Galapagos Photography Adventure Nature Photography Adventures April 12-25 2020 Day 01: 12 April, Sunday QUITO Meet and arrival transfer Upon arrival at Quito s international airport, you will be met by our representative and transferred to the hotel. Overnight La Casona de la Ronda (or similar) Day 02: 13 April, Monday QUITO Full day tour of old Quito, a World Heritage Site. We have laid out a driving and walking route that will present outstanding photography opportunities including the Statue of the Virgin of Quito, the Monastery at the Cathedral of Santa Fe, the Basilica del Voto National, and other cathedrals in the World Heritage site of old central Quito, and the main plaza of old Quito. We ll return to the main plaza at night to capture images as the Presidential Palace and nearby cathedrals are illuminated against the night sky. Overnight La Casona de la Ronda (or similar) Day 03: 14 April, Tuesday AM: Fly from Quito to Baltra PM: Get underway on the Samba. After lunch and a short sail, we ll make our first landing on the Galapagos - a dry landing on North Seymour, where we will walk amongst the largest blue-footed booby colony in the Galapagos. We may witness courship, the odd dancing and singing. There should be nesting great and magnificent frigate birds. We may have our first opportunity to photograph those famous inflated red pouches - as males vie for attention from the females. We ll also seek photographic opportunities with swallow tailed gulls and tropicbirds.
Day 04: 15 April, Wednesday AM: Darwin Bay, Tower Island (Genovesa) PM: Prince Philip s Steps, Tower Island (Genovesa) While we are sleeping, the crew of the Samba will navigate 6 to 7 hours to arrive at Tower Island (also known as Isla Genovesa), where we ll wake to the dawn chorus of one of the largest colonies of tropical sea birds on the planet! Here the cliff tops are crowded with frigate birds, red-footed boobies, Nazca boobies, swallow-tailed gulls, red-billed tropicbirds and more, many of them here to court and nest. We ll go ashore (wet landing) to observe and photograph the courtship antics and displays of red-footed boobies and frigate birds. We ll find lava herons and sea lions. We ll compose images of Darwin s finches, Galapagos doves, and mockingbirds as they seek seeds and insects. After lunch we ll practice (from the dinghies) photographing birds in flight as red-billed tropicbirds and Galapagos shearwaters make screamingly fast approaches to the cliff-like edge of the island. Then we ll make a dry landing to climb Prince Philip s Steps 100 feet above sea level to a spectacular trail on top of Tower Island. We will be greeted by courting and nesting birds right at the top of the steps! We might see some babies and sometimes they show us their eggs! Our trail will weave through a dwarf forest to find nesting red-footed and Nazca boobies. Next up thousands of storm petrels literally storming the island as they make their endless journeys between onshore nests and offshore food supplies. And we ll watch for an opportunity to photograph a short-eared owl patiently waiting to catch one of those storm petrels.
Day 05: 16 April, Thursday AM: Punta Mejia, Marchena Island (Bindloe) PM: Playa Negra, Marchena Island (Bindloe) Again, the Samba will reposition this time to Marchena Island. Marchena has the highest level of protection among the Galapagos Islands no one can go ashore except on an approved scientific mission. Hence, it is rarely visited. The island, one of the newest, has young lava flows with just the beginnings of colonization by plant life. We ll explore this untouched wonder by snorkeling, approaching the shoreline in dinghies, and by kayaking. We ll snorkel at Punta Mejia, a sensational site, which will give us the sense that we are slipping overboard to witness a shoreline of a freshly born planet! We ll see a wide variety of fishes and may find rays, reef sharks, and sea turtles. After snorkeling at Punta Mejia, we have a 45 minute navigation to Playa Negra that may stretch on longer than 45 minutes if we spot bottle nosed dolphins or other cetaceans! At Playa Negra we ll snorkel around a recently formed lava grotto a natural aquarium surrounded by lava arches and tunnels. Then, we re off navigating to the southwest toward the northern tip of Isabela. Our route will take us over deep nutrient rich waters and we have good chances (no promises but our record is good) of sightings of whales and dolphins! Day 06: 17 April, Friday AM: Punta Albemarle, Isabela Island (Albermarle) PM: Punta Vicente Roca, Isabela Island (Albermarle) Again, we depart from the usual itineraries of Galapagos cruises as we visit Punta Albermarle, the furthest north point of Isla Isabela. Ashore, we ll find ourselves walking on recent lava flows to find a nesting colony of flightless cormorants. Because this site is so rarely visited those cormorants are likely to allow us to quietly watch and capture images as they go about courtship and building nests from seaweed. Here we ll also find the largest marine iguanas of the Galapagos! It s also a great place to create artful images based on dramatic cactus forms. When we re-board the Samba, prepare to cross the equator!
