Baltra Island

Why go

Baltra matters most when planning the beginning and end of a Santa Cruz stay. The airport connection crosses the Itabaca Channel before continuing overland, so the transfer has several stages. Its low, dry landscape also introduces a different Galápagos setting from the greener highlands you encounter across the water.

What to look for

• The Itabaca Channel separates Baltra from Santa Cruz.
• Prickly pear cactus and palo santo grow in Baltra’s arid landscape.

The full story

Baltra’s airport has roots in the Second World War. The United States established an air base here, using crews to patrol the eastern Pacific and help protect the Panama Canal. Facilities passed to Ecuador after the war. This history explains why a small, dry island became such an important arrival point, although it does not make the former base an independently accessible sightseeing area. Baltra also shares a conservation history with nearby North Seymour. In the 1930s, Captain G. Allan Hancock moved land iguanas from Baltra to that neighboring island. Baltra’s original population later disappeared, but the transferred animals survived. Their descendants contributed to captive breeding, and land iguanas were reintroduced to Baltra in the 1990s. The two islands are linked by that recovery story as well as by their close geography.

Useful to know

• For Puerto Ayora, follow the airport bus to Itabaca, cross by barge, then continue by road.
• Check current airport transfer arrangements before your departure day.
• Keep sightseeing plans on Santa Cruz separate from the airport transfer.

Your next visit

Estimated · Declared scenario and planning estimates; no live opening, weather, queue or booking service.