Amazing wildlife is the draw of the remote Galapagos Islands, and why not do it in style aboard this beautiful 1920’s cruiser! This unique Galapagos holiday combines the wildlife with other simple pleasures, such as leisurely walks on the beach and kayaking along the cliffs.

Journey aboard the M/V EVOLUTION that looks like boats did in the 1920's but brings a level of modern comfort and safety. Experience a close contact with nature, on land and in the water. With a crew member to guest ratio of 2 to 1, you will receive a more personalized attention and the right amount of pampering to enjoy these islands to the fullest possible extent.

The cruise ship accommodates up to 32 passengers in 14 cabins. It is outfitted for individual passengers or charters, family departures and departures for the more active groups. She offers a mix of beautifully furnished salons, open decks and private areas for those looking for a close experience with the surrounding environment.

Make this your holiday:
Exclusive Tour: your own private multilingual guide throughout the trip 
Price Guarantee: costing 25-30% less than similar tours of the same flexibility and quality
Tailor Made: customised itinerary to create your dream holiday
Duration: shorten or lengthen the tour to suit your wishes
Dates: depart and return whenever you choose
Hotels: change hotel grade to suit your budget
Group Discounts: call 0845 310 2929.

Departure dates – Every Saturday

Day  1        Morning: Fly to Galapagos
Transfer to the airport for your flight to the Galápagos Islands stopping briefly in the coastal city of Guayaquil en route. The turquoise blue water surrounding the coast is visible from the air as we approach the island of San Cristobal. Charles Darwin reported encountering a pair of giant tortoises feeding on cactus during his first landing here in 1835. Upon arrival in Puerto Baquerizo, the administrative capital of the islands and a sleepy little port town, you’ll pass through Park Inspection, after which you’ll be met by your guide holding a sign for the Evolution. Heading to the port, you’ll be treated to views of the harbour where your yacht awaits you below. It’s a very short ride to the harbour and it’s not long before you will be crossing from shore to reach the Evolution, your home and adventure centre for the next week. Your captain and crew will be waiting to greet you and will take care of seeing to it that your bags reach your cabin. Now it’s time to get settled in and relax as we set out on our voyage.

Afternoon: San Cristobal – Cerro Brujo
We set out along the coast of San Cristobal heading northeast toward our first landing at Cerro Brujo. This inviting powdery beach beside a turquoise waters is a great introduction to the islands offering your first opportunity to go snorkelling with sea turtles, rays and the archipelago’s playful ‘wolves of the sea’ i.e. sea lions.
Kicker Rock: Leon Dormido, also know as Kicker Rock, is a spectacular formation that rises 152 meters (500 feet) out of the Pacific. It takes the form of a sleeping lion, but from another angle you can see that the rock is split, forming a colossal tablet and, piercing the sea, a great chisel ready for etching. Small vessels can navigate
through the narrow channel between the rocks. Following this visit we return to Puerto Baquerizo, where you’ll have time for some last minute island shopping.
Overnight:  M/V EVOLUTION (B, L, D)

Day 2        Morning: Española (Hood) - Punta Suarez:
Hood is the southernmost island of the archipelago, and is one of the most popular due to the breathtaking variation and sheer number of fauna that greet the visitor. The giant tortoise was reintroduced to Hood in the 1970’s and counts as one of the park’s great success stories. They reside in an off limits area, but don’t worry—the famous giant tortoise awaits you on other islands! The quantity and variety of wildlife at Punta Suarez is remarkable. Sea lions surf the waves beyond the breakwater landing, and tiny pups are known to greet your toes upon arrival. A few steps inland are the largest variety of marine iguana in the Galápagos. They bear distinctive red and black markings, some with a flash of turquoise running down their spine, and nap in communal piles. The trail then takes us beside the western edge of the island where masked boobies nest along the cliff’s edge, and then descends to a rocky beach before rising to an open area and a large gathering of nesting blue-foot boobies. Galápagos doves, cactus finch and mocking birds forage by, unconcerned by human presence.

The trail continues to the high cliff edge of the southern shore; below, a shelf of black lava reaches out into the surf where a blowhole shoots a geyser of water into the air. Further east along the cliffs is the “Albatross Airport” where “waved albatross” line up to launch their great winged bodies from the cliffs, soaring out over the dramatic shoreline of crashing waves and driven spray. In the trees set back from the cliff is one of only two places in the world where the waved albatross nests. In fact, the 12,000 pairs that inhabit Hood Island comprise all but a tiny fraction of the world’s population of this species. Lucky visitors can watch courtship ‘fencing’ done with great yellow beaks and necks among the large, fluffy, perfectly camouflaged chicks. Mating occurs year round.