After lunch we ll climb into dinghies and approach Punta Vicente Roca, an exciting classroom of full sized models of volcanic activity. We ll photograph a collection of tuff cones and lava dikes on the southwest flank of Ecuador Volcano, capturing dramatic scenic images. We ll also watch for Galapagos penguins, brown noddies, blue-footed boobies and other marine life, so you ll want to be ready for any kind of photographic action! We ll explore the mouth of a sea cave by dinghy! This area is great for snorkeling. We ll find a wildly colorful collection of invertebrates attached to the walls of the tuff cones and the chance of watching sea turtles feeding! Day 07: 18 April, Saturday AM: Punta Espinoza, Fernandina Island PM: Urbina Bay, Isabela Island Saturday will be a big day! Start the day with all your batteries charged and all your camera memory available! This is one of our favorite days and is likely to be a non-stop photographic feeding frenzy! We ll start the day by going ashore (probably a dry landing) at Punta Espinoza on the young island of Fernandina. Fernandina is an island in the making. In 2009 we narrowly missed photographing an eruption that had lava pouring into the sea! But, at Punta Espinoza the focus is on life! This is the place where we ll see hundreds, of marine iguanas. We ll photograph them sunning, swimming, and everything in between. We may spot lava lizards grooming the iguanas or even posing on top of their heads! Chances are good that we ll be able to photograph flightless cormorants and, in the past, we ve focused on formations of blue-footed boobies diving for fish! This is one of the best places to photograph sea turtles and we often do well here with Sally lightfoot crabs. Oh, and there may well be an opportunity to capture a Galapagos hawk in flight! Wildlife aside, there are amazing lava flows here it will be great to listen to Juan describe how all of this happened and to challenge yourself to capture black-on-black images of lava art! And there will be great opportunities to design striking images of cactus on lava flows and mangroves juxtapositioned with lava! We ll be ashore longer than any other group but you ll be begging for another hour when we absolutely have to leave!
We have a short navigation mid day. A good time to download and back up the morning s images and top up the batteries because we re not done! In the afternoon we re headed to Urbina Bay (perhaps our roughest wet landing) back on Isabela Island. Urbina Bay is the site of an earthquake in 1954 that uplifted a large area, creating ¾ of a mile of new shoreline. This new land became a perfect nesting area for land iguanas and the land iguanas of Urbina Bay are the largest of the Galapagos. We may also spot tortoises as we walk the trails here. The tortoises have come down from the highlands to mate and lay eggs close to the shoreline. In the past, we ve had extremely good luck capturing images of spiders and spider webs, of fossils (a rarity among these igneous islands) exposed by the uplift, and of skeletal pieces along the shoreline! Day 08: 19 April, Sunday AM: Elizabeth Bay, Isabela Island PM: Punta Moreno, Isabela Island It s Sunday morning and we continue our exploration of Isabela, the largest of the Galapagos Islands. This morning we ll explore by dinghy rather than on foot, pointing our craft into mangrovelined channels where lava meets salt water at Elizabeth Bay. Our quest is to find penguins, creatures of the colder southern climates, mixed with mangroves which are restricted to tropical zones. In the shallow mangrove lined channels, we re likely to find spotted eagle rays and sea turtles and surprises, as mangrove roots are classic nurseries for all kinds of sea life! In the afternoon, we ll challenge our photographic design skills with an amazing walk on a young lava flow at Punta Moreno (dry landing). Here, we ll be astounded at the tenacity with which life clings to tiny opportunities to gain footholds and we ll be tested as we strive to interpret that tenacity in ways that truly capture both the stark nature of a lava flow and the inspiring beauty of plants colonizing it! We ll have serious black-on-black issues to deal with but the results will be amazing! As we venture further onto the lava field we ll encounter rich oases where lava tubes have collapsed and support pools of brackish water surrounded by lush growth and some waterfowl. We may be lucky enough to discover flamingos resting or feeding in one of the oasis. There will also be great opportunities to design abstract images from both lava patterns and from the large cactus we ll encounter. The end of this trail holds an amazing surprise be sure and bring your polarizer!
Day 09: 20 April, Monday AM: Floreana Island (Charles, Santa Maria) PM: Devil s Crown, Santa Cruz - Puerto Ayora Today we re headed to the highlands of Floreana! We ll land at Puerto Velasco Ibarra, go ashore, and head inland on a chiva. We ll stop to climb Cerro Alieri where we ll capture a fantastic view a landscape adorned with lichens and epiphytes. Our guide will entertain us with the fascinating story of romance and murder that took place on the island! In the afternoon we ll snorkel Devil s Crown, one of the most fascinating sited for finding all kinds of tropical fish - and sometimes sharks and giant rays! Then we sail north to Santa Cruz and keep an eye on the seas. The bell rings and we dash about getting our cameras to photograph dolphins. Day 10: 21 April, Tuesday AM & PM: Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz Island We ll wake up in a bustling harbor this morning - and we ll be bustling too. We ll take a dinghy to the dock and find modern transportation to the highlands. We ll explore collapsed lava craters and their forested ecosystems, finding impressive landscape opportuntities, and perhaps Darwin s finches! Then we will make our way to a tortoise reserve, where we ll be able to observe and photograph giant tortoises, unfenced, moving freely. Stealth and patience are your friends. Great images are possible! We ll make an afternoon stop at the Charles Darwin Research Station - a chance to learn about the impressive efforts to recreate wild populations of tortoises. We ll learn about serveral populations that were on the brink of extinction, but are now recovered or recovering. More tortoise photography of course!
