Daphne Major & Minor
These two small islands provide visitors with their first panoramic
view of the archipelago after landing in the airport at Baltra. Since
visitation on the Daphne Major is limited to one scientific group per
month, a measure enforced by the Galápagos National Park Service to
prevent erosion, passengers with the opportunity to disembark there
should consider themselves lucky to be among the select company that
have passed across the island's impressive slopes. It is clear from the
beginning of the visit—a landing that requires leaping from the moving
dinghy onto a vertical cliff face and clambering up the rocks to the
head of the steep, rocky trail—that a trip to Daphne Major is a special
experience.
A short trail leads up the side of the volcanic island (a tuff cone)
to a 120-meter high summit, passing Nazca boobies, swallow-tailed gulls,
and the famous Darwin finches that served as the subjects of Rosemary
and Peter Grant's detailed evolutionary study described in the Pulitzer
Prize-winning novel, The Beak of the Finch. At the climactic island
summit are two small craters packed with hundreds of blue-footed boobies
and frigatebirds that have settled to find their mates—a virtual bird
motel!
Daphne Minor is fairly eroded and not accessible to tourists,
although the surrounding waters are very popular dive site. The
underwater geology of Daphne is very interesting, with recesses and
steep cliffs, and the possibility of seeing sharks (white-tipped,
Galápagos, and occasionally hammerheads), sea turtles, or rays is high.
The wildlife you will see on your Galapagos tour are completely
unaffected by Galapagos travel visitors . For this reason, there is a
restricted number of visitors permitted into the Galapagos each year, as
part of a joint effort to protect the delicate environmental and ecological
equilibrium. The most sensible method of Galapagos travel is via our cruise
ships. The M/V Galapagos Legend provides 3 night, 4 night and 7 night
cruises to select from, which can also be easily merged with Galapagos
travel visits to neighboring South American locations