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ISLANDS and AMAZON Highlighting the Natural History of The Enchanted Isles of Galapagos and the Mighty Amazon 19 Days

Locally Hosted Independent Tour Suggested Departure Day: Wednesday

ITINERARY (Subject to change without notice):

Wednesday - Miami - Quito: Afternoon flight south to Quito. Upon arrival, meeting and transfer to the charming boutique hotel Plaza Grande located in the heart of the historic district of the city for two night stay.

Thursday - Quito: Full day visiting the main points of interest in Quito including the Plaza de Independencia, La Compania and San Francisco churches among other places of interest. Continue to the Equatorial Monument - the spot where the 18th century scientific expedition determined the exact position of the equator. This is your chance to stand in two hemispheres at once or stand on the line and be no-where! Enjoy lunch en route. (B,L)

Friday - Quito - Galapagos: Morning transfer for flight via Guayaquil to Baltra Island in the Galapagos Islands and transfer to the new Yacht La Pinta for a 7-night cruise of these Enchanted Isles. Once aboard, briefing on the islands and the upcoming itinerary.
North Seymour Island: Afternoon disembarkation (dry landing) for a walk along the coast and the interior of the island, observing bird colonies of blue footed boobies, frigate birds, swallow tailed gulls and also sea lions and marine iguanas. Next day’s expedition plan and dinner.

ABOUT GOING ASHORE: Excursions ashore take place each morning and afternoon, with staggered debarking in groups of 20 based on language. Landings are "wet" (step out of the boat & walk ashore in the surf) or "dry" (using natural promontories as make-shift piers). Walks are generally not difficult though some sites, such as Hood can be challenging but not impossible for the average person. Essential gear for shore visits include hat with brim or bill, plenty of sun protection, insect repellent, good walking shoes (but not overkill mountain trekkers!) and plenty of films. Click here for Island map and additional information.

SPECIAL NOTE: If you don't like animals and you don't like being an active ingredient in the wildlife experience, don't visit the Galapagos. The sole reason to go to the islands is the flora and fauna, and you have to go ashore and exert energy to experience it. The guides teach you a motto the first day you arrive: "Take nothing from the islands but memories and leave nothing behind but footprints."

Saturday - Galapagos:
    Morning - Punta Espinoza (Fernandina Island): This morning brings us to the youngest island, Fernandina.  Disembark (dry landing) for a one-mile walk.   Punta Espinoza has an amazing combination of barrenness with lots of wildlife.   Having no introduced mammals, Fernandina has a very unique environment with the highest density of marine iguanas, sharing their space with sea lions, sally-light foot crabs, hawks, penguins and the flightless cormorant.  Lunch on board.
    Afternoon - Punta Moreno (Isabela Island): Punta Moreno has a low-lying rocky shoreline surrounded by black and red mangrove lagoons, and abundant shore birds.   It offers close views of volcanoes Alcedo, Sierra Negra and Cerro Azul. It has a desolate and pristine landscape of impressively immense black lava flows and an extraordinary and unusual arid-zone vegetation.   Darwin's finches, Galapagos doves, mockingbirds, penguins, cormorants, brown pelicans and blue-footed boobies can be seen.
Next day’s expedition plan and dinner.

Sunday - Galapagos:
    Morning - Post Office Bay,  Champion Islet (Floreana Island): Possibility to snorkel from the pangas around Champion Islet or a ride on the glass-bottom boat.   Return on board and navigate to Post Office Bay.  Wet landing at the historic barrel that served as a post office, to learn about the human side of the islands, its early inhabitants and the adventures of pirates and whalers.  Lunch on board.
    Afternoon - Punta Cormorant (Floreana Island): Disembark at Punta Cormorant (wet landing) for an easy walk to see the flamingos that inhabit a brackish-water lagoon, and other birds like ducks, stilts, sandpipers, etc.  Return to the beach and possibility to swim; there is great snorkeling at this site or kayak from the beach. 
Next day’s expedition plan and dinner

Monday - Galapagos:
    Morning - Rabida Island (Jervis): Morning disembarkation at Rabida Island (wet landing) on a red-colored beach, due to the unusually high content of iron in the volcanic material.  A gratifying stroll along the beach of this small island (1.9 sq. mi.)   allows the observation of a large colony of sea lions, marine iguanas, mockingbirds, yellow warblers and several species of Darwin’s Finches.  Very close to the beach, hidden behind a strip of green saltbush, is a salt pond where at times Greater Flamingos migrate to.  This is a great place to snorkel from the beach, both for beginners as well as for experienced snorkelers, due to the unique combination of underwater species and submarine landscapes. During navigation to our next island, we will keep our eyes open for dolphins.  Lunch on board.
    Afternoon - Las Bachas (Santa Cruz Island): The sand at Las Bachas is made of powdered coral, which makes it white and soft, and a favorite site for nesting sea turtles.  The Sally Lightfoot crabs are abundant on the lava rocks along the water's edge.  Flamingoes, Sally Lightfoot crabs, hermit crabs, black necked stilts, and whimbrels can be observed.
Next day’s expedition plan and Welcome cocktail.

