Morning departure from London Heathrow by Iberia, flying via Madrid (2 hours 20 minutes) to Quito (11 hours). On arrival in the afternoon, you will be met and transferred to the Hilton Colon Hotel. Stay here for 3 nights.

Morning sightseeing of Quito and the Equatorial Monument. The first stop is at the Parliament Building, whose stone mural records Ecuador's history. Then enjoy a walk through the historic downtown area seeing some of the colonial buildings which has been designated by UNESCO a World Heritage Site. Start at the Independence Plaza, flanked by the Cathedral, the Presidential Palace, the Municipal Building and the Archbishop's Palace. Visit the Church of La Compañía de Jesús. Continue to the Church of San Francisco, one the of great religious buildings of the New World; its impressive façade and atrium lead to its gilt interior a Baroque influenced by Moorish style, with the winged Virgin of Quito at its main altar. Afterwards, head north of Quito to the Equatorial Monument, 25 kms (16 miles) North of Quito. This marks the exact Middle of the World, latitude 0o, where you can stand with a foot on each hemisphere. Visit the Ethnographic Museum inside the monument, which shows the great diversity of Ecuador’s native groups. Beside the monument there is a colonial-style town, complete with main square, church, post office, bullring, cafeterias, restaurants and many gift shops that sell postcards and souvenirs.

Today is free.

After breakfast, you will be transferred to the airport for your flight across the Pacific to San Cristobal on the Galapagos Islands (approximate travelling time, 3 hours including stopover in Guayaquil). On arrival, you will be met and transferred via the island’s administrative capital of Puerto Baquerizo to your boat, the M/S Alta. Your captain and crew will be waiting to greet you and will take care of seeing to it that your bags reach your cabin. PLEASE NOTE THAT ON ARRIVAL IN THE GALAPAGOS YOU WILL HAVE TO PAY THE GALAPAGOS NATIONAL PARK ENTRANCE FEE, WHICH IS CURRENTLY $100 PER PERSON. After lunch, your first excursion will be to Kicker Rock. This is a spectacular formation that rises 152 meters (500 feet) out of the Pacific. It takes the form of a sleeping lion, but from another angle you can see that the rock is split, forming a colossal tablet and, piercing the sea, a great chisel ready for etching. Small vessels can navigate through the narrow channel between the rocks. Also visit Playa Ochoa, a powdery beach beside a turquoise bay that is home to a small colony of sea lions. You also have your first snorkelling opportunity here.

Today is spent at Tower Island. In the morning, visit Prince Phillip’s Steps, named after a visit by the Duke of Edinburgh in 1964. The 25 metre (81 ft) steps leads to a narrow stretch of land that opens out onto the plateau surrounding Darwin Bay, and extends to form the north side of the island. Red-footed boobies wrap their webbed feet around branches to perch in the bushes, and, in contrast, their “masked-booby” cousins dot the surface of the scrublands beyond. The afternoon is spent on the white coral sands of Darwin Bay, home to frigate birds. A brief panga ride to the base of the islands cliffs enable you to see many seabirds. In the evening, the Alta sails from the eastern side to the far western side of the archipelago.

The morning is spent at Fernandina Island, the youngest and westernmost of the islands, home to La Cumbre volcano that erupts frequently, most recently in May 2005. On this island, you will visit Punta Espinosa, a narrow spit of land in the northeast corner of the island, where a number of unique Galápagos species can be seen in close proximity. See penguins showing off in the sea; the red and turquoise-blue zayapas crabs crawling along the lava shoreline, while herons and egrets forage through the mangrove roots. The landing is a dry one, set in a quiet inlet beneath the branches of a small mangrove forest and you are likely to see a large colony of marine iguanas resting atop one another in friendly heaps along the rocky shoreline, spitting water to clear their bodies of salt. Nearby, sea lions frolic in a sheltered lagoon. This is one of the few places you can glimpse iguanas grazing on seaweed underwater. Further down the shoreline, the world’s only species of flightless cormorants have established their colony near an inlet frequented by sea turtles. Returning to the Alta, she sets sail for Isabela, the largest island in the archipelago which accounts for half of the total landmass of the Galápagos at 4,588 square kilometres. It measures 132 kms (82 miles) from north to south. Isabela is formed from six shield volcanoes that merged into a single landmass. It is also home to the highest point in the Galápagos, Wolf Volcano at 1707 meters (5,547 feet), and calderas of up to 20 kilometers (12½ miles) across. The sailing to Isabela crosses the Bolivar Channel. These are the coldest, most productive waters in the Galápagos, where dolphins and whales are frequently seen. At Tagus Cove you can see where blue-footed boobies, brown noddies, pelicans and noddy terns make their nests, and flightless cormorants and penguins inhabiting the lava ledges. From the landing site, a wooden stairway rises to the trail entrance for a view of Darwin Lake, a perfectly round saltwater crater. The trail continues around the lake through a dry vegetation zone, and then climbs inland to a promontory formed by spatter cones. The site provides spectacular views back toward the Alta’s anchorage in the bay, as well as Darwin Volcano and Wolf Volcano further north.

