The Thorlitzer's Grand Adventures: Cruising in the Galapagos

This is a pretty exhaustive trip report about the Galapagos on the MV Eclipse and all of our landing sites. I will provide you the itinerary and a number of photos from each day. Also, as mentioned in the summary post, I highly recommend the Eclipse for the amenities and quality of the boat and staff. Also of special mention were the naturalist guides that were exceptional about explaining the history and wildlife and engaging us in all the activities including snorkeling and hiking.

Each landing site had a unique sight, animal, or other feature that made it really stand out. The cruise was 8 days and included two excursions per full day and I will summarize these rather than going in depth about both sites. Beware though this is a long post and very photo heavy.

Day 1 – Arrival into Baltra
- PM Excursion: Black Turtle Cove

Day one was when boarded the boat and only had a half day, thus only the PM excursion. This was also the day we saw our first blue footed booby (which we thought might be our last of course even though we saw hundreds more), we saw egrets, pelicans, turtles in the quiet bay of mangroves, and a pelican among a few small other animals.

Day 2: Rabida Island and Santiago Island
- AM Excursion – Rabida Island
- PM Excursion – Puerto Egas, James Bay

Today was a very busy day with an early morning wake up call but it was well worth it. We got to see the red sand at Rabida and the Black sand at Puerto Egas. We also got to see the Galapagos Dove, a Frigate Bird fight, a couple of Finches (including the Darwin Finch), the bright red Sally Lightfoot Crab, the yellow warbler, and most importantly marine iguanas (yes iguanas that have adapted to eat algae/seaweed and swim). This was a very impressive day.

Day 3 – Isabela Island and Fernandina Island
- AM Excursion – Tagus Cove
- PM Excursion - Punta Espinoza
- Panga Ride after Whales

Today we started very early (at least some of us did) as Eve, Eric, and I hiked up past Darwin Lake, Carrie and Lisa did Kayaking, and everyone else slept in. The views and activities were really fun and then we went snorkeling with penguins!!!! mid morning, then in the afternoon on a tour of a massive lava field including marine iguanas, weeks old sea lions, flightless cormorants, lava cactus, small bay pools, all followed by an evening chase for whales (luckily we got close to one).

Day 4 – Isabela Island
- AM Excursion – Urbina Bay
- PM Excursion - Punta Vicente Roca
  - Snorkeling and Panga Ride
- Crossing the Equator Celebration

In the morning we got to see our first giant Galapagos tortoises, the land iguanas (yellow not black and gray like the marine iguanas) and got some light interest by some wasps. In the afternoon we had one of the best snorkeling trips when we got to see a Mola Mola (sorry no photo due to the depth), a massive amount of turtles, a marine iguana swimming (and dropping on a head), a flightless cormorant building a nest, and a manta ray that Eric swam after (off).
After all the activities we got to celebrate the crossing the equator with some champagne, sushi, and a stunning sunset.
This also marked just over half of the cruise as we sailed back towards the central part of the islands.

Day 5 – Day off Boat (Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz Island)
- AM Excursion – Charles Darwin Research Station (Tortoise Breeding Center)
  - Highlands of Santa Cruz Tortoise Reserve
  - Lava Tube
- PM Excursion – Hora Loca – Oh caipirinha

Today was a day off the boat, and back to Puerto Ayora and some sort of civilization. We spent the morning at the Charles Darwin Research and Tortoise Breeding Centre, where we saw Diego the newly famous tortoise (RIP Lonesome George), saw some adorable baby tortoises, then we were off to see the giant tortoises in the wild highlands of Santa Cruz, and then we walked briefly in a lava tunnel. All of this before lunch.
For lunch we at at La Garrapata (I highly recommend this place), then got free ice cream and walked around town shopping and relaxing. We capped this all off with Crazy Hour at The Rocks (I recommend the Caipirinhas).

Day 6 Genovesa Island
- AM Excursions - Prince Philip’s Steps
- Snorkeling
- PM Excursion - Darwin Bay

Today we saw so many interesting sights from Nazca Boobys, Red Footed Boobys, babies and eggs of almost all the birds including the Frigate Birds, swallowtail gulls, the rare lava gulls, and a short eared owl. Snorkeling we saw a school of mobula rays (which look like small manta rays), a spotted eagle ray, and glimpsed a hammerhead despite some rough sea conditions.

Day 7 - Bartoleme Island and Dragon Hill
- AM Excursion – Bartoleme
- PM Excursion - Cerro Dragon or Dragon Hill

Today was a very full day with a morning hike to the top of Bartoleme Island, followed by a long snorkel (best visibility of the trip), and then an afternoon walking around Dragon Hill where we saw numerous land iguanas, feral goats, and flamingos along with some ghost crabs and a few marine iguanas for good measure.

This was our last night on the boat and we had a wonderful dinner (food art), and spent dessert hour watching pelicans, sea lions, and sharks fight over some flying fish for their main course.