After breakfast, you will join your local guide and explore the centre of downtown Quito, or Centro Historico, declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1978. Your tour begins with a visit to Main Square, before making your way through the colonial churches to El Panecillo hill, offering breathtaking views of the city surrounded by the rolling Andes Mountains. Then, travel to the Equatorial Line complex, located at 0º 0´0”. Enjoy this a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to straddle both hemispheres or joyfully hop between the two in the blink of an eye, before heading back to your hotel for dinner.
This morning, you will head to the Andean city of Otavalo, home of the fascinating and beautiful Otavalo Market – South America’s largest and most famous market. En route, stop at Guayllabamba, where you can sample the local chirimoya fruit. Make additional stops along the way to admire the beautiful landscape and snow-capped mountains in the area.
Make a short stop at San Pablo Lake before arriving in Otavalo. Visit the textile market at the Plaza of Ponchos, one of the most famous markets in South America, where you will find all kinds of handicrafts including tapestries made on the Spanish weaving loom, as well as the Indigenous backstrap loom.
Afterwards, enjoy some free time for bargaining with the friendly Otavalenos, but don’t restrict yourself to Poncho Plaza – you will most likely get better deals away from the main square, and the goods on display diversify as the market weaves its way through the side streets.
You’ll also visit Hacienda Pinsaqui, famous for its political history, before enjoying lunch at a local hacienda – returning to Quito in the late afternoon for an evening at leisure.
After breakfast, you will be met by your guide and transferred to the airport for your short flight to the Galapagos Islands. Upon arrival at Baltra Airport, you’ll undergo a quick agricultural screening process ensure the safety of these protected islands. Afterwards, a local representative of the M/C Galapagos Seaman Journey will meet you outside to collect your luggage and transfer you to the vessel, your home for the next four nights.
Lunch is served once you are onboard. In the afternoon, begin your first adventure at the Interpretation Center, San Cristobal. Here, learn about the geological and human history of the islands, and fantastic conservation facts and get a better understanding of natural history. Return to the vessel for dinner onboard with your fellow travellers.
This morning, take a short visit to Galapaguera de Cerro Colorado nature reserve, a wonderful location to witness Galapagos tortoises in their natural habitat. Then, it’s off to San Cristobal to meet endemic species such as the San Cristobal mockingbird, lava lizard (microlophus bivittatus) and Chatham leaf-toed gecko (phyllodactylus leei). Between January and May, you may even find footprints of the female tortoises who have climbed to the sand dunes to deposit their eggs.
In the afternoon, head to Cerro Brujo, a beautiful white coral beach home to sea lions. This is actually the first coast that Charles Darwin walked on in 1835. Here, in this protected bay, witness seabirds like blue-footed boobies, Nazca boobies, herons, frigate birds and shorebirds, as well as young tortoises who love to swim around. Among the fauna, you may also observe the San Cristobal mockingbird and lava lizards, both endemic to the island and unique to the area. Furthermore, you may also see Galapagos turtles and Darwin’s flycatcher birds (pyrocephalus nanus).
Enjoy an evening at leisure back onboard.
Gardner Bay is located on the northeastern coast of Espanola Island and offers an excellent beach to relax, swim and frolic, as well as animal watch. This morning, enjoy the best of both worlds while keeping an eye out for three species of Darwin finches: a subspecies of the large-billed cactus finch, the small-beaked ground finch and the singing finch.
Punta Suarez is an oceanfront favourite for blue-footed boobies, albatrosses and Nazca boobies. This site presents wonderful photography opportunities as large waved albatrosses use its cliffs as a launching pad, while the magnificent blowhole spurts water at least 50 metres high into the air.
Cormorant Point on the archipelago’s southern Floreana Island is without doubt the best flamingo lagoon in the Galapagos and one of the largest in the islands. Situated between two tuff lava cones, it’s home to various species of shorebirds and other migratory birds. After a walk, be taken to Champion Islet, a wonderful location with extraordinary natural wildlife. You’ll have the chance here to enjoy snorkelling.
Historically, Post Office Bay is the location of a wooden barrel that was placed in the 18th century by the crew of a whaling ship. It has since been used by mariners and tourists as a post office. View this piece of history before an afternoon at leisure.
This morning, there’s time for one final excursion to The Giant Turtle Trail, where you’ll learn how protection and conservation of the islands are carried out. This path offers the possibility to observe, appreciate and learn aspects of nature you may never before have considered. Afterwards, disembark your cruise before being transferred to Baltra Airport in time for your flight back to Quito, where your tour concludes at Mariscal Sucre Airport (UIO).