Tuesday - Galapagos:
    Morning - Highlands of Santa Cruz Island: After breakfast, disembark (dry landing) to visit the highlands of Santa Cruz Island, an Scalesia forest and the twin pit craters geology formation, Los Gemelos.  From December to mid-April a visit to see the giant tortoises in the wild may be included, if weather conditions are good.    Lunch at one of the farms in the highlands.
    Afternoon - Puerto Ayora and the Charles Darwin Research Station: Afternoon visit to the Charles Darwin Research Station and the giant tortoise pens, an impressive giant prickly-pear cactus forest and many land birds.  Then a stroll along the main street of Puerto Ayora before embarking on Yacht LA PINTA. Next day’s expedition plan and dinner. 

Wednesday - Galapagos Islands:
    Morning - Sullivan Bay (James Island): Sullivan Bay is on the east coast of Santiago just across Bartolome Island. We land on a white coral sand beach and begin our walk over lava that flowed less than 100 years ago. This is the perfect place to see and feel the volcanic origin of Galapagos. This site is most interesting for the geography of the lava flows, the intricate squiggles, cracks, and designs of the liquid lava as it solidified. After 110 years, life is starting to return to the flows, with occasional tufts of grass and cactus growing in the cracks. Optional panga ride, Glass-bottom boat or snorkeling is possible.  Lunch on board.
    Afternoon - Puerto Egas (James Island): Wet landing for a mid-length walk.  Most of the landscape is tuff-stone layers and lava flows. This is a great opportunity to see land and marine birds.  At low tide, marine iguanas graze upon the algae beds and there is a colony of Galápagos fur seals.  Opportunity for snorkeling and swimming from the beach.
Next day’s expedition plan and dinner.

Thursday - Galapagos Islands:
    Morning - Puerto Baquerizo Moreno (San Cristóbal (Chatham) Island): Disembark at Puerto Baquerizo Moreno. This small attractive port is the provincial capital of the Galápagos Islands (population 4,000), along a crescent-shaped bay. Visit the San Cristóbal Interpretation Center, located in a natural setting, where  visitors can obtain information that will help them understand more the natural history of the Galápagos, with a great emphasis on human history and conservation. Later this morning visit the breeding center for tortoises (La Galapaguera) at Cerro Colorado, including a 45-minute bus ride. Seeing the semi-saddle back shape of the tortoises can be a great way to understand adaptation to dry-tropical environments.  The rewarding fauna of this island may not only be the giant tortoises, since many island-specific endemics are found here.  It includes mockingbirds, lava lizards, and the vermilion flycatchers.   Return to Yacht LA PINTA for lunch.
    Afternoon - Cerro Brujo (San Cristobal Island): In the afternoon, A dinghy ride along the shores of tuff-stone layers will bring us to Cerro Brujo for a wet landing at a white coraline beach .  The beach is a great open walking area, with rewarding birdwatching.  There are seabirds like blue-footed boobies, Nazca boobies, herons, frigate birds, and some shore birds. Also, look for Galapagos sea lions. Highlights ashore include the Chatham (San Cristobal) Mockingbird, Chatham Lava Lizard; both species are endemic to this island, and seen nowhere else in Galapagos. We may also spot Yellow Warblers, Galapagos flycatchers.These are the same shores that Charles Darwin walked upon, back in September 1835, as San Cristobal was the first island where he set foot in the Galapagos. 
Farewell cocktail and departure briefing.

Friday - Galapagos-Guayaquil and fly to Lima, Peru: After breakfast transfer to the airport to take the flight back to Guayaquil where you change planes and fly south to Lima. Upon arrival Lima, meeting and transfer to the Miraflores Park Hotel for overnight. (B)

Saturday - Lima-Iquitos and begin cruising: Today you will visit the mian points of interest in this once royal city, founded in 1535 and originally named The city of Kings. Visit the Plaza de Armas, recently named by UNESCO as Cultural Heritage to the World,  with the Cathedral and Presidential Palace, the 17th Century Church and Monastery of San Francisco and then drive out into the modern suburbs of Miraflores and San Isidro.  Also visit your choice of Lima's outstanding museums: the famed Gold Museum, a private collection of the Mujica Gallo family, or the Archaeological Museum. Have lunch at the Rosa Nautica Restaurant located on a pier jutting out into the Pacific and then after lunch transfer to the airport for your flight to Iquitos, in the heart of the Peruvian rainforest. Meeting by the staff from Aqua Expeditions and transfer to Iquitos main wharf for embarkation on the M/V Aqua where you will enjoy over-sized Master Suite accommodations during your 7-night exploration of the Pacaya-Samiria Reserve, considered one of the most bio-diverse rainforests on earth. Settle in, Safety Drill and trip briefing and Welcome Dinner, (B,L,D)

