Galapagos Hopper

By guest blogger Steve Newman

If you are thinking of going island hopping, I guess the Galapagos are are pretty good place to do it. Far too much has been written about these amazing islands to repeat it here but what is not so well known is that certain islands are barred from being visited by the larger cruise ships.

This is where vessels such as International Expeditions' Evolution (above right) come in to play. The 32-guest ship is one of the few vessels allowed to visit Genovesa Island on her ten-day Galapagos tour. Visiting this island is like popping into a private nature reserve as it has more bird species than any other in the the archipelago.

The point is that on this cruise you'll find yourself just inches away from giant tortoises, penguins, iguanas and many other wild animals. You can even kayak, snorkel and swim with sea lions or take a panga ride to search for endangered turtles and white-tipped reef sharks.

The company's policy of having small numbers on its cruises is rewarded with your onboard naturalists and experts being able to import so much more information to you.

Their Amazon river journey, for example, only has 28 guests and the Papua New Guinea cruise is restricted to 16, and even then you break into smaller groups for a deeper exploration of the rain forests.

International Expeditions also has a strong tradition of conservation, bringing help to both the environments and local eco-systems they visit, as well as the people who live there. There are also extensions to these cruises and, if you want to go even further afield, Antarctica and East Greenland are amongst the other destinations on offer.

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