Enchanted Escape

Arrive at Baltra Airport and transfer in. Pay your Galapagos National Park entrance fee (unless pre-paid) and undergo luggage inspection. A guide meets you, helps you collect your luggage, and escorts you on a short bus ride to the harbor. Climb aboard the yacht Tribute. After greeting the crew and the captain, cabins are assigned to you, and you enjoy your first lunch aboard.

Santa Cruz offers excellent opportunities for viewing wild Galapagos giant tortoises, roaming through pastures in the agricultural zone and in the transition zone of the adjacent El Chato Tortoise Reserve.

Galapagos sea lions are true beach lovers, and Mosquera offers beautiful white coral sand beaches, contrasting with the blue water and attracting numerous sea lions. During a beach walk, observe numerous species of waders and sanderlings. Between the rocks, red clip crabs wait to play hide and seek as you try to capture the perfect photo. If lucky, encounter yellow-crowned night herons or even a red-footed booby.

Popular South Plaza is not to be missed! This bizarre ‘Jurassic islet’ is the best place to see the emblematic ‘Galapagos dragons’, which crawl across it.

This morning, a wet landing awaits on this peninsula covered with aromatic palo santo forest. The beach sand is green due to a high percentage of glassy olivine crystals blown out by surrounding tuff cones. Crossing to the other side of the peninsula reveals a 'flour sand' beach originating from coral pulverized by Parrotfish.

From the shore, schools of stingrays are visible, loving to bury themselves in the sandy bottom. In the first months of the year, Pacific green turtles come ashore to bury eggs. Return on board.

While having lunch navigate to Post Office Bay. This mailing station has been intermittently in use since the eighteenth century when the Galapagos was a resupplying port for Pacific pirates. Join the tradition and send greeting cards to beloved ones worldwide using the historical barrel (it works). Nearby, the beach is normally visited by sea lions, pacific green turtles, golden rays, and even penguins.

Next, climb the miniature basaltic cone of Baroness Lookout and take in the paradisiacal coastal views. This viewpoint was the favorite spot of one of Floreana’s first modern-era colonists, the eccentric self-proclaimed Baroness and ‘Empress of Galapagos’ Eloisa von Wagner Bosquet, who even built her house a few meters behind. She and one of her lovers were the first in a series of mysterious disappearances and deaths occurring on this island during the 1930s.

This island is one of the greatest in the world for birdwatchers. Different kinds of finches, frigates, blue-footed boobies, and Nazca boobies can be found, as well as the endemic Española mockingbird, Albatross, and Galapagos hawk. Watch your step, because each Albatross couple lays an egg on the floor and makes it roll over to improve hatching success. The juveniles attend the cliffs of the island to learn to fly by jumping into the abysm. The chicks are organized in nurseries where they safely remain while the adults are away at sea.

Another highlight during this visit is “El Soplador”, a 25 m water geyser produced by ocean waves crashing with great pressure with cracks in the island’s cliff, spouting up through a lava tunnel. This site offers a fantastic background for a meditative experience or a memorable photo.

Keep exploring Española island, the oldest in the archipelago, estimated at over 4 million years old, located in the extreme southeast of the archipelago. On the north-eastern coast of this island, Gardner Bay offers a wonderful place to refresh in the turquoise sea and to snorkel side by side with eagle rays, golden rays, barracudas, batfish, turtles, sea lions, and white-tipped sharks.

Today, for your last excursion, disembark to San Cristobal island. There visit an Interpretation Center, where photos, historic documents, and maquettes help get a glimpse of the seriousness and complexity of preserving the unique ecosystems of the Galapagos.

After this visit, disembark and get transferred to San Cristobal airport. There catch your flight.