Afternoon: Española (Hood) – Gardner Bay
On the north-eastern shore of Hood, Gardner Bay offers a magnificent long white sandy beach, where colonies of sea lions laze in the sun, sea turtles swim offshore, and inquisitive mockingbirds boldly investigate new arrivals. You will be lured into the turquoise water for a swim, but just a little further off-shore, the snorkelling by Tortuga rock and Gardner Island offers peak encounters with playful young sea lions and large schools of surprisingly big tropical fish, including yellow tailed surgeonfish,
king angelfish and bump-head parrot fish. Sleepy white-tipped reef sharks can be seen napping on the bottom.
Overnight:  M/V EVOLUTION (B, L, D)

Day 3        Morning: Santa Cruz – Puerto Ayora
Santa Cruz is the second largest island in the Galápagos and something of a hub for the archipelago. The small town of Puerto Ayora in the southwest of this large, round volcanic island is the economic centre of the Islands, with the largest population of the four inhabited islands (approx. 10,000). Tourism—including refurbishing and re-supplying yachts—along with fishing and boat-building, are major sources of commerce.

Highlands: A highlight of any trip is a visit to the Santa Cruz Highlands, where the sparse, dry coastal vegetation transitions to lush wet fields and forests overgrown with moss and lichens. Our destination is the Tortoise Reserve, where
we will have chances to track and view these friendly ancient creatures in their natural setting. This extends to the adjacent pasturelands, where farmers have given tortoise safe quarter in exchange for allowing paying visitors to see them. The best times to see tortoises here is during the cool dry season from June through December. Another attraction close by is a very large lava tube. A wooden stairway descends to the mouth of its arched entrance and continues underground to the narrow passage that marks its exit.

Afternoon:
Santa Cruz – Puerto Ayora is home to both the Galápagos National Park and Charles Darwin Research Station, the centre of the great restorative efforts taking place in the park, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Here we go ashore to visit the Giant Tortoise Breeding and Rearing Program run by the research station, which began by rescuing the remaining 16 tortoises on the island of Española in the 1970s. This program has restored the population of animals there to over 1,000 today. You will see many of these animals, with their sweet ET necks and faces, from hatchlings to juveniles to large, distinguished individuals like Lonesome George, the last of his particular race of tortoise—may be 150 years old! The local colour of this port makes for an attractive stop-off, with restaurants, souvenir shops and even an internet café.
Overnight:  M/V EVOLUTION (B, L, D)

Day 4        Morning: Santiago – James Bay:
On the north-western side of the island is South James Bay (Puerto Egas), which offers access to three unique sites. One landing is on a black beach with intriguing eroded rock formations inland. A trail crosses the dry interior eastward and rises to the rim of an extinct volcanic crater; cracks within it allow sea water to seep in, which then dries to form salt deposits that have been mined in the past. Darwin describes his visit to South James Bay in Voyage of the Beagle.

Another path leads south, where hikers are treated to a series of crystal-clear grottos formed of broken lava tubes. These are home to sea lions and tropical fish, and are the only place in the islands where fur seals can be seen. Further to the north, another landing and path lead to a series of inland lagoons, home to flamingos. Birders coming to James Bay will have the opportunity to spot vermillion flycatchers, Galápagos hawks and the tool-wielding woodpecker finch. Puerto Egas is a good spot for taking pictures—the light for photography is perfect at either dawn or sunset. The lava and the black sand seem to catch fire and the animals acquire a surreal and lovely quality.

Afternoon: Bartolome – Pinnacle Rock:
This Island is famous for Pinnacle Rock, a towering spearheaded obelisk that rises from the ocean’s edge and is the best-known landmark in the Galápagos. Galápagos penguins—the only species of penguin found north of the equator—walk precariously along narrow volcanic ledges at its base. Sea lions snooze on rocky platforms, ready to slide into the water to play with passing snorkeller’s. Just below the surface, shoals of tropical fish dodge in and out of the rocks past urchins, sea stars and anemones. A perfectly crescent, pink-and-white sandy beach lies just to the east of the pinnacle.

