Eden Island Galapagos
Ecuador
316
Cruises availables
At departure or passage at this port
HX Expeditions (158 Cruises)
MS Santa Cruz II
158 Cruises
| 29 October | 14 days | One-way from Callao-Lima to Guayaquil |
| 31 October | 11 days | One-way from Callao-Lima to Guayaquil |
Tauck Cruises (158 Cruises)
Santa Cruz II
158 Cruises
| 29 October | 14 days | One-way from Callao-Lima to Guayaquil |
| 31 October | 11 days | One-way from Callao-Lima to Guayaquil |
Frequently Asked Questions
No. There is no pier and no landing site: Eden is visited entirely from the water, by panga along the volcanic shoreline, and that is precisely what makes the call distinctive.
Off the northwest coast of Santa Cruz Island, in the Galápagos archipelago, Ecuador. The ship stays anchored at a respectful distance and pangas make the trip.
The result of magma meeting the cold water of the Pacific. The explosion threw up ash which, falling back, built this compact mound with clearly visible strata. Running alongside the wall, you read those layers like pages of an open-air geology book.
Blue-footed boobies standing upright on the dark rock, frigatebirds gliding above the cone, brown pelicans diving a few metres from the boats, and lava gulls, among the rarest in the world, nearly merged with the basalt.
They quickly become unnecessary. Galápagos wildlife has no fear of people and the pangas come in close under the ledges: the viewing distances surprise even seasoned travellers.
Rays, sea turtles, schools of surgeonfish and, with some patience, the whitetip reef shark, harmless and curious. Marine iguanas graze the algae on the rock before climbing back up to warm themselves.
The panga ride is more than enough: it is the heart of the visit. Depending on conditions and the ship, kayaking or a glass-bottom boat sometimes rounds out the programme, so non-swimmers miss nothing.
Two to three hours as a rule, usually listed as a half day in the programme.
Something to protect your camera from spray, since pangas pass close to waves breaking on the tuff. A windbreaker makes the outing considerably more pleasant in the early morning, even on the equator.
It has no trail, no monument and no village, and the Galápagos hold more famous stops. But few places sum up so well, in two hours, the raw geology, the life clinging to it and that disarming closeness to the animals.
