Cruise Ship vs. Land Based Tours - The Real Story

The most important reasons to choose land based tours over the traditional cruise tours is for your own enjoyment and to be traveling for the benefit of these islands and their true guardians rