Santiago has more visitor variety than its neighbours, from tide pools and fur seal colonies to a lava field young enough to still look freshly formed. It was one of the first islands Charles Darwin explored on foot.
A black sand beach with a guided walk along the rocky shore, where tidal pools shelter fur seals and marine iguanas, and an old salt mine now draws flamingos.
A walk across a lava flow barely a century old, its strange, almost liquid patterns still clearly visible underfoot.
A quieter mangrove-backed beach good for spotting Galapagos hawks and, further inland, a seasonal lagoon that draws flamingos and pintail ducks.
A week at sea, then volcanoes and rainforest on mainland Costa Rica.
Amazon wildlife on the mainland, then eight days cruising the islands.
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