Baltra Island cruises

About the island

Baltra Island

Baltra, also called South Seymour, is a small, flat island north of Santa Cruz and the gateway to the Galápagos: most flights to the islands land at its airport, and most of our cruises begin or end here.

Baltra covers 21 square kilometers (8 square miles) and is only 100 meters (328 feet) high. In 1942, during the Second World War, the United States built an air base here to protect the approaches to the Panama Canal, with a mile-long airstrip, barracks and even a cinema and a bowling alley. The base was handed over to Ecuador after the war. Today the island is used only by the Ecuadorian Navy and Air Force, and its airport was rebuilt as an ecological terminal that runs largely on solar and wind energy.

Baltra's land iguanas disappeared by 1954, but some had been moved to North Seymour in the early 1930s. Their descendants, bred in captivity, were returned from 1991, and the island again has a healthy population of several hundred.

There are no visitor sites on Baltra itself. Arriving travelers are usually met at the airport by the crew of their yacht and taken by bus to the dock, where the pangas are waiting, or across the narrow Itabaca Channel to Santa Cruz. Nearby, North Seymour and the sandy islet of Mosquera, with its sea lion colony, are often visited at the start or the end of a cruise.

Flights to Baltra leave from Quito and Guayaquil. The transit card is bought at the airport in Quito or Guayaquil before the flight, and the Galápagos National Park entrance fee is paid on arrival at Baltra.

Fast facts

• Most flights to the Galápagos land at Baltra, whose ecological airport runs largely on solar and wind energy.
• The United States built an air base on Baltra in 1942, during the Second World War.
• Baltra's land iguanas disappeared by 1954 and were reintroduced from 1991.