Day 11: 22 April, Wednesday AM: Punta Cormorant and Champion, Floreana Island (Charles, Santa Maria) PM: Post Office Bay and The Barroness Lookout, Floreana Island (Charles, Santa Maria) After a 4-hour navigation while we sleep, morning will find us on Floreana. We ll go ashore (a wet landing) at Punta Cormorant, along the north shore, where we ll visit a brackish lagoon in hopes of photographing flamingos and a beautiful white sand beach frequented by nesting sea turtles. It s also a great place to find a colorful Galapagos locust! When we venture onto the sea turtle nesting beach, we may be able to photograph tracks left behind from either nesting females, or babies who have made the journey to the sea the night before. In the past, there have been great opportunities here to photograph Sally Lightfoot Crabs. Depending on the tide level, we may be able to see stingrays in the tidal zone! This is a great place to spot blue-footed boobies or pelicans diving for fish and to find Sally lightfoot crabs scrabbling among the rocks. Again, there is great material for close up photography on this beach! After a short navigation, we ll explore Champion Islet by dinghy and snorkel! We ll search the islet for the Floreana mockingbird (almost extinct) from the dinghies, while also photographing a beautiful landscape including terracotta rock formations adorned by cactus. Then, we ll hop overboard to snorkel with sea lions, rays, sharks and lots of fish! After lunch we ll make a stop at the post office. Post Office Bay (wet landing) is the historic place to leave mail to be picked up by a passing ship and taken back to port for delivery anywhere in the world. We ll drop our own letters and post cards and then sort through the collection to do our part to deliver letters to addresses close to our homes. It s a fun time and the collection of items around the postal barrel is worthy of a photographic study! Day 12: 23 April, Thursday AM: Punta Suarez, Española Island (Hood) PM: Gardner Bay and Gardner Island, Española Island (Hood) We ll land first at Punta Suárez where we ll be accosted by photographic opportunities before we can get our life jackets off! We ll be greeted by sea lions and Sally lightfoot crabs it will be hard to move off the landing platform with all the opportunities. But, a short walk (just a few meters) and we ll add a colorful colony of marine iguanas and we re likely to be surrounded by birds including blue-footed and Nazca boobies and possibly a Galapagos hawk!
Our walk will take us to a cliff where waved albatross will be landing, taking off, and gliding by on outstretched wings. It will be time to test your skills at composing and focusing on birds in flight! You ll have plenty of opportunities to photograph albatross, tropicbirds, Nazca boobies and Galapagos gulls in flight! And we ll take time to work the opportunity! This is the only spot in the Galapagos Islands where the waved albatross return to court and nest. We ll find mates seeking each other and others eagerly seeking a partner. We ll watch courtship rituals and may even spot the first eggs in nests! But, there s more. We ll visit and photograph a magnificent blowhole on our way to nesting Nazca and blue-footed boobies, before completing the loop and re-boarding our dinghies! We have a snorkel or kayak opportunity mid day, depending on weather conditions. Snorkeling around Gardner Island will present great opportunities to swim with sea lions and possibly rays. Then, in the afternoon we ll go ashore again at Gardner Bay (wet landing) to walk amongst a sea lion colony that is startling tolerant of our presence. This is a great time to work on sea lion close ups and art as scores of sea lions rest, nurse young, and socialize on this white sand beach. Watch for Hood mockingbirds which will dash among the sea lions in search of insects and are not at all afraid to approach photographers. An intensely teal sea gives way to breakers, framing the sea lions and our own vessel, the Samba. Day 13: 24 April, Friday AM: Isla Lobos We ll start the day on Isla Lobos, a small island off the northwest shore of San Cristobal (Chatham). Lobos, named for its barking colony of sea lions, will be our opportunity to photograph courting and nesting frigate birds. These agile fliers will puff up their red goular pouch, just below their chin, and look like they are sporting bright red balloons! We ll also have more opportunities to capture images of courting and nesting blue-footed boobies. It s time to pack and head back to the airport for our flight back to Quito, where we will be met by our guide and transferred to our hotel. We ll have one last great night in Quito where we can relive our great voyage over food and drink. Overnight Hotel Rincon de Puembo (or similar)
Day 14: 25 April, Monday Quito, Transfers to international flights Our guide will make several trips to make sure we all arrive at the international airport in time to check in for our flights home. 2020 Galapagos Photography Odyssey Prices $8,950 Double Occupancy (note that we built in the internal flight) Ask us about single occupancy opportunities Deposit $1,000 Second Payment $2,000 January 31, 2019 Final Payment November 10, 2019 What is included: Final Dinner in Quito Breakfasts in Quito All meals, water, juice, coffee and tea aboard the Samba Quito/Galapagos flights Not included: Lunches and Two Dinners in Quito Alcoholic beverages and soft drinks aboard the Samba (Cash or travelers checks) Tips Galapagos Park entry fee