6-Day Western Islands: Las Tintoreras' Reef Sharks

Most Galapagos itineraries begin here. Baltra's airport is the world's first fully ecological airport, run on solar and wind power and built largely from recycled materials, including old oil pipes repurposed into the terminal structure. Land iguanas, wiped out here by the 1950s and reintroduced through a decades-long breeding program, now number in the hundreds again, some right around the airport grounds. From the terminal, a short bus transfer brings you to the pier for the panga ride out to your ship.

Set on the grounds of the Galapagos National Park Service on Santa Cruz, this station was once home to Lonesome George, the last known tortoise of the Pinta subspecies. A series of interpretive buildings walks you through the conservation science underway across the islands, and the surrounding native vegetation is a good place to look for Darwin's finches going about their business.

A short dinghy ride from Isabela leads to a cluster of small islets ringing a calm, turquoise bay. It connects to a narrow, crystalline crevice where whitetip reef sharks, the tintoreras the site is named for, rest together in daylight, one of the most reliable sightings anywhere in the archipelago. Sea lions, sea turtles, marine iguanas, and rays share the wider bay too, and marine iguanas nest along the islet's edge.

Sierra Negra's caldera stretches 10 km north to south and 9 km east to west, one of the largest volcanic calderas on Earth. The more commonly walked route to Volcan Chico crosses relatively recent lava flows with sweeping views toward the volcanoes of Isabela and neighboring Fernandina; a longer trek reaches a system of active fumaroles known as the Sulfur Mine. This is a geology-and-scenery visit, and wildlife isn't the focus here.

Just outside Puerto Villamil, the Isabela Wetlands are a network of lagoons and mangrove swamp that draw a distinctive mix of shorebirds. White-cheeked pintails, black-necked stilts, great egrets, American flamingos, sanderlings, and more move through these lagoons, making the boardwalk trail through swamp and cactus scrub one of the better birdwatching walks on Isabela.

At first glance Punta Moreno looks like little more than a lava flow at the base of Cerro Azul, but its black surface holds a series of lagoons with a surprising amount of life. Flamingos are a fairly good bet in the pools, and paint-billed crakes, white-cheeked pintails, and common gallinules turn up for those willing to watch the water closely.

There's no landing here. The whole visit happens aboard a zodiac. The route passes the Marielas Islets, home to the largest and most important Galapagos penguin colony in the archipelago, before easing into a cove ringed by red mangroves. Flightless cormorants perch at the water's edge, sea turtles surface nearby, and golden rays glide beneath the boat now and then. It's one of the best places in the islands to watch this much wildlife without ever stepping ashore.

Fernandina is the only major island in the archipelago with no introduced species, which makes Punta Espinosa one of the most pristine wildlife encounters anywhere in the Galapagos. A wet landing brings you onto black lava draped with the largest gathering of marine iguanas in the islands, alongside Galapagos penguins and flightless cormorants, both drawn here by the cold, nutrient-rich current. Around June, when marine iguana hatchlings emerge, keep an eye out for the Galapagos racer snake hunting along the nesting zone. Snorkeling here is a rare chance to watch marine iguanas feeding underwater, a behavior found almost nowhere else.

A zodiac ride along Tagus Cove's cliffs is the first stop, tracing walls carved with the graffiti of sailors and whalers going back over a century. Charles Darwin himself anchored here in 1835. Watch the rock for Galapagos penguins and flightless cormorants before you land and set off on a gently climbing trail, roughly 30 minutes each way, to a viewpoint over Darwin Lake, a crater lake saltier than the ocean itself. Along the way, look for land birds that are easy to miss: ground and tree finches, yellow warblers, large-billed flycatchers, and, with a little luck, the tool-using woodpecker finch. Land iguanas and giant tortoises sometimes cross the path as well. Back at the water, most visits close with a dinghy ride or a snorkel along the submerged cliff wall, depending on the day's plan, with another good chance at penguins and cormorants gliding by.

A quiet landing on Santiago's western coast, best known as a nesting ground for Pacific green sea turtles, who come ashore to lay their eggs between December and June.

Puerto Egas stands out for its black volcanic sand and a shoreline where land and sea meet in close quarters. Galapagos hawks are often seen along the walk, and at the far end waits a colony of Galapagos fur seals tucked into shaded rock grottoes, one of the more reliable places in the islands to see this endangered species.

A short crossing from Puerto Baquerizo Moreno on San Cristobal, Isla Lobos takes its name from the sea lion colony that calls it home, and doubles as a seasonal nesting ground for blue-footed boobies. Frigatebirds have begun nesting here in recent years too, and fur seals turn up now and then. The walk covers roughly 850 meters of mixed rocky and sandy trail.

The transfer back is the reverse of the arrival: a panga ride from your ship to the pier in Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, then a short drive to the airport, which sits right next to town. Keep an eye out for sea lions and marine iguanas near the runway on the way in, one last sighting before you fly out.