Galapagos Tourist Class Yacht Cruises

Motor Yacht Tip Top II - 8 Day Cruise

General Description:
The Tip Top II is a 85 foot steel hulled motor yacht built in Guayaquil, Ecuador. It provides very comfortable accommodation and meals for your natural history tour of the Galapagos Islands.

Fully refurbished in December, 1998, it accommodates 16 passengers in 8 double cabins each with private shower and toilet. There is a bar, dining room, library, sundeck and diving platform. All cabins and public areas are fully carpeted and air conditioned.

Just some of the luxuries you'll enjoy on the yacht's three decks are wall-to-wall carpeting, air conditioning, a TV, a VCR, a full sound system, an inviting dining room, a fully equipped bar, a library filled with a variety of reading materials, a spacious sundeck, and snorkeling equipment. Moreover, each of the craft's nine homey cabins is outfitted with a private bathroom with both hot and cold water, a personal safe, and a wardrobe. To ensure your safety, the vessel is also equipped with the most advanced navigational and safety equipment, all of which meets or exceeds international Coast Guard safety regulations.

Motor Yacht Tip Top II - Specifications
Type	Motor Yacht
Length	85 feet 22 Meters
Beam	20 feet 5.50 Meters
Draft	5 feet.
Speed	9 Knots
Engines	Two GM 6-71 Detroit Diesel 175 HP each / one 12 Kw Generator 220 / 110 Volt
Navigation Equipment	Twin 24 miles range Furuno radar's; Apelco Loran echo sounder; GP-50 Furuno GPS; MC-7000 SSB radio; M125 Icom VHF radio; ACR RLB-23 Epirb; Silva 150 magnetic compass, barometer; clock; thermometer; helm indicator; searchlight; horn, twin Elliot inflatable life rafts for 12 passengers each (Solas 74/83); 50 life jackets; fire & smoke detectors; complete fire system; twin 17 feet tender with 25 HP outboard motor for 12 passengers each.
Safety equipment	complies with international Coast Guard regulations.
Accommodations	16 Passengers in 8 double and 1 single cabins. Each cabin with private bathroom (toilet, shower, washbasin and vanity); locker and drawers. Bar, dining room, library, and sun deck and diving platform. All cabins and public areas are fully carpeted. Cabins are located as follows: LOWER DECK 6 cabins with two singles lower berths (cabins 1 to 6) UPPER DECK 2 cabins with two single lower berths (cabins 7-8) UPPER DECK 1 cabin with one double lower berth (cabin 9)
Facilities	Freezer; icemaker; refrigerator; electric range with grill & oven; fully air-conditioned (Aqua Air Chill Water System); hot & cold freshwater pressure system; Royal flush electric toilets; TV; VCR; stereo music system. Upon request Bauer Nautilus dives compressor; 50 diving cylinders with harness & weight belts. Snorkelling gear available for rent.
Crew	6 Plus Naturalist guide Spanish / English

Motor Yacht Tip Top II - 8 Day Cruise

Intinerary:
01 Friday: flight to Galapagos Baltra Island - Bachas beach
Flight to Galapagos to Baltra Island where you will start your cruises abord the Tip Top II after a short drive to the harbour. The deserted, picturesque beach Las Bachas at the northern shore of Santa Cruz invites you for a swim in the crystal-clear water or to relax in the sun. Afterwards you will be visiting the bay Caleta Tortuga Negra which is close by. This bay is surrounded by mangroves where you can spot pelicans and herons. While snorkelling you can have a swim with the turtles, white-tip sharks and rays.

02 Saturday: Genovesa Island-Prince Philip's Steps - Darwin Bay Beach
Genovesa is a collapsed volcano and ships sail directly into its large breached caldera to anchor at the foot of the steep crater walls. Genovesa attracts vast numbers of pelagic seabirds that come here to nest and breed: great frigate birds, red-footed boobies, swallow-tailed gulls and storm petrels. A trail leads from a coral beach past tidal lagoons where lava gulls and yellow-crowned night herons are seen, then along the low shrubs populated by frigates and boobies, and eventually to a cliff edge where seabirds soar. A second trail called Prince Philip Steps, leads to an open area for masked boobies, frigates, and red-footed boobies. At the end of this trail are thousands of band-rumped storm petrels at the cliff's edge, where they nest in crevices. Short-eared owls can sometimes be seen here, hunting the storm petrels during daylight hours.

03 Sunday: Puerto Egas - Santiago/ Bartholome
From the visitor center at James Bay on the Island Santiago a small path leads you in southern direction along the coast. Passing by the ruins of a former salt mine company and the many inhabitants of the bank area, like sea lions, lizards, herons, and cancers, you arrive at the famous fur seal grotto, the best place at Galápagos in order to observe these elegant animals.
Arriving at Bartholome we will ascend a lookout point from where you can admire the spectacular panorama of the Sullivan Bay and the famous needle shaped rock, the so called Pinnacle Rock. The beaches at the foot of the Pinnacle Rock boast some fine snorkeling spots from which you can discover the marvelous underwater world with a good chance to encounter penguins or the softly gliding turtles.

