Blue Footed Boobies and Lonesome George!

There – that got your attention! I recently attended a client event dedicated to the exploring the beautiful Galapagos Islands on an Expedition ship and learnt such a lot from it, I felt I would like to share!

The Galápagos Islands is a volcanic archipelago in the Pacific Ocean. It’s considered one of the world’s foremost destinations for wildlife-viewing. A province of Ecuador, it lies about 1,000km off its coast. Its isolated terrain shelters a diversity of plant and animal species, many found nowhere else. Charles Darwin visited in 1835, and his observation of Galápagos’ species later inspired his theory of evolution.

Celebrity Cruises are amongst several different cruise lines which operate their much smaller expedition ships around the 15 human & animal inhabited islands of the Galapagos – but just because you go smaller, it doesn’t mean that you have to compromise on comfort or luxury as they both include all excursions and have all-inclusive drinks packages included.

From May 2019 Celebrity will be operating their new ship the Flora alongside their newly refurbished ship the Expedition accommodating 100 and 68 passengers respectively. The trip includes return flights to Quito and a one or two night stay in this beautiful & historic city, then Celebrity charter a flight to take you the 1 hour 45 minutes across to Baltra.  Each ship alternates two different seven night itineraries, Northern and Southern loops & inner and outer loops with the ships having 2 ports of call each day makes it a busy trip maximising your chances of seeing as flora and fauna as possible!  Celebrity run two levels of excursions – one is active with opportunities to hike and observe and the other is milder with maybe a sail out in one of the zodiacs to observe- every small group of 12 passengers has it’s own qualified naturalist to help you get the most out of this once in a lifetime trip.

Lonesome George was a Pinta Island tortoise and the last known of his species who died after several failed mating attempts with females tortoises of a similar species.  George was thought to be over 100 years old when he died.

Blue footed booby is a marine bird known for it’s intricate mating dance and take great pride in their fabulous feet.  In addition there is the flightless cormorant, the Galapagos penguins, Darwin’s finches and marine iguanas. These are just a small sample of the beautiful fabric of wildlife that make up this fantastic group of island that has to be seen to be believed.

Why not combine this amazing trip with a tour to take in the haunting Machu Picchu in neighbouring Peru?

Call me for more information on 0330 041 7348.