Sea turtles use the beach as a nesting site and can sometimes be found wading in the shallow water near the shore, or resting in the sand to recover from the arduous task of digging nests, laying eggs and covering them over. Penguins dot the nearby rocks of the next landing site, less than a kilometre along the eastern shore. Here the submerged walls of a tiny volcanic crater give the impression of a fountain pool. This dry landing—no wet feet!—is the entrance to a 600-meter (2000-foot) pathway complete with stairs and boardwalks leading to Bartolome’s summit. The route is not difficult and presents a museum of vulcanology; a site left untouched after its last eruption, where cones stand in various stages of erosion and lava tubes form bobsled-like runs from the summit. At the top you will be rewarded with spectacular views of Santiago Island and James Bay to the west, and far below, Pinnacle Rock and our beach, where the crystal blue waters of the bay cradle your yacht.
Overnight:  M/V EVOLUTION (B, L, D)

Day 5         Morning: Tower – Prince Phillips Steps:
Tower Island could serve as a film set for a secret submarine base! The south-western part of the island is an ocean-filled caldera ringed by the outer edges of a sizeable and mostly submerged volcano. The island sits to the northwest, slightly removed from the Galápagos archipelago. It is also known as “Bird Island,” a name it lives up to in a spectacular way. Named for a visit by the British Monarch in 1964, 25-metre (81-foot) Phillips Steps leads to a narrow stretch of land that opens out onto the plateau surrounding Darwin Bay, and extends to form the north side of the island. Red-footed boobies wrap their webbed feet around branches to perch in the bushes, and, in contrast, their “masked-booby” cousins dot the surface of the scrublands beyond. Crossing through the sparse vegetation, you will come to a broad lava field that extends towards the sea—this forms the north shore. “Storm petrels” flutter out over the ocean in swarms, then return to nest in the cracks and tunnels of the lava field, where their predator, the short-eared owl, is a frequent.

Afternoon: Tower- Darwin Bay:
Landing on the white coral sands of Darwin Bay and walking up the beach, you will be surrounded by the bustling activity of “great frigate birds.” Puffball-chicks with their proud papás—who sport their bulging scarlet throat-sacks—crowd the surrounding branches, while both yellow-crowned and lava herons feed by the shore. Farther along you will discover a stunning series of sheltered pools set into a rocky outcrop, forming another natural film set. A trail beside the pools leads up to a cliff overlooking the caldera, where pairs of swallow-tailed gulls, the only nocturnal gulls in the world, can be seen nesting at the cliff’s edge. Lava gulls and pintail ducks ride the sea breezes nearby. A brief panga ride brings us to the base of those same cliffs to reveal the full variety of species sheltering in the ledges and crevices created by the weathered basalt. Among them, red–billed tropic birds enter and leave their nests trailing exotic kite-like tails. This is also an intriguing place to go deep-water snorkelling, where the truly fortunate swimmer can spot one of the giant manta rays that frequent the inner bay along the cliff walls. You might also seem them at the surface as the sun set’s on your first full day in the Galápagos.
Overnight:  M/V EVOLUTION (B, L, D)

Day 6         Morning: Fernandina – Punta Espinosa:
At 1495 meters (4,858 feet), the big news on this youngest and westernmost of the islands is La Cumbre volcano that erupts frequently, most recently in May 2005. Fernandina sits across the Bolivar Channel opposite Isabela. Our destination is Punta Espinosa, a narrow spit of land in the northeast corner of the island, where a number of unique Galápagos species can be seen in close proximity. As our panga driver skilfully navigates the reef, penguins show off by throwing themselves from the rocks into the water. Red and turquoise-blue zayapas crabs disperse across the lava shoreline, while herons and egrets forage through the mangrove roots. The landing is a dry one, set in a quiet inlet beneath the branches of a small mangrove forest.

A short walk through the vegetation leads to a large colony of marine iguanas—a schoolyard of Godzilla’s children—resting atop one another in friendly heaps along the rocky shoreline, spitting water to clear their bodies of salt. Nearby, sea lions frolic in a sheltered lagoon. This is one of the few places you can glimpse iguanas grazing on seaweed underwater. Farther down this stretch of shore, the world’s only species of flightless cormorants have established their colony near an inviting inlet frequented by sea turtles. Because these birds evolved without land predators—it was easier to feed on the squid, octopus, eel and fish found in the ocean—the cormorants progressively took to the sea. They developed heavier, more powerful legs and feet for kicking, serpent-like necks, and wet, fur-like plumage. Their wings are now mere vestiges. Back toward the landing and farther inland, the island’s black lava flows become more evident, forming a quiet, inner lagoon. Galápagos hawks survey the entire scene from overhead.