Sunday - Amazon & Tahuayo Rivers and Charo Lake: This morning you will board our comfortable excursion skiffs for your first adventure, traveling from the Amazon through the Huaysi short-cut canal to explore the Tahuayo black water river. Life jackets, ponchos, rubber boots and plenty of cold potable water will always be available for you on board the skiffs. As we float down the Tahuayo, occasional fishermen paddling in their dug-out canoes will give us a cheerful greeting. Keep your binoculars ready to spot a vast variety of wildlife: terns, orioles, blackbirds, black collared hawks, monkeys, and sloth share this wonderful environment with us. Upon arrival at Charo Lake, you can bait your hooks to try to catch one of Amazonia’s fearsome piranhas (and other fish as well). As you fish, trained naturalist guides will also tell you the story of the lake and its inhabitants. Mid-day return to the whip where icy cold towels await you, as you transfer from your skiffs into the M/V Aqua. As the vessel continues up the Amazon River, you have some time to relax, or perhaps even take a nap, before lunch. In the afternoon, explore the Yacapana Islands, called the “Iguana Islands” by the locals because of the huge population of these reptiles—like tiny dinosaurs—crawling over the ground and resting in the tree tops. Amazon folklore says that if you touch an iguana, you will develop some of their traits; nobody wants to be ugly, so the iguanas are well protected. We will pass by in the skiff, giving you a chance to snap good photos. As the sun sets, you will have the chance to see and photograph both gray and pink freshwater dolphins. The people of the Amazon believe that these dolphins turn into humans to steal handsome men or pretty women from their villages during celebrations. (B,L,D)

Monday - Maranon River & Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve (Nauto Cano & Yanayacu-Pucate): Today you will have a choice between two different   excursions:

Option 1: Full-Day Excursion with a Picnic Lunch at Ranger Station No. 2: Travel by skiff from Yanayacu Creek all the way to remote Chingana, a small creek where giant river otter usually nest. These handsome animals were killed in great numbers for their pelts, and are now threatened with extinction. On this excursion, you will also see howler and capuchin monkeys, the squirrel-sized monkeys called tamarins, pink and gray river dolphins, and a vast variety of birds. We will also take you deep into the jungle, where you will encounter wildlife and learn first-hand about the important medical value of jungle plants. And we will show you famous Kapok Trees (ceiba pentandra), the tallest trees in the Amazon Basin. Enjoy a generous picnic lunch at the park Ranger Station No. 2, before we begin our journey back to our vessel.

Option 2: Guided Jungle Walk/Siesta/Monkey and Dolphin Expedition.: This morning your Park Ranger will tell you all about sustainable resource management projects in Amazonia. You will visit one of the projects, where villagers are planting palms to obtain oil. The ranger may also show you the artificial nests created on the sand to protect turtle eggs. Return to the M/V Aqua for lunch and a siesta and then enjoy a late afternoon Monkey and Dolphin Expedition: On this late afternoon expedition, you are likely to see the two different kinds of freshwater dolphins—including the unusual pink ones—found in the Amazon. Later, keep your eyes directed toward the jungle canopy, where you can spot at least several kinds of primates—among the 13 species of monkeys resident in the National Park. Perhaps you will catch a glimpse of tamarins and howlers, dusky titi monkeys and pigmy marmoset monkeys. Watch for alligators, and keep your binoculars at the ready, as you are likely to see more than 200 species of birds.

This evening we will take the skiffs out in search of caimans, tree boas, tarantulas, and frogs. After this night adventure, the M/V Aqua will start sailing downstream on the Marañon River, toward the headwaters of the Amazon. (B,L,D)

