses a low and dense forest of palo santo trees where red-footed boobies have their nests. Arriving on the edge of the island, thousands of small petrels fly around! These little birds have their nests in the crevices and tubes of the fragile lava. They are the favorite food of the short-eared owl. Keep your eyes open to find the hunter; not easy; the owls are well camouflaged! On both sides of the trail are big Nazca booby-nesting colonies. End the excursion with a panga ride at the foot of the cliffs.
​Activities: Hiking, Panga Ride

Puerto Egas, Santiago Island: The landmark of Puerto Egas is the large tuff formations of cliffs with relief structures. The wet landing is on a black beach. Here, it is an excellent place to discover shore life. The hike with the intertidal life during the constantly changing tide levels shows an unusual, unique fauna. Often, you can observe lava herons fishing in the isolated tidal pools. You can see Galapagos sea lions, Sally lightfoot crabs, and marine iguanas during the whole walk. Depending on the season, many migrant shorebirds are living on these rich coasts during wintertime. On the turning point of the trail is the Fur Seal Grotto, where the Galapagos fur seals have found an ideal living space in the crevices and caves of the rocky lava coast.
​Activities: Hiking

Rabida: Incredibly unique is the red sand of the beach, contrasting with the saltbush vegetation and the silvery palo santo trees on the slopes. The source of the peculiar red color is the lava that contains a high proportion of ferric oxide. Before the last El Niño, the beach of Rabida had one of the most significant Galapagos sea lion colonies; now, reduced to a small remaining population, they are still recuperating. There is a small lagoon behind the zone of saltbush vegetation, depending on the season, with flamingos and white-cheeked pintail ducks. This beautiful beach is another special snorkeling place.
​Activities: Hiking, Snorkeling

Puerto Ayora is a small charming town, the largest in the Galapagos, and the head of tourism, and offers several hotels, bars, restaurants, a hospital, banks, and many small shops. The airport Baltra is in the north, linked by a road to cross the island.

The Galapagos National Park's offices and the Charles Darwin Research Station are in Puerto Ayora.

Visit the Station early in the morning to learn about the significant scientific effort to protect the National Park Galapagos. Especially the raising programs of the different subspecies of giant tortoises are well documented. The Van Straiten Exhibition Hall offers interesting documentation about the Galapagos Islands, illustrated by photos and diagrams. The vegetation on the walk to the Station and back is exuberant green, and Darwin's finches are easy to spot.

After being only on inhabited islands, a short moment of free time offers the opportunity to walk around, drink a coffee, or buy a souvenir. The meeting to go back on board for lunch is at 11:30 at the harbor.

Highland Santa Cruz: The drive up to the highlands takes approximately a half-hour. In this short time, observe the changes between the different vegetation zones, from the Arid zone to the Transition zone, and up to the Scalesia zone, which is also agricultural. Here, the problems of introduced animals and plants are pretty noticeable. On the highest point of the road, the National Park area starts again. In the highlands, visit the Rancho Primicias to enjoy the Galapagos tortoises living here in liberty; these are easy to view on this small farm where they are refreshing in the water pools or taking a snore in the shadow.

Española belongs to the oldest islands of the Galapagos. Because of its geographic isolation, many endemic species are to find the island, making the visit especially attractive. Additionally, Española is the only place worldwide where the endemic waved albatrosses come for breeding from April to December.

Wet landing on Playa Gardner, a splendid, long, white beach of coral sand. For this visit, you do not need shoes. There is no trail, and the open beach offers the opportunity to observe finches and mockingbirds in the saltbush vegetation, as Galapagos sea lions sleeping in the sun. It is an excellent place for swimming and snorkeling from the beach!
​Activities: Hiking, Snorkeling

Punta Suarez: Loop trail with a smooth, dry landing on a jetty. The walk on stony, rocky ground is longer and more challenging. Even at the first steps of the trail, the colorful Española marine iguana and Galapagos sea lions welcome you. Everywhere the curious Española mockingbird approaches the visitors. The path leads through the nesting colonies of blue-footed boobies, Nazca boobies, and waved albatrosses. Also, the big Española lava lizards are to find everywhere.
​Activities: Hiking

The low cliff of the whole south coast is an ideal nesting place for the endemic Galapagos albatross; here, it is the only place in the world where, from April to December, you can see these big, beautiful birds. Then, another resting spot close to a cliff with an incredible landscape offers the observation of all the different marine birds flying along the coast. An albatross during his ungainly landing or the spectacular take-off from the cliff, to start its elegant flight, are fantastic events to witness. The next stop is at the blowhole: the waves push the seawater through a fissure in the cliff, depending on the strongness and tide level, till 80 feet/24m high in the air!

Santa Fe has a large colony of sea lions living in this beautiful bay. After the wet landing on the beach, the trail leads through the dry vegetation of the Arid zone to a beautiful cliff with notably high prickly pear cactus, then back to a second beach. Only very attentive visitors may detect the endemic land iguanas of Santa Fe because their camouflage is perfect, and their territories are quite significant! Those who want can end the morning with snorkeling at this new special place!
​Activities: Hiking, Snorkeling

South Plaza is a small uplifted island with a cliff of 25 meters altitude on the island's southern side. The whole flat, rocky northern coast has a big colony of Galapagos sea lions and, on the East-point, lives a colony of bachelor sea lions. The loop is easy, with a dry landing on a jetty. The prickly pear cactus trees and the vital colony of land iguanas are beautiful. Depending on the season, the sesuvium ground vegetation changes its color from intense green in the rainy season to orange and purple in the dry season.
​Activities: Hiking

Black Turtle Cove: Before breakfast, leave the boat to enjoy a beautiful panga ride into the big, protected mangrove cove. In the far away, small corners, the motor is turned off to row noiselessly and observe the marine turtles: many of them are in this cove during their mating and nesting season from December to February! But even out of season, you can always find some turtles staying back in the mangroves. So early in the morning, there is high activity, and observe golden rays, spotted eagle rays, white-tipped reef sharks, and young Galapagos sharks. After breakfast on board, it is time to say goodbye to the staff and leave the Angelito.
​Activities: Panga Ride

Disembark at the harbor of Baltra. With the bus, drive to the airport for a morning flight back to the continent. The guide takes care until the last minute!