8-Day Western & Southern: Punta Espinosa's Iguana Colony

San Cristobal's airport sits at the edge of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, a five-minute drive from the town center, so this is usually your first taste of the islands rather than a standalone excursion. Sea lions and marine iguanas are known to rest right next to the runway here, an unscripted welcome few airports can match. From the terminal, a short transfer takes you down to the pier for a panga ride out to your ship.

Named for a park ranger who dedicated 39 years of service to the islands, this San Cristobal facility focuses on conserving the island's native Chelonoidis chathamensis giant tortoise. Established in 2002, it lets you see tortoises at every stage of growth in a carefully designed, semi-natural habitat, part of an ongoing breeding and reintroduction program.

Formed by geological uplift rather than volcanic activity, Santa Fe is unusually flat for a Galapagos island, and it's the only place on Earth with its own endemic subspecies of land iguana. After landing in clear, turquoise water, a walk through a forest of giant, tree-sized Opuntia cactus leads to iguanas basking beneath them. The Galapagos dove is a reliable sight along the trail, and with some luck you may also spot the Galapagos snake or the Galapagos hawk.

A short landing puts you immediately among sea lions and the endemic Plaza land iguana, smaller and more golden than its relatives elsewhere. Watch closely and you might spot a rare hybrid, the result of an occasional cross between a marine and a land iguana found only here. The trail crosses a carpet of succulent Sesuvium, red for part of the year, studded with Opuntia cactus. Along the cliffs, swallow-tailed gulls nest on the ledges beside red-billed tropicbirds, and frigatebirds circle overhead as the loop returns to the landing.

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.

Despite the name, Los Gemelos aren't volcanic craters. They're twin sinkholes, formed when empty underground magma chambers collapsed, set in the misty highlands of Santa Cruz and ringed by dense, endemic Scalesia forest. A trail loops around both rims through some of the lushest vegetation in the islands, one of the better places in the archipelago to spot a short-eared owl hunting in daylight, and, with patience, the increasingly rare vermilion flycatcher.

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.

At the base of Alcedo Volcano on Isabela, Urbina Bay marks a dramatic geological event: a 1954 uplift left blocks of coral fully exposed on dry land, well above the waterline. A long, level walk leads out to them, passing land iguanas and flightless cormorants along the way, and, on occasion, a giant tortoise.

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.

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.

There's no landing at Punta Vicente Roca: this dramatic, eroded caldera on Isabela's coast is explored entirely by snorkel, dinghy, or kayak. The cold Cromwell Current runs through here, and it's what keeps the water so alive: blue-footed boobies nest reliably along the cliffs, and in the water you can expect Galapagos penguins and, between July and November, ocean sunfish rising to cleaning stations in the cold upwelling. Sperm whales pass through on rare occasions, and giant manta rays are a possibility during the same cooler months.

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 wooden staircase of 372 steps climbs Bartolome's extinct volcano from a lava-and-concrete dock or sandy beach, depending on conditions. Along the way, red, orange, black, and even green volcanic layers mark the slopes, home to pioneer plants like the island-endemic Tiquilia nesiotica, lava cactus, and scattered Scalesia. With some luck, a lava lizard crosses the trail. At the top, the view over the twin bays and the iconic Pinnacle Rock is the reward for the climb. Back at sea level, a snorkel around the coral reef and submerged lava rocks is a good bet for Galapagos penguins and white-tipped reef sharks, with sea turtles and manta rays turning up now and then too.

A dry landing sets you down on North Seymour's flat, sun-baked terrain, and the trail wastes no time getting to the action: magnificent frigatebirds display from low shrubs right along the path, males inflating their scarlet throat pouches into balloons to catch a female's eye. Blue-footed boobies are a near-constant presence along the same stretch, and during the breeding season you may catch their high-stepping courtship dance just a few feet from the trail, showing off the bright blue feet that give the species its name. Land and marine iguanas share the coastline as the trail loops back toward the water, and sea lions haul out along the shore. Keep an eye on the cliffs above the surf too, where swallow-tailed gulls sometimes perch between flights out to sea.

The return transfer is straightforward: a panga ride from your ship to the pier, then a short bus ride to Baltra's airport, the world's first fully ecological terminal, run on solar and wind power. Land iguanas, reintroduced here after being wiped out decades ago, are sometimes seen right around the grounds on the way to your flight.