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The Galápagos

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The Galápagos 8 or 11 days THE GALÁPAGOS FACULTY-LED INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS ABOUT THIS TOUR Th e rich environmental habitats of the Galápagos are home to a vast array of unique animal species, which are protected by the archipelago’s national park designation. Discover this natural wonderland from a firsthand perspective, including the Charles Darwin Research Station. You’ll also visit the historic sites of Quito and take an excursion to spectacular Cotopaxi National Park, home of the world’s highest active volcano. Through it all, you’ll return home prepared for whatever path lies ahead of you. Beyond photos and stories, new perspectives and glowing con- fidence, you’ll have something to carry with you for the rest of your life. It could be an inscription you read on the walls of a famous monument, or perhaps a joke you shared with another student from around the world. The fact is, there’s just something transformative about an EF College Study Tour, and it’s different for every traveler. Once you’ve traveled with us, you’ll know exactly what it is for you. DAY 2: Quito DAY 3: Galápagos Land Iguana DAY 3: Santa Cruz Island DAY 4: Isabela Island DAY 4: Bartolomé Island THE GALÁPAGOS 8 or 11 days INCLUDED ON TOUR: ADDITIONAL INFO: Round-trip airfare The itinerary on the Galápagos Islands is subject to Air and land transportation change based on government regulations. Hotel accommodations Equatorial Line Light breakfast and select meals daily Quito (4 or 5) Full-time Tour Director EXTENSION: Cotopaxi National Park Sightseeing tours and visits to special attractions Riobamba • Guamote • Quito (3 days) Bartolomé Rioioiobaobabamambmbbaaa( (2(2)2) Free time to study and explore Extend your tour and enjoy extra time exploring your Island North Seymour Island Baltra Island destination or seeing a new place at a great value. Santa Cruz Island (3) Isabela Floreana Island FOR MORE INFORMATION: Island efcollegestudytours.com/GPIA DAY 5: Floreana Island DAY 6: Santa Cruz Island DAY 7: Cotopaxi DAY 8: Riobamba DAY 1 FLY TO ECUADOR that the island’s ecosystems are fragile. DAY 5 NORTH SEYMOUR OR DAY 8 DEPART FOR HOME Arrive in Quito • Touch down in Quito, the Park regulations are designed to protect this FLOREANA ISLAND • SANTA CRUZ Transfer to the airport and check in for your capital of Ecuador. Depending on your arrival earthly treasure for future generations. ISLAND return fl ight home. time, you may have free time to settle in and Travel to Santa Cruz Island • Make the North Seymour Island or Floreana Island • explore the city on your own. short transfer to Santa Cruz Island, the Visit either North Seymour Island or Floreana 3-DAY TOUR EXTENSION gateway to the Galápagos and your home Island. North Seymour is best known for its DAYS 8-10 RIOBAMBA • GUAMOTE DAY 2 QUITO base for the next three days. extensive population of magnifi cent frigate • QUITO Sightseeing tour of Quito • Carved into Charles Darwin Research Station • birds, whose distinct red pouches balloon Travel to Riobamba • Pass through Ambato, a narrow plateau high above the Andean Operated by the Charles Darwin Foundation, during the mating season. The island is also the city of fl owers and fruits, and the Igualata valleys, Ecuador’s capital is overshadowed the research station is home to a team of home to the blue-footed boobies, who nest in ridge on the Urbina moorlands as you travel by soaring peaks and the looming Pichincha more than a hundred scientists, educators, the fl at area near the coast. Floreana Island to Riobamba. The Igualata ridge is the highest Volcano. On your sightseeing tour, explore volunteers, research students and support was named after Juan José Flores, the fi rst point on the Pan-American Highway. Travel the well-preserved colonial quarter of Quito, staff from all over the world. Observe how president of Ecuador. With a relatively fl at through the beautiful mountains surrounding where wrought-iron balconies and majestic they conduct scientifi c research and promote surface and abundant supply of fresh water, Riobamba, which was the birthplace of stone pillars grace its 300-year-old plazas, environmental education. Floreana was a popular stop for whalers. In Ecuador’s fi rst constitution in 1830. Visit churches and palaces. The area was declared the 18th century they established Post Offi ce Andean villages in Guamote, an area with a World Heritage Site by the United Nations in DAY 4 BARTOLOMÉ OR Bay, where whalers kept a wooden barrel for a large indigenous population known for its 1978. Stroll amid the shady palm trees and ISABELA ISLAND • SANTA CRUZ letters to be picked up and delivered by ships community