Tourist superior cruise aboard Archipel I

Afternoon

Santa Cruz Island, Darwin Station - Tortoise Centre, Santa Cruz

Fausto Llerena Breeding Centre In the afternoon you will visit the Fausto Llerena Breeding Centre, where you can observe tortoises that come from various islands of the archipelago. They are part of a breeding programme intended to repopulate the areas where the number of tortoises has decreased due to human activity or predatory invasive species. One of the main attractions here is the embalmed Lonesome George tortoise. It hatched in 1910 and died in 2012, and with him, died an entire species (the Pinta Island giant tortoise). If it weren’t for the scientists that work here, more species would have gone extinct. Return on board.

Afternoon

Floreana Island, Post Office Bay, Floreana

While you were having lunch we navigated 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. You can join their tradition and send greeting cards to your 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, you may climb the miniature basaltic cone of Baroness Lookout and take in the paradisiacal coastal views. This viewpoint was the favourite 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 metres behind. She and one of her lovers were the first in a series of mysterious disappearances and deaths occurring in this island during the 1930s.

Afternoon

Española Island, Punta Suarez, Española

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 lay an egg on the floor and make it roll over to improve hatching success. The juveniles attend the cliffs of the island to learn to fly by jumping into the abysm. And the chicks are organized in nurseries where they will safely remain while the adults are away at sea. Another highlight during this visit is “El Soplador”, a 25 m water geiser 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.

Afternoon

San Cristóbal Island, Cerro Brujo, San Cristobal

Cerro Brujo is the remains of a tuff cone, and its primary attraction is a coral sand beach that opens into a tranquil bay. Snorkelling here leads to a rich habitat for marine iguanas, stingrays, white-tipped sharks, eagle rays, turtles, morays, garden eels and many kinds of reef fishes. Behind the sand dunes of the beach, there is a dry dark lava flow with salty ponds, which serve as a refreshment spot for iguanas, as well as a strategic place to observe coastal and migratory birds, including pelicans, blue-footed boobies and swallow-tailed gulls.