July 11-21, 2026 with Willy Perez
Going back to the Galapagos Islands, even for guides, is a privilege. No matter how many times you have been there, it is always special and this second tour of the year was no exception. We started in Quito taking a direct flight to Baltra Island where we met Ely, our Galapagos guide and after a short bus transfer we embarked into the Nemo III which was our home for a week. Our first navigation was short and we visited North Seymour in the afternoon. It was a great taste of what we had coming for the following days. Here we came across our first Swallow-tailed Gull, the stunning Blue-footed Booby and the two species of Frigatebirds that occur in the islands. During the week, we visited all the important places to fill up our list of endemics, but also saw special sites for geology, natural and human history.
We spent a full day in Genovesa, where in the morning, we witnessed the biggest colony of Wedge-rumped Storm-Petrels in the archipielago and a Short-eared Owl hunting them. Also, we had our first challenge trying to identify some of the Darwin finches, but I have to say that we were lucky, because some of them were side by side so we could compare them. The Large Ground-Finch was the easiest one, with its gigantic beak. After an overnight navigation, we woke up at the northern part of Isabela, where we had our first sight of the two flightless birds in the Galapagos, Flightless Cormorant and the Galapagos Penguin. After a pleasant navigation along the Bolivar Canal, we visited Fernandina, which is the youngest island in the Archipielago, and there we saw the largest Marine Iguanas of all. The next morning we were anchored in Puerto Villamil in the south of Isabela, and we went to visit the highlands. Our first cultural experience was meeting Pablo, our driver who took us in his special open bus (the chicken truck). This morning the agenda was to find some of the elusive birds, Paint-billed Crake, Galapagos Rail and Brujo Flycatcher. We saw them very well, even the difficult Galapagos Rail that came to the open. In the afternoon we went to the wetlands and saw American Flamingos and other water birds, followed by a COCO LOCO! in the local bar... (a local cocktail that was a killer).
The next island was Floreana, where we disembarked in the tiny town of Velasco Ibarra, and we drove up to the highlands to look for one of the most critically endangered species on the tour, Medium Tree-Finch. A short walk put us in the right place where we came across a male that was singing and gave us nice views. This area was also very good for Dark-billed Cuckoo, and Ely shared with us a lot of the history of this incredible island. Back to the boat, we did a short navigation towards Champion islet where we saw another endemic, the Floreana Mockingbird. Late in the afternoon we did a wet landing and visited Punta Cormorant (no cormorants there) but it was great to see more American Flamingos, and after reviewing some photos, there was one single Chilean in the group.
Espanola was our next island and it was the same schedule, with a navigation overnight, we were just in front of a pristine white sandy beach, Bahia Gardner, where we went and found our first Espanola Mockingbirds, Espanola Ground-Finch, Gray Warbler-Finch and many Galapagos Sea Lions. The excitement was building up during the morning because Espanola is the place where the Waved Albatrosses nest, so the expectations were big and everyone wanted to go to see them. After lunch we disembarked in Punta Suarez, and did a hard but very incredible hike to see the Albatrosses displaying, and there were many of them doing their incredible courtship. The site was covered with other birds, too: Red-billed Tropicbirds, Nazca and Blue-footed Boobies, Galapagos Hawk, Swallow-tailed Gulls and some finches. After a very exciting afternoon, we started to navigate towards San Cristobal island where we spent the night in the port of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno.
After an early breakfast, we took a bus to the foothills of the island and our first stop was the cemetery, where we saw another endemic, the San Cristobal Mockingbird. We wanted to see a Woodpecker Finch but they were not present there, so we went higher in elevation. After some work eventually we found one of them that gave us fantastic views. With the mission accomplished we went back to town and people had time to do some shopping and relax in town.
With lunch along the way, our next destination was Santa Fe island, and after throwing the anchor down in a beautiful bay, we did the usual walk. Here we saw the endemic Santa Fe Land Iguana, Common Cactus-Finch, and again Galapagos Hawk and many Galapagos Mockingbirds. Tonight being our last night in the Nemo III, we had our farewell dinner and cocktail.
We woke up the last morning on the boat in the Itabaca Canal, and we left the boat after breakfast, said goodbye to the crew, and got a bus to go to the highland of Santa Cruz. Our first stop was to find a Vegetarian Finch and after a few minutes we saw one eating leaves so it was a perfect sighting. We were just missing a couple of targets, so we put some emphasis on them. Before lunch we managed to see American Barn Owl and Large Tree-Finch. At this point we had achieved our wish list with the birds, so we really enjoyed watching the Giant Tortoises, and had a cup of coffee. Tonight we were staying in the biggest town of the Galapagos, Puerto Ayora, and after lunch we managed to squeeze in a visit to the Charles Darwin Research Station before dinner.
The time flew by and suddenly the last day came. We took our flight to Quito, where we had our farewell dinner and we talked about how wonderful the trip was. I have to admit that it was just fantastic. Everything worked well despite a one hour delayed flight the first day. The Nemo III was perfect for what we needed and the crew took great care of us. Stalin the chef provided us with incredible food and managed to supply some special food restrictions to perfection. Ely, our Galapagos guide, did a great job sharing all her knowledge of the islands. Being the time for the World Cup, we even managed to see some of the games and support Spain to be champions of the tournament. Also during the week we did several outings for snorkeling, where we saw a lot of stunning tropical fish, many sea turtles and marine iguanas feeding on algae.
This was one of the most diverse groups of people that I have ever had, in terms of different necessities, ages, food and even the list of birds that some of you needed to see. Thank you to you all! Everything worked out brilliantly because you people were fantastic and got on really well together, so I really appreciate that and I hope that we can do more seriously fun birding.
Other Wildlife in the tour.
Common Dolphin
Galapagos Sea Lion
Galapagos fur Seal
House Mouse
Marine Iguan
Galapagos Land Iguana
Santa Fe Land Iguana
Mourning Gecko
Santa Cruz, Espanola, Floreana, San Cristobal, Sant Fe and Isabela, Lava Lizards
Green Sea Turtle
Santa Cruz Giant Tortoise
Davil Ray
Spotted Eagle Ray
Diamond Sting Ray
White tipped reef Shark
Sally Light Foot Crab
Hermit Crab
Blue and Monarch Butterflies.
Painted Locus
Mola Mola
Mexican Hogfish
Blue Chin Parrotfish
Black Striped Salema
Moorish Idol
Razor Surgeon Fish
King Angelfish
Panamic Sergeant Major
Guineafowl Puffer
Giant Damselfish
Cortez Rainbow Wrasse
Harlequin Wrasse
Dusky Sea Chub
Yellow Tailed Mullet
Bluechin Parrotfish
Bicolour Parrotfish
Bullseyes Puffer
Panamic Fanged Blenny
Blacktip Cardinalfish
Bluespotted Cornetfish
Flying Fish.
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/566911
You can download a combined PDF of this page and the eBird report at this link: https://fieldguides.com/triplists/gal26bTRIPLIST.pdf
-- Abrazos from Dorset, Willy