Galapagos - Thanksgiving
November 21-28, 2006 - Trip Report
With Neblina Forest (Aboard the San José Yacht)
Tour Leader: Lelis Navarrete

November 21. Early morning flight from Quito to Baltra were we were greeted by our Naturalist guide and then a very short bus transfer to the small port near the Baltra airport base to get onboard the San Jose Yacht and immediate sailing to North Seymour North for our first excursion and nature walk on the islands.

November 22. Early morning visit to Darwin Beach and the beginning of thetrail to the light houses, in the mid morning snorkeling for close to an hour, after lunch visit to Prince Phillips Steps trail and sail towards Isabela.

November 23. After a very bumpy overnight ride we arrive to Black Beach (Playa Negra) on time to have a very early visit in the Mangrove forest before breakfast and after breakfast (already on board) we sailed to Punta Espinosa where we had some time to have a boat ride before getting onshore to visit the famous thorny point.

November 24. Early morning “panga” ride (the Spanish word for an outboard small-wooden boat) into some beautiful mangrove forest were the main attraction were not the birds but the water wildlife, later on we went sailing to Punta Moreno, still in the western side of Izabela were the fairly young lava fields created a lunar landscape dotted with brackish lagoons which are home of a few water related birds, in the early afternoon we started navigating aiming for Floreana Island.

November 25. Early morning and before breakfast boat ride around the Champion Islet, then sail to Puerto Velazco Ibarrra port and went up to the highlands of Floreana riding small truck which is on of the means of public transportation in the island, back on board, after lunch sailed to Punta Cormorant, in the mid afternoon we went snorkeling in what is probably the best snorkeling spot in the Islands (The Devil´s Crown), later in the afternoon a visit to Punta Cormorant and once again snorkeling close to the beach, during the night we sailed to Santa Cruz Island.

November 26. Very early disembark in the Santa Cruz and a bus ride to the highlands towards the Media Luna site, this was a very eclectic morning, the bus (one of the very few working in this morning since it was a presidential election day for Ecuador) had a very high top roof and since there many branches hanging over the road we were not able to reach as high as we were supposed to, we had to walk at least 4 k (round trip) to the Miconia zone where we faced a strong rain for some 30 minutes and a constant “garua” but the long walk had many productive stops specially when right before turning around we were able to fine the elusive Galapagos Rail, the long walked toke much of our morning time, then we drove to the Rancho Primicias were we visited the Galapagos Giant Tortoises, in the afternoon we visited the Charles Darwin Station. Night sail to Española Island.

November 27. Early morning visit to Punta Suarez and midmorning sale to San Cristobal where we visited the highlands to finish with our quest for the Galapagos endemic birds. Night sale towards Santa Cruz and Baltra.

November 28. Early morning sail around Daphne Major and Daphne Minor before heading to Baltra to catch our return flight to Guayaquil and Quito.

Overall assessment: One of my preferred trips here in South America. We saw all the Galápagos endemic birds but the Galápagos Martin and as always, study the Geology, Geography, History, Botany, Entomology, Ichthyology, Evolution and the Natural history of everything. This is one of this trips were it is not only possible to look for all the birds but also study so many things that is too difficult to try to describe the experience in a few words, there is a big difference with other birding trips since in the islands we are not to busy looking for birds all the time and we can look at leisure to all the wild life, proof of that is the amazing fish list we collected.

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