5 Days FROM USD 2,745
Overview
Enjoy your Galapagos adventure with Style on board the Galaven expedition yacht. The Galaven is an 88 ft. expedition vessel for 20 passengers accommodated in 11 double cabins, all with private bathrooms, air-conditioning and ocean views. It offers spacious outdoor seating areas with sun chairs, a large interior dining room and a library equipped with a TV & DVD player for daily briefing and presentations. Bilingual Galapagos National Park guides accompany you to all visitor sites.
Optional Activities :
Trip Code: GATSGE5
Location: Galapagos Islands - Ecuador
Ship: Galaven Expedition Yacht
CRUISE ITINERARY
Arrive at Baltra Airport to meet your guide and transfer to Galaven Expedition. The first excursion is a trail at El Chato reserve on Isla Santa Cruz. The trail begins at Santa Rosa with the Caseta route being the more challenging. The reserve allows visitors to observe giant tortoises in the wild during the dry season and is also a good place to spot short-eared owls, Darwin’s finches, yellow warblers and paint-billed crakes.
Situated on Santa Cruz Island, Cerro Dragón, Dragon Hill, is one of the newest visitor sites accessible to tourists in the Galapagos Islands. One of the lengthier Galapagos walking trails will lead visitors along a beach and up a trail to the lagoon lookout where bright flamingos, pintail ducks, and land iguanas can be spotted. Located on the north shore of Santa Cruz, Las Bachas is a swimming beach. One of the few remnants of the U.S. World War II presence in the Galapagos, a floating pier, can be seen here. You may see flamingos, Sally-lightfoot crabs, hermit crabs, black necked stilts, and whimbrels. Sea turtles also nest off the beach.
In the 18th century, whalers passing through the islands placed a wooden barrel on Isla Floreana for use as an unofficial mail box. The tradition continues today at this site know as Post Office Bay, where visitors leave addressed postcards in the barrel and sort through left mail to deliver at home. Punta Cormorante or La Corona del Diablo hosts a large flamingo lagoon where other birds such as common stilts and white-cheeked pintails can also be seen. The beaches on this island are distinctive, one green in colour due to a high percentage of olivine crystals in the sand, and the other composed of white coral and named flour beach.
Punta Suarez is great for spotting blue-footed boobies, albatrosses and Nazca boobies. A beautiful site on the ocean front, the large waved albatrosses use the cliff as a launching pad. The famous attraction is the magnificent blowhole, spurting water high into the air. This site presents wonderful photograph opportunities. Gardner Bay, on the eastern side of the island, is the breeding site of nearly all of the world´s 12,000 pairs of waved albatrosses. It has an ample white sandy beach with a myriad of sea lions, perfect for relaxing. Its rocky shores make this site a great place for diving and snorkelling.
The Interpretation Center was opened in 1998 as a phase of the project, Interpretation and Environment Education Project. Visitors enjoy expositions on natural history, human history, and conservation. The conservation efforts represent the movement to protect the wildlife and natural environment through means of population and tourist control. The Interpretation Center has an outdoor stadium, audio-visual equipment, and meeting rooms. Transfer to San Cristóbal Airport for your return flight to the mainland.
Pricing & date
| Galaven Expedition - 5 Day Cruise from USD 2,745 | ||
| Enquire for exact departure dates | ||
Important Information
All meals throughout cruise
Transfers in the islands
All excursions
Bilingual National Park Guide
Use of snorkeling equipment
Fuel surcharge
Free airport assistance*
Free transfers*
- 2 (light adventure)
Available upon request.
Discount for groups of 6+ pax: 10%
Discount for children under 12 years: 20%
Christmas and New Year supplement: 20%
Season and availability
Ship & Cabins
SPEAK TO A SPECIALIST
Sustainability
Chimu Adventures undertakes a number of sustainability measures within its operations including:
1) Only using local guides and office staff to both maximise local employment opportunities and minimise carbon footprints. Local guides also ensure you benefit from the intimate knowledge, passion and culture of the country you’re visiting.
2) Where possible, using locally owned and operated boutique hotels to maximise the return to the local community.
3) Chimu’s “Pass it on” programme has provided funding to hundreds of local community projects in Latin America. Our aim is to empower local communities, helping them to develop their own infrastructure for the future. Since 2006, we have been working with Kiva (a well-known Non-Governmental Organisation), providing hundreds of loans to local businesses all over South America.
4) In our pre tour information we provide a range of tips and advice on how to minimise your impact on both local environments and communities.
5) Chimu Adventures’ offices also take a number of sustainability measures including carbon offsets for company vehicles and most staff travel. Chimu Adventure’s internal processes are also structures to create a paperless office and to reduce waste. There are also internal programmes to help staff minimise their carbon footprint such as our staff bike purchase assistance plan which encourages office staff to commute to work via bicycle. Currently almost half of our office based staff commute to work via bicycle.