In the morning, a wet landing is made at Urbina Bay. A highlight of this excursion is the sight of giant land iguanas, with their vivid and gaudy yellow skin. Giant tortoises inhabit this coastal plain during the wet season, before migrating to the highlands when it turns dry. The beach allows for opportunities to snorkel amongst marine creatures, or just relax on shore. The afternoon is spent at Punta Vicente Roca, in the northern part of Isabela. The spot is a popular anchorage from which to take panga rides along the cliff where a partially sunken cave beckons explorers. Masked and blue-footed boobies sit perched along the point and the sheer cliffs, while flightless cormorants inhabit the shoreline. The coldwater currents here give rise to an abundance of marine life which, in combination with the protection of the coves, make Punta Vicente Roca a sought-after dive spots.

Bartolome Island is famous for Pinnacle Rock, a towering spearheaded obelisk that rises from the ocean’s edge and is the best known landmark in the Galápagos. See Galápagos penguins, the only species of penguin found north of the equator and sea lions. Just below the surface of the sea, you can see shoals of tropical fish, urchins, sea stars and anemones. To the east of Pinnacle Rock is a perfect crescent shaped, pink-and-white sandy beach. Sea turtles use the beach as a nesting site and can sometimes be found wading in the shallow water near the shore, or resting in the sand to recover from the arduous task of digging nests, laying eggs and covering them over. A dry landing 1 kilometre away leads to the entrance to Bartolome’s summit. The route is not difficult and is interesting for vulcanologists; a site left untouched after its last eruption, where cones stand in various stages of erosion and lava tubes form bobsled-like runs from the summit. At the top you will be rewarded with spectacular views of Santiago Island and James Bay to the west, and below, Pinnacle Rock. In the afternoon, visit Black Turtle Cove, which is on the north shore of Santa Cruz Island. Three species of mangrove crowd from the shore out into the lagoon, which reaches almost a mile inland. Drifting through the waters, it is sometimes possible to see spotted eagle rays and diamond shaped mustard rays swimming in a diamond formation. You may also see white-tipped reef sharks and Pacific green sea turtles come to the surface for air and to mate. Waterfowl, including pelicans, herons and egret, all feed in the cove.

The day is spent on Santa Cruz Island, the second largest island in the Galápagos. The small town of Puerto Ayora is the economic centre of the islands, with the largest population of the four inhabited islands (approximately 10,000). You will visit the Santa Cruz Highlands, where the sparse, dry coastal vegetation transitions to lush wet fields and forests overgrown with moss and lichens. In the tortoise reserve, you will have the chance to view these ancient creatures in their natural setting. Another attraction close by is a very large lava tube. In the afternoon, visit the Charles Darwin Research Station to see the Giant Tortoise Breeding and Rearing Program run by the research station, which began by rescuing the remaining 16 tortoises on the island of Española in the 1970’s. This program has restored the population of animals there to over 1,000 today. You will see many of these animals, from hatchlings to juveniles to larger older individuals like Lonesome George, the last of his particular race of tortoise.

Hood is the southernmost island of the archipelago. It offers a great variety and quantity of fauna. At Punta Suarez, sea lions surf the waves beyond the breakwater landing, and inquisitive tiny pups greet your arrival. A few steps inland are found the largest variety of marine iguana in the Galápagos. A trail beside the western edge of the island takes you to where masked boobies nest along the cliff’s edge, and then descends to a rocky beach before rising to an open area and a large gathering of nesting blue-foot boobies. The trail continues past a blowhole to a location where waved albatrosses line up to launch their great winged bodies from the cliffs. Behind the cliffs is one of only two places in the world where the waved albatross nests. (Please note that the waved albatross can usually only be seen between April and December). In the afternoon, visit the magnificent long white sandy beach of Gardner Bay, where colonies of sea lions laze in the sun and sea turtles swim offshore. Snorkelling opportunities exist at Tortuga rock and Gardner Island where you may be joined by playful young sea lions and schools of surprisingly big tropical fish, including yellow tailed surgeonfish, king angelfish and bump-head parrot fish.

Disembark after breakfast on San Cristobal Island. Visit the Galapagos National Park Visitor Centre, which displays a comprehensive exhibit of the islands’ natural history, human interaction, ecosystems, flora and fauna. Time permitting, last minute purchases can be made in Puerto Baquerizo, before departing from the airport for your flight back to Guayaquil on the mainland. On arrival, you will be transferred to the Hilton Colon Hotel, where rooms will be provided before returning to the airport for your overnight flight by Iberia/LAN codeshare flight to Madrid.

Afternoon arrival at Madrid, where you change aircraft and continue by Iberia/British Airways codeshare flight to London Heathrow.