Booking a fantastic trip to the Galapagos Islands takes time and lots of coordination. Christmas weeks are also premium time and I was late to the game, for doing it on a live aboard boat. The ones I am interested in book a year out - so I will do this in the near future. Isla de la Plata, provided me with a little taste at a really good price point. We were part of a small charter boat that took about an hour to get out to Machalilla National Park on the Isla. The island is uninhabited and features beaches, headlands and shrubland. It has many marine birds, blue footed and masked boobies, Galapagos' albatrosses and frigates. Trails run from Drake Bay to sheer clifftops overlooking water that attracts manta rays and humpback whales. There was really good snorkeling in Bay.