Million Air Winter 2023/24

Tortuga Bay Beach

From $4,650 per person for a three-night all inclusive package at Relais & Châteaux’s Pikaia Lodge. Contact pikaia@

DAY5-6 The next two days are to be spent (mostly) on land. In the morning we visit the Charles Darwin Research Station in Santa Cruz’s main town of Puerto Ayora. With tortoise knowledge thoroughly expanded, we embark towards a tortoise reserve in the island’s misty highlands. There are slow-moving giant tortoises as far as the eye can see, the largest spanning nearly 6 ft. Some are taking mud baths, while others are raising their crane-like necks to chew on low-hanging leaves. My fi nal day has the most uplifting of beginnings: the planting of a tree — something Pikaia Lodge asks of all its guests. As I bury the roots of an endemic scalesia tree in the soil, I’m told the hotel has planted 11,000 trees since it acquired the 76-acre former cattle ranch. The weather is just right for our planned visit to Tortuga Bay, named after the turtles that nest in its dunes. A half-hour hike through dry forest takes me past candelabra cacti, lemony cotton fl owersand Darwin’s fi nches before arriving at a pristine ocean expanse. Here, I am introduced to one of the Galapágos’s most curious creatures: marine iguanas. The mythical-looking reptile is the Earth’s only seafaring lizard. I go for a swim and it’s not long before one meanders its way to the shore, snaking its way past me and out to sea, using its lengthy onyx-hued tail as a rudder. DAY7 An afternoon fl ight transports us back to reality in Ecuador’s port city of Guayaquil. We are eased back into urban life with a stay at Relais & Châteaux’s Hotel del Parque, the city’s most luxurious and historic hotel. It also happens to house one of Ecuador’s most celebrated restaurants, Casa Julián. Dinner is a tremendous tasting menu inspired by one of the country’s biggest exports: cacao. The grand feast isa fi tting fi nale to an astonishing week. by Emma Al-Mousawi

relaischateaux.com, +593 98 635 2538, pikaialodge.com

Hotel del Parque

Sea lions on the beach

Galápagos giant tortoise