After arriving at Baltra airport, meet with a representative and transfer via bus to Puerto Ayora for your first visit on the islands: the Charles Darwin Research Station and the Fausto Llerena Breeding Center. *Please wear comfortable clothes for a visit to the highlands of Santa Cruz Island: walking shoes, a hat for the sun, pants, or shorts. You are reunited with your luggage when boarding the ship in the afternoon.*

At the Research Station, see tortoises from different islands. The animals are found in large semi natural pens for their protection, but also to ensure an easy view for visitors. The pens are divided according to four different stages: eggs, neonates, juveniles (held here until they are mature enough to be "repatriated"), and adults.

Afterwards head back to Puerto Ayora, where you have some time to explore the town and shops on your own before boarding the M/Y Passion at around 5:00 pm. Once on board, be welcomed by the crew and captain, have a short security drill, and enjoy dinner and the briefing for the next day´s activities.

Spend the day on Floreana, legendary homestead of infamous Baroness Eloise Von Wagner de Bousquet. First land on the olivine beaches of Punta Cormorant. Seek greater flamingos en route to another special beach with the finest sand, a sea turtle nesting ground where sharks and rays also visit regularly. End the outing on a short panga ride to Devil’s Crown, a key snorkeling site.

After lunch visit Post Office Bay (a wet landing), where you can drop your postcards in the barrel as the whalers did centuries ago.

This morning visit Floreana Island´s Black Beach to learn about the intriguing human history of the island and its first inhabitants. Floreana was the first island in the archipelago to be inhabited, since it has one of the very few fresh water sources. Visit this source known as “Asilo de La Paz”, as well as the caves that served as hideouts for pirates and where the first “Galapegueño” was born, according to Floreana stories. These stories also involve the infamous Baroness Eloise Wagner von Bousquet and her lovers, which mysteriously began to disappear after settling on the island.

After your visit, spend a full afternoon navigating from Floreana to Isabela Island while looking for fascinating whales and dolphins. The waters of the Galapagos form the second largest marine reserve in the world, and are rich with sealife. The afternoon is completed by the impressive landscapes of Isabela and the Cerro Azul volcano.

Arrive at Isabela, the largest island in the Galapagos. After breakfast, step ashore at Punta Moreno (a dry landing) onto a superb pahoehoe lava flow surrounded by giant shield volcanoes, some still active! From here do a short hike to a lagoon where flamingos are usually present.

In the afternoon, panga ride in and around Elizabeth Bay, a saltwater lagoon surrounded by the largest red mangroves of the Galapagos. Here, it is usual to see sea turtles come near your zodiac to greet you. Flightless cormorants and Galapagos penguins are also more abundant in this part of the archipelago.

Disembark at Urbina Bay (via a wet landing) onto a black sand beach, a nesting site for green sea turtles. Take a brief hike inland in search of land iguanas and giant tortoises (seasonal) that migrate to and from the highlands. At the beach, admire the remains of a geological uplift exposing coral heads and marine fossils. If sea conditions and time permit, you may snorkel in these waters.

In the afternoon, cross Bolivar Channel to Fernandina Island, one of the world’s most unspoilt sites, and disembark at Punta Espinosa. Strolling along the shoreline, be on the look out for flightless cormorants, Galapagos sea lions, Galapagos penguins and hawks, sooty-colored marine iguanas, and bright red-orange Sally Lightfoot crabs.

This morning a dry landing near Tagus Cove takes you to a historic pirate hideaway where names of countless ships are recorded for posterity on the cliff face. Hike through beautiful Galapagos landscapes to Darwin Lake, a salt-water crater lagoon surrounded by tuff stone.

At Punta Vicente Roca, do a panga ride around the beautiful coast line before jumping into the water to enjoy one of the best snorkeling sites of the Galapagos. The underwater cliffs found here are filled with enough colors and life to amaze everyone looking at them for the first time.

After three days exploring the fabulous western islands, head to central Santiago to disembark at Espumilla (wet landing), onto a green sea turtle nesting site with golden-colored sand. A forest trail takes you through some of the largest specimens of Palo Santo on the islands to observe yellow warblers, Galapagos flycatchers, and the ever-intriguing Darwin’s finches.

Conclude the day with a wet landing at Puerto Egas, a dark sand volcanic beach with an interesting history of human settlement. Sleepy Galapagos fur seals lounge under arches of lava carved by the ocean and occasionally dip into the crystalline pools, also known as “grottos”. Walk along the shore and observe the abundant marine life.

Disembark on North Seymour, a small uplifted island, where you can walk right up to bird nesting colonies of the two species of frigatebirds, blue-footed boobies and swallow-tailed gulls, and experience, depending on season, spectacular displays. After this visit the ship sails to Baltra for disembarkation.