Tuesday - Birthplace of the Amazon, Puerto Miguel VIllage and Marayali River:  This morning, the M/V Aqua skirts the edges of the vast Pacaya-Samiria Reserve, a flooded forest covering five million acres at the headwaters of the Amazon basin. Rise early and be on your skiffs at 5:30 a.m. to view one of the great spectacles of the Southern Hemisphere: the sun rising over the birthplace of the Amazon River. Here—where the union of two major tributaries, the Ucayali and the Marañon, form the world’s greatest waterway—nature is at its most dramatic. Your dawn excursion will be accompanied by abundant bird song, as you glide in small boats past river banks populated by large-billed terns, laughing falcons, gray tanagers, sandpipers, five kinds of parakeets, the exotic short-tailed parrot, and dozens of other birds.  We will travel by skiff to Puerto Miguel native village, where you can meet and interact with local villagers from this most remote part of the world, and can learn a bit more about their culture, traditions, and folklore. You will also have the chance to trade items for local handicrafts. Return to the Aqua for lunch and siesta, and in the late afternoon travel by skiff along the Ucayali river to Yucuruche Lake, where will walk a little ways into the jungle to see the world’s largest aquatic plant, the giant water lilies or “Victoria Regias”. You will be one of a very small number of people who have ever seen these plants bloom at night. (B,L,D)

Wednesday - Ucayali River and Yanallpa area: This morning we will go in search of the bizarre-looking birds called “hoatzins”, which live in huge colonies in a very strange Jurassic Park-like lake. As we hike, your guides will teach you orientation techniques used in the deep jungle. Return to the Aqua for lunch and then in mid-afternoon cruise the majestic Ucayali River, giving you a chance to see and meet native balseros, or fishermen, who will demonstrate their skill and let you see their catch—including a type of “armored” catfish with a shell-like skin—which they are taking to the market in the small village of Requena. We will also find a “banana balsero” raft, loaded with hundreds of clusters of bananas, drifting down the river to market. This evening enjoy a night trip on the Sapote River. Your guides will show you several types of caiman, members of the alligator family, along the fish-rich Sapote River. Chances are good that we will surprise other night-dwelling creatures as well. (B,L,D)

Thursday - Puinahua River, Hatum Posa Lake and Pacaya River: Morning jungle walk near Hatum Posa village. On this walk, your guides will introduce you to native people doing subsistence farming, and will tell you how they learned to cultivate wild plants and trees to earn farm income. Deep in the primary forest, your guides will also show you the wealth of fruit trees and medicinal plants hidden in the jungle. Return to the Aqua for lunch and then mid-afternoon  we will take our skiffs along the Pacaya River, journeying from Ranger Station No. 1 toward Yanayacu Lake, where you can view the abundant life that is hidden in the deep rainforest. You may see saki monkeys, capuchin monkeys, and the easy-to-spot heavy howler monkeys. As the sun sets, you will hear the loud, ferocious sounding warning signals made by howler monkeys marking their territories. When night falls, you will hear the second movement of the Amazon rainforest symphony, as other nocturnal animals send their shrill calls across the tree tops. We will use our special spotlight torches to locate night creatures, including, perhaps, huge caimans. Tonight the vessel will be docked by the No. 1 Ranger Station in Pacaya Samiria National Park. (B,L,D)

Friday - Puinahua and Pacaya Rivers and Carocurahuayte Lake: In the bright morning light, your guides will show you parrots, macaws, toucans, and many different types of monkeys. We will also go to the dolphin feeding spots along Yanayacu Lake, where you will be delightfully surrounded by these creatures while enjoying a light breakfast and fresh juice. Late morning return to the Aqua and begin the homeward journey, sailing toward Iquitos. Mid-afternoon Sapote River Fishing Trip. Armed with poles and bait, we will take you to a special place on this fish-rich river, where you will catch some of the more than 3,000 species of tropical fish that live in the Amazon Basin. The key target will be piranhas, the small carnivorous fish with a fearsome reputation—considered a good food source by the locals. We will sail downstream all night, as we make our way to Iquitos. Evening Farewell Dinner: just minutes after being in the wilderness, surrounded by monkeys and birds, and the other wildlife of the rainforest, you will find yourself sitting down to a final gourmet feast in the ship’s dining room and tonight, the guides will introduce some of the crew members you haven’t yet met on the trip, but who have worked behind the scenes to give you an unforgettable experience. (B,L,D)

Saturday - Arrive Iquitos and return to Lima: Early morning optional brief skiff trip along the majestic Amazon will give you a last chance to photograph the wildlife of the jungle. Mid-morning arrival in Iquitos, light lunch and early afternoon disembarkation for a visit to the town of Iquitos accessible only by river or air. This bustling town, complete with a house built by Gustave Eiffel, was once a rich center of the rubber industry. After a city tour, we will make a stop at San Juan Amazonian Indians’ Market for some last-minute shopping before transferring to the airport for return flight to Iquitos, arrive in the early evening. Upon arrival, meeting and transfer to your hotel, the Lima Country Club for overnight stay with breakfast included. (B,L)

Sunday - Lima - Miami: Transfer from your hotel to the airport for your return flight to Miami, where you clear customs, immigrations and continue to your home city.

RATES and DETAILS: