Day 1: (Thursday) | Arrive in Lima, Peru
Fly from your home city to Lima, Peru. Upon arrival, you will be transferred to the hotel for check-in and overnight.
Hotel: Hotel B or similar
Day 2: (Friday) | Lima
Lima is a large city with a population of over 9 million in its metropolitan area. It also has flower gardens, great plazas, huge cathedrals, elegant colonial homes, fine museums, surfing, hopping nightlife, some of the world's finest restaurants, and excellent hotels. You tour historic Lima, including the Plaza de Armas where you'll see elegant carved wooden balconies and colonial architecture.
You visit the National Museum of Archeology, Anthropology and History which has one of the largest collections of Pre-Hispanic art and relics including exceptionally well preserved mummies. From here you proceed to Museo Larco to see an impressive collection of pottery plus gold and silver artifacts.
You'll lunch at the charming Larco Museum café. Located on the museum's terrace, the café is the perfect place to enjoy the Peruvian and international gastronomy in a magical and welcoming atmosphere.
You return to the hotel and have free time to explore the nearby galleries and shops. Dinner is on your own this evening.
Hotel: Hotel B or similar, BL
Day 3: (Saturday) | Pisac, Sacred Valley of the Incas
A quick flight over the snow-covered Andes brings you to Cusco, your gateway to the Sacred Valley. Your first stop on the way to Urubamba Valley is at the fountains of Tambo Machay outside of Cusco. After a scenic ride through rich fields of quinoa and amaranth, you descend into the scenic Urubamba Valley, cross the river and drive high above the valley floor to explore the ruins of the Inca Fortress of Pisac.
After the visit to the Fortress, there is a short stop to explore the typical, indigenous village of Pisac. If you are inclined, you may hike down from the Fortress through the terraces to the village where we will meet you.
Hotel: Hacienda Urubamba or similar, BLD
Day 4 (Sunday) | Chinchero Market - Maras - Moray
This morning, you’ll climb out of the valley to a very scenic 12,000-ft. plain en route to the indigenous market at Chinchero. There will be time to visit the market before you view a weaving demonstration orchestrated by Nilda Challañaupa, the founder, and director of The Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco. This organization is dedicated to preserving ancient textile designs and weaving techniques from all over the Andes. Some designs are more than 2000 years old and were thought to have been lost. Textiles created at the Center may be available for purchase.
You’ll enjoy lunch at a private Restaurant with magnificent views and visit the ancient archeological sites of Maras and Moray
Hotel: Hacienda Urubamba or similiar, BLD
Day 5 (Monday) | Ollantaytambo - Train to Machu Picchu
You begin the day with a visit to the spectacular temple-fortress and village of Ollantaytambo, a site that is little changed from the days of the Incas. You’ll catch a morning train in Ollantaytambo for one of the most breathtaking rail journeys in the world. The rail line follows the river down the impressive Canyon of the Vilcanota to the foot of Machu Picchu.
Your accommodations are at the lovely riverside Machu Picchu Pueblo, a short stroll from the Aguas Calientes train station. Following check-in, you will board a bus and head up to the archeaological site of Machu Picchu. It is an amazing ride including 22 switch backs.
You start your exploration of Machu Picchu with an orientation stroll around the site. This will give a rough sense of the layout of the ruins. After lunch you will enjoy an extended guided walking tour.
Hotel: Machu Picchu Pueblo; Sanctuary Lodge by request, BLD
Day 6 (Tuesday) | Full day at Machu Picchu, optional mountain hikes
As the site opens at sunrise, you'll have an early breakfast and catch the bus up to the ruins. Mist often shrouds the major peaks and floats onto the valley. The rising sun casts a golden glow into this fantasy land; it is not to be missed at this hour.
There is an optional (weather-dependent) challenging hike up Machu Picchu Mountain—a 5-6 hour round trip scenic workout! It's a steady climb, gentle stairs all the way up. The view of the site is awe inspiring. Your camera will give you astounding images. It's one of the most spectacular picnic sites you may ever enjoy.
There's another optional hike up a steep trail, hidden in crevasses and bushes that leads to the top of Huayna Picchu+, the slender granite peak that appears in every photo of Machu Picchu. On top, the view of Machu Picchu, the archeological site, the surrounding valleys and snow capped peaks is truly breath taking. The climb is impressive and requires no more than 1.5 - 2 hours, even if you are a very slow hiker. It is a challenging hike, not for everyone, but the reward of reaching the summit is one of the greatest views in the world! The descent is relatively quick and easy, but steep, and leads straight to lunch!
After lunch you'll have the option for further guided exploration of the ruins or you may also hike up to the Sun Gate overlooking Machu Picchu, explore the Inca Bridge.
Hotel: Machu Picchu Pueblo; Sanctuary Lodge by request, BLD
Day 7 (Wednesday) | Machu Picchu, train to Cusco
This morning, you'll board the morning train to Ollantaytambo where you transfer by van to Cusco—the Center of the Inca Universe (alt. 11,200 feet). Inca means "ruler," or "king" - an equivalent to the Roman Caesars.
After check-in, you begin your walking exploration of Cusco, walking along streets where the Incas and later the Spaniards walked.
In the course of the day you will visit Coricancha, the partially restored Temple of the Sun at the center of the Inca Universe, where the gold-covered walls were stripped by the Conquistadors. Along narrow cobblestone streets, you pass walls of stone so precisely fitted that they remain in superb condition centuries later, even after many earthquakes. You may look into the University, churches and shops that face onto the Plaza de Armas.
Hotel: El Monasterio del Cusco or La Casona, BLD
Day 8 (Thursday) | Cusco, Sacsayhuaman
You visit the bustling Cusco "Mercado Central", a traditional market were you will get a sense of the daily rhythm of Cusqueño life. From open air stalls, everything from coca leaves, carrots, rubber boots, jeans, padlocks, beef, live chickens and ducks, to cuys, Band-Aids, and a range of familiar and unfamiliar fruits and vegetables are sold, sometimes for cash and sometimes in the traditional manner of barter.
In the late morning, you will venture up to Sacsayhuaman to explore the spectacular ceremonial and “parade" grounds used by the Incas for major celebrations, pageants and sporting events. Inti Raymi, the Incan "Festival of the Sun," is still celebrated here on June 24 each year. Cusco fills with colorfully-dressed people from villages all over the Andes who come for this week-long festival of folk-dance competitions, pageantry, and spectacle.
Returning to Cusco for lunch, you will view an archbishop's private collection of colonial and Indian art and visit the Inca Historical Museum for a fine overview of the history of the Inca Empire from its beginning to its demise.
Hotel: El Monasterio del Cusco or La Casona, BL
Day 9 (Friday) | Cusco - Lima - Guayaquil
It’s time to depart Peru and move on to the second part of your adventure. You’ll fly from Cusco via Lima to Guayaquil. This evening, you have free time to relax or explore a bit of Guayaquil on your own.
Day 10 (Saturday) | To Baltra, Santa Cruz, and embarkation
You’ll be transferred back to the airport for your 2 hour flight to Baltra, Galápagos. Upon arrival, you will be escorted to the VIP Arrivals Lounge where staff will collect your passport and facilitate your entrance formalities with the Galápagos National Park. Once you’ve collected your luggage, you will transfer from the airport across the Itabaca channel to the Island of Santa Cruz for lunch in the highlands and the opportunity to search among the lush grasses for grazing giant tortoises. Time permitting, explore a lava tunnel. Continuing to the town of Puerto Ayora, you’ll visit the Charles Darwin Research Station, stop to check the fit of your wetsuit, then board INTEGRITY to begin your cruise.
Overnight: INTEGRITY
Days 11 - 16 (Sunday to Friday) | Aboard the yacht
Using INTEGRITY as your home, you'll cruise the islands spending as much time ashore as the Park rules permit. With our licensed, INCA-selected naturalist guides, you'll learn about the birds and animals, geology, marine life and oceanic systems of the Galapagos Islands.
Saturday AM: Santa Cruz — Highlands
Visit the highlands of Santa Cruz Island for a special opportunity to view the islands' most famous reptile: the giant tortoises in their wild habitat. What a privilege to see an endangered species roving in this lush environment! The vegetation of the area includes the Scalesia Forest (an endemic giant daisy tree) and birds such as the vermilion flycatcher will delight everyone with its scarlet feathers against an emerald green forest. Look for Darwin's finches (most of them from the tree-finch group), particularly the famous Woodpecker Finch.
Saturday PM: Santa Cruz — Charles Darwin Research Station, Embark Puerto Ayora
We will visit the Charles Darwin Research Station and Galápagos National Park headquarters to learn first hand of the conservation and research efforts in the islands. There, you'll see several subspecies of adult tortoises, lots of hatchlings, and learn of the repatriation programs that are saving several subspecies of tortoises and iguanas from extinction. Later In the afternoon, we will board our yacht, Integrity, for dinner and set sail on our Island cruise. We will live aboard the yacht and spend as much time exploring the islands as park rules permit. Each night, we'll travel on to the next destination.
Sunday AM: Floreana — Punta Cormorant and Champion Island
We'll see flamingos wade in a large lagoon by a green olivine sand beach, and take a short hike to Flour Beach where sea turtles nest and rays frolic off shore. Then, we'll snorkel at Champion Island with curious, playful sea lions and hope to catch a glimpse of the rare Floreana Mockingbird.
Sunday PM: Floreana — Post Office Bay, Asilo de Paz, Black Beach
First we'll stop at the wooden barrel that has served as a "post office" since the 18th Century, where you have the opportunity to continue the tradition. Then we head into the Floreana Highlands to visit tortoises and learn about the history of Wittmer Caves and hear the stories of the Wittmer family, the doctor and his mistress, and the Baroness and her lovers. Our day ends with a barbecue on board Integrity.
Monday AM: Southwestern Isabela — Punta Moreno
We walk onto this young lava flow at the base of Cero Azul past cacti and other early colonizing plants. This flow is dotted with numerous "oases" of brackish lagoons containing a wide variety of life, including flamingos, Paint-billed Crakes, White-cheeked Pintails, and Common Gallinules.
Monday PM: Southwestern Isabela — Elizabeth Bay and Las Marielas
We float in our skiffs silently into the narrow channels of the mangrove lagoon to see rays, Flightless Cormorants, penguins, pelicans, lava herons, sea turtles, sea lions, Blue-footed Boobies, many fish and other species that inhabit this vital zone. The Marielas Islets, just outside the bay, are home to many penguins, and visitors can usually observe them both on shore and swimming nearby.
Tuesday AM: Central Isabela — Urbina Bay
This site is very unique. In 1954, volcanic activity caused a 6 km stretch of coastline to be uplifted 5 m in a matter of hours, stranding coral heads, and all sea life that couldn't escape, more than a km away from the new shore. We walk among the skeletal coral garden, now home to lizards and mockingbirds. Urbina Bay is also home to large, colorful land iguanas. During certain times of the year we may encounter Alcedo tortoises which come down from the highlands to nest in the warm sands of Urbina Bay.
Tuesday PM: Fernandina — Punta Espinosa
This peninsula is on the most pristine and youngest island of Galapagos. Fernandina is highly volcanically active with eruptions occurring frequently, the latest in 2008. Upon landing, we are met by an abundance of small, dark marine iguanas and brightly colored Sally Lightfoot Crabs. We walk out on a pahoehoe lava flow—younger than the one at Punta Moreno—past a few pioneering plants. Along the sandy shore we can see Flightless Cormorants, pelicans, and numerous, lounging sea lions. Sunsets are often stunning.
Wednesday AM: Northwestern Isabela — Tagus Cove
Pirates and whalers in the 19th Century using Tagus Cove for anchorage left their marks on the cliffs of this sunken caldera, a tradition of graffiti that continues to today. A short, steep hike passes Darwin Lake, which sits within a tuff cone and is filled with salt water. This site is an excellent place for viewing land birds, including Ground and Tree Finches, Galapagos Hawks, Yellow Warblers, Large-billed Flycatchers and even sometimes the Woodpecker Finch. A rare sighting of land iguanas is a treat. A dinghy ride or kayak along the cliffs provides views of geologic features, as well as penguins and other bird species.
Wednesday PM: Northwestern Isabela — Punta Vicente Roca
The large cave and cleaved tuft cone and caldera wall are impressive geological formations and provide a beautiful backdrop for nesting birds, including Blue-footed and Nazca Boobies, gulls, storm petrels, and Brown Noddy Terns. It also forms a calm gathering area for sea turtles. Along with sea turtles, snorkelers can see many species of colorful fish, penguins, sea lions, sea anemones, small jellyfish, and other sealife.
Thursday AM: Santiago — Puerto Egas and Mina de Sal
There are two separate trails here. The first meanders along the coast to the fur seal grottoes, a safe haven for the shy Galapagos Fur Seal amongst the crags and swimming inlets, and home to American Oystercatchers, marine iguanas and ubiquitous sea lions. The second, less-used trail heads inland to a lagoon at the Salt Mine Volcano where flamingos and other birds are found.
Thursday PM: Santiago — Espumilla Beach and Buccaneer Cove
Espumilla is a red-sand beach and a sea turtle nesting site, with an inland trail that passes a small lagoon and into the arid zone where it is possible to view many land birds in a beautiful landscape, including Galapagos Hawks. While snorkeling at Buccaneer Cove, you may see sea lions, fur seals, sea turtles, rays, sharks, pelagic fishes, and amazing underwater geologic formations.
Friday AM: North Seymour
The trail at North Seymour heads inland where we will see the largest colony of Magnificent Frigatebirds in Galapagos, Blue-footed Boobies, and occasionally land iguanas. We then head along the coast where we will have ample opportunity to observe sea lions and marine iguanas.
Friday PM: Santa Cruz — Caleta Tortuga Negra, Bachas Beach
Enjoy a quiet and peaceful ending to your adventure at Bachas' fine, white beach. Two small lagoons just over the dunes sometimes host flamingos. "Bachas" comes from the remains of a barge that ran aground decades ago, leaving just a few rusty spines visible today. In Caleta Tortuga Negra we have a silent skiff ride to see sea turtles feed and mate in the calm waters, and three species of sharks, Spotted rays, egrets, and lava herons. Aboard we celebrate our last night together.
Saturday AM: Baltra — Disembark
We'll have breakfast on board Integrity, then disembark at Baltra Island.
One of the highlights and an integral part of any visit to the Galápagos is the opportunity to swim and snorkel with the marine life—tropical fish, sea lions, turtles and sometimes with penguins! On most days, you'll snorkel at least once, some days twice. While back on board, you’ll enjoy delicious meals, complimentary WiFi, and weekly laundry service.
Day 17 (Saturday) | Disembark, return to Guayaquil or Quito
From your anchorage in the Baltra harbor, Say "adios" to INTEGRITY and its dedicated crew, and adjourn to the Baltra airport to await your morning flight to the Ecuador mainland. On arrival, you'll transfer to the Wyndham Guayaquil or Holiday Inn Quito Airport hotel and enjoy a day room with extended late check-out for a chance to freshen up and relax before returning to the airport terminal for your late departing flight.