04 Monday: Santa Cruz/Estacion Charles Darwin - Highlands
Santa Cruz is the second largest island in the Galapagos. The small town of Puerto Ayora is the economic centre of the archipelago, with the largest population of the 4 inhabited islands (approx 10.000). Santa Cruz is also the only island where six different zones of vegetation can be seen: Coastal, Arid, Transition, Scalesia, Miconia, and Pampa Zones. The Charles Darwin Research Station and the Galapagos National Park offices are based here. We will have an opportunity to visit some of the best scientists of their kind. Scientists, park rangers and park managers among others, who make huge efforts to preserve this Unesco World Heritage Site, conduct the conservation of the islands. The station is also a tortoise breeding and rearing centre, where tortoises of different subspecies are prepared for reintroduction to their natural habitats. The most popular inhabitant of this island will probably be Lonesome George. He is the only survivor of the specific turtle species.
The lush greenery of the Santa Cruz highlands is a welcome contrast with the arid scenery of the smaller, lower islands. Points of interest are the famed lava tunnels, a fun and geologically informative visit. The trip to the highlands ends with a visit to the Twin Craters. The vegetation around these is very special and is renown for its about 300 fern species and the many sunflowers.

05 Tuesday: Plazas South - Santa Fe
Located on the east of Santa Cruz, the main characteristics on the small island South Plaza are the Opuntia cacti and the carpets of red sesuvium, a succulent plant that turns green in the rainy season. The cactus is the main food of land iguanas, which are usually found resting at the cactu's shade. The island contains one of the largest sea lion colony of Galapagos, swallow-tailed gulls and red-billed tropicbirds nesting, and boobies roosting on the south cliff of the island.

Santa Fe has one of the most beautiful coves of all the visitor sites in the archipelago. A turquoise lagoon with two small white sand beaches are protected by a peninsula where sea lions rest. A trail runs along side the coast and then crosses through an Opuntia Forest. These prickly pear cacti are the largest ones in Galapagos. The Santa Fe species of land iguanas are larger and of a paler yellow than on the other islands. After the hike you can swim or snorkel in the bay in company of sea lions.

Motor Yacht Tip Top II - 8 Day Cruise

06 Wednesday: Española - Punta Suarez / Gardner Bay
Española is the southernmost island of the archipelago, and being so isolated, a high percentage of its fauna is endemic.
Punta Suarez, on the western coast of the island, is one of the most popular and attractive places in Galapagos. Sea lions, the picturesque marine iguana, blue footed and masked boobies nesting next to the trail are found there. This is also the only place in the world where the waved albatross nests. Along the cliffs there is spectacular view of a fantastic blowhole. Gardner Bay has a beautiful white sand beach to be shared with sea lions and curious mocking birds.

07 Thursday: Floreana - Pto. Cormorant / Devil's crown / Post Office Bay
Floreana Island is perceived as one of the most exotic Islands of the archipelago. At Punta Cormorant you land on a green olivine sand beach. Following a 100 m long path you will soon reach a lagoon with flamingoes, white-checked pintail ducks and other shorebirds. The trail goes on to a white beach made of grinned coral, so it looks like flour. This is the green sea turtle's nesting place. North of Punta Cormorant and eroded volcano, Devil´s Crown, is a snorkel's delight. To the west, Post Office Bay keeps the legendary post barrel that whalers used to send their mail.

08 Friday: Seymour North - Baltra - flight back to Quito
You will visit the Island Seymour North, which is most of all renown for its frigatebirds and their intensive courting rituals. The island is also inhabited by other frigate birds and blue-footed boobies, as well as endemic black lizards and sea lions inhabit its shores. After that we will have a short stop at the harbor of Baltra (formerly known as south Seymour). You will cross the Itabaca Channel to Baltra, to take your flight back to the mainland.

Motor Yacht Tip Top II - 8 Day Cruise

Prices per person for 2008:

Regular Cruises - Days	4 Days/3 Nights		5 Days/4 Nights		8 Days/7 Nights
Accupancy	DBL	SGL	DBL	SGL	DBL	SGL
Cabins No 1 to 6	USD 1.300.-	N/A-	USD 1.625.-	N/A	USD 2.275.-	N/A
Cabins No 7 & 8	N/A	USD 2.100.-	N/A	USD 2.625.-	N/A	USD 3.675.-
Cabins No 9 & 10	USD 1.400.-	N/A	USD 1.750.-	N/A	USD 2.450.-	N/A
Charter - 16 Pax Max.	USD 18.200.-		USD 23.400.-		USD 36.400

Included in the price:
All transfers, 8-day cruise on board of TIP TOP II in double accommodation with all facilities, English speaking naturalist guide, purified water free to drink.

Not included in the price:
Flights mainland to/from Galápagos USD 410.-, Entrance fee to Galápagos National Park USD 100.-, beverages, tips, personal items, meals in Quito, International flight airport tax (USD 41.- per person).