Afternoon: Isabela – Tagus Cove:
Isabela is the largest island in the archipelago, accounting for half of the total landmass of the Galápagos at 4,588 square kilometres. Though narrow in places, the island runs 132 km from north to south, or 82 miles. Isabella is formed from six shield volcanoes that merged into a single landmass. It is also home to the highest point in the Galápagos, Wolf Volcano at 1707 meters (5,547 feet), and calderas of up to 20 kilometres (12½ miles) across. On the way to Tagus Cove, the boat will sail through the Bolivar Channel. These are the coldest, most productive waters in the Galápagos, the up welling of the Cronwell Current, where dolphins and whales are frequently seen. Tagus Cove, named for a British naval vessel that moored here in 1814, was used historically as an anchorage for pirates and whalers. One can still find the names of their ships carved into the rock above our landing, a practice now prohibited, of course. The cove’s quiet waters make for an ideal panga ride beneath its sheltered cliffs, where blue-footed boobies, brown noddies, pelicans and noddy terns make their nests, and flightless cormorants and penguins inhabit the lava ledges.

From our landing, a wooden stairway rises to the trail entrance for a view of Darwin Lake, a perfectly round saltwater crater, barely separated from the ocean but above sea level! The trail continues around the lake through a dry vegetation zone, and then climbs inland to a promontory formed by spatter cones. The site provides spectacular views back toward our anchorage in the bay, as well as Darwin Volcano and Wolf Volcano farther north.
Overnight:  M/V EVOLUTION (B, L, D)

Day 7        Morning: Santiago – North Seymour:
North Seymour Island was lifted from the ocean floor by a seismic event, and its origins as a seabed give the island its low, flat profile. Cliffs only a few meters high form the shoreline, where swallow tailed gulls sit perched in ledges. A tiny forest of silver-grey Palo Santo trees stand just above the landing, usually without leaves, waiting for the rain to bring them into bloom.  This island is teaming with life! You might have to give way to a passing sea lion or marine iguana; blue-footed booby nests sit beside the trail where mating pairs perform their courtship dance. Further along, the rocky shore displays white sand, and large flocks of pelicans mass for a dive-bomb feeding frenzy, rendering a tableau for us from ages long past. The trail turns inland to reveal the largest nesting site in the Galápagos of the “magnificent frigate bird.” These huge, dark acrobats have two metre wingspans, and males, with puffed up scarlet throat sacks, sit precariously perched in low bushes to watch over their equally large chicks.

Afternoon: Santa Cruz - Black Turtle Cove:
On the north shore of Santa Cruz, is a living illustration of how mangroves alter the marine environment to create a rich and unique habitat. Three species of mangrove crowd from the shore out into the lagoon, which reaches almost a mile inland. As we drift though the quite waters in our panga, we are likely to see spotted eagle rays and diamond shaped mustard rays, which swim in a diamond formation. White-tipped reef sharks slip beneath the boat and Pacific green sea turtles come to the surface for air and to mate. Waterfowl, including pelicans, herons and egret, all feed in the cove. This is a peaceful place that will leave you feeling that way.
Overnight:  M/V EVOLUTION (B, L, D)
       
Day 8         Morning / San Cristobal
Today our voyage comes to an end. But before we bid farewell to the Evolution and her crew we pay a visit to the Interpretation Centre. In 1998 the Galápagos National Park Visitor Centre opened for the benefit of islanders and travellers alike, presenting a comprehensive exhibit of the islands’ natural history, human interaction, ecosystems, flora and fauna. Our guide will use the exhibits to provide an illustrated overview of the natural history of the islands.

From the Interpretation Centre, a short trail arrives at Frigate Bird Hill, where both “magnificent frigates” and “great-frigates” can be seen in the same colony—ideal for learning to distinguish the two bird species.

NOTE: We make no extra charge for minor changes to hotels or hotel add-ons to the beginning or the end of the existing itinerary. No surcharges will be imposed within 30 days of departure. Wherever possible any downward revision in the price of trips if shown in our ‘Special Offers’ will be refunded to you.

About Us

AwimAway is an online seller of adventure and activity travel. We have a range of high quality tour operators from around the world who offer adventure and active holidays at compatible prices. We provide you with a flexibility of selecting your holiday from UK operator or going straight to a local operator in the destination of your choosing. Most of our holidays provided by our associate tour operators are tailor-made to your requirement. You can book your holiday through our customer service managed by our expert adventure consultants.

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At AwimAway we aim to make it quick and easy for adventure and active travellers to research and plan your holidays and link up with our holiday providers. We also aim to help travellers to research and plan their holiday offerings by providing the best information.

What is Adventure & Activity Travel? Adventure travel includes activities like hiking, biking, diving, and multi-sport tours. Activity travel includes activities like cultural, expedition cruising, wildlife safari and culinary tours. In all cases, AwimAway is your premier booking service to visiting the wonders of the world, either man-made wonders like the pyramids, machu picchu or the great wall, or natural wonders like alaska, antarctica or the galapagos islands, just to name a few.