programs. colorful gardens of Independence Plaza, ISLAND from all over the world. Cards and letters are School visit* • Take the opportunity to meet admire the stunning Government Palace and Bartolomé Island or Isabela Island • still placed in the barrel without postage, and with local children at a primary school in visit the charming Santo Domingo Church. Journey by yacht to either Bartolomé Island visitors are encouraged to sift through them Guamote. Equatorial Line • Stand exactly on the or Isabela Island. Bartolomé is one of the to see if they can deliver by hand back home. Cultural activity* • About 90% of Guamote equator, the namesake of Ecuador. At the most dramatic moonscape scenes in the citizens are descended from the pre-Spanish Intinan Museum, a guide will conduct archipelago. Here you will fi nd Pinnacle DAY 6 SANTA CRUZ ISLAND • Puruhá tribe, whose culture remains tangible several experiments to demonstrate what Rock, also known as Tuff Cone, the most BALTRA ISLAND• QUITO even today. Explore its legacy for yourself as happens at the midpoint of the planet. photographed site in the Galápagos. This Travel to Baltra • En route back to the airport you become familiar with the local way of Which way will water rinse down the drain? black lava formation was created when in Baltra, stop in the highlands of Santa Cruz. life—including farming, handicraft-making Can you balance an egg on the head of a a now-extinct volcano erupted, sending Observe the unique and diverse vegetation and cooking techniques. nail? If you’ve ever wanted to stand in both magma into the sea and causing an zones of the area and visit the Twin hemispheres at once, this is your chance. explosion. Befriend some of the penguins Craters. The area is also excellent for DAY 11 DEPART FOR HOME near the Pinnacle’s base; they are the second observing the wild tortoises. Transfer to the airport and check in for your DAY 3 BALTRA ISLAND • SANTA smallest species of penguin and the only Fly to Quito • Board your fl ight for Quito. return fl ight home. CRUZ ISLAND ones found north of the equator. Isabela Travel to the Galápagos Islands • Fly Island, meanwhile, is the largest island of DAY 7 COTOPAXI from Quito to Baltra Island, arriving amid the the Galápagos with an area of 1,790 square Cotopaxi National Park • Walk in the ecological paradise of the Galápagos Islands. miles. Also one of the youngest islands, shadow of snow-capped Volcán Cotopaxi, In 1959, the archipelago was declared a Isabela is one of the most volcanically active the world’s highest active volcano (19,700 national park in order to protect its unique places on earth and is noted primarily for feet), on your visit to Cotopaxi National fl ora and animals, including giant tortoises its unique geology. Rich in animal, bird and Park. Now recognized as the last refuge of (from which the islands took their name), marine life, Isabela is home to more wild the endangered Andean condor, the park iguanas, penguins, cormorants and Darwin’s tortoises than all the other islands. was originally founded in 1975 to protect 13 species of fi nches. Please keep in mind Ecuador’s declining llama population. *Subject to availability WEB EFCOLLEGESTUDYTOURS.COM/GPIA PHONE 877.485.4184 WHAT OUR TRAVELERS SAY BARBARA L. ERIN H. CHELSEA S. VIRGINA M. Concordia University Itasca Community College Northern Oklahoma College Palo Alto College Portland, OR Grand Rapids, MN Stillwater, OK San Antonio, TX “The overall experience of the trip was “I had such an amazing time, and I “I can’t believe we had the opportunity “Every student should go. I enjoyed amazing, unforgettable. I went on the learned so much. We saw so many to see and do so many things for what flying to a foreign country, getting tour not knowing many of the students different sights. My experiences we paid. I traveled on my own soon completely out of my comfort zone and in my group, and came back with really enriched my understanding of another after my trip, and the flight alone cost truly seeing what this world has to of- good friends and amazing memories. culture, and created a realistic concept more than the entire tour—which fer. We tried new food, spoke different With the guidance of the Tour Director, of an entirely foreign culture I would included meals, shows, tourist sites. languages, and saw so many of the I got to experience new culture without never have been exposed to I will never ever forget this experience. best sights on our walking tours. I love feeling completely lost. I now know that otherwise.” You’d be crazy not to take a tour with history, and being able to experience I can succeed and survive in a foreign EF—they take great care of you.” what I’ve studied for years was so mov- country.” ing it left me speechless.
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