Galapagos 2011

GALAPAGOS 2011 PHOTO-CRUISE OF A LIFETIME IPT

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2011 Galapagos Photo Cruise of a Lifetime IPT/The Complete Galapagos Photographic Experience: July 3-20, 2011 (July 5-19, 2011 on the boat): 13 1/2 days of photography plus a last morning panga ride: $12, 499. Limit 11.

This two-week trip features an unparalleled photographic itinerary that will visit all the great spots in the islands; we will not miss a thing. The highlights include Tower Island—tons of nesting birds at knee and eye level, Punta Espinoza (Flightless Cormorants), Puerto Ayora (tortoises in their natural habitats), Hood Island (Waved Albatross and lots more nesting birds), South Plaza, and North Seymour. Each of these locations is on a par with Antarctica or East Africa when it comes to spectacular photographic opportunities. If you make only a one week cruise you will miss half of these great locations. With two full weeks we will enjoy a relaxed pace with shorter navigations and lots of time for snorkeling, image sharing, and small group Photoshop instruction. You will have a great photographic leader (that would be me) with 7 years of Galapagos experience teamed with the very best most knowledgeable guide in the entire archipelago. We will be the first boat on each island in the morning and the last boat to leave each island every afternoon. If we are blessed with overcast weather, we often spend as much as six hours on a landing. Jeez, I almost forgot our spectacular and romantic motor sailing ship, the Beagle: www.thebeagle.com.ec

The group will be flying to Quito on their own to arrive on July 3, 2011. We have a travel insurance day on July 4th (with an optional trip for perched hummingbirds at Tandayapa). On the morning of July 5 we fly to the Galapagos and board the boat around midday. We leave the boat two weeks later on morning of July 19 after our last photo session, a short panga ride. We fly back to Quito on that same day, July 19, overnight in Quito, and fly home on the morning of July 20.

Note: some of the walks are strenuous. Though I will be bringing my 800 f/5.6L IS lens along, I used it only rarely last year; great images are possible on all landings with a hand held 70-200mm lens.

Please e-mail me at birdsasart@att.net for the complete 2010 itinerary. The 2011 itinerary will include all of the A-list landings but may be tweaked a bit beyond that.

Happy campers only :). As of this moment, I have room for only three more folks and am in need of one single male roommate for a male participant. If a roommate-less woman wishes to sign up her reservation would be dependent upon my finding a single female roommate for her (unless they are open-minded). And the same will be true for the guys traveling on their own once a single male signs up. At this point I do have room for one couple. Note: there are no queen or double beds on the Beagle. Each double cabin has a larger lower bed and a smaller upper one. If worse comes to worse it will come down to a coin flip as to which roommate gets which bunk. Sleeping on the upper deck is an option in fair weather. I have done it and it was a mega-experience.

The cost of the 2011 trip is $12, 499. he price increase (from the 2010 trip) is due to a 12% increase in the cost of leasing the boat but still represents a tremendous value as compared to the cost of two week long trips. The last one week trip that I ran worked out to $1272.55 per day of photography. None-the-less, all 13 of the photographer clients were beyond thrilled with the trip. The 2011 trip will represent an incredible value at $909.01 per day of photography.

Included: three nights in the luxury hotel–the Hilton Quito Colon, round trip airfare to and from the Galapagos, all meals on the boat, a killer buffet lunch with the tortoises!, all park fees and related costs, all transfers, and a five star thank you dinner on our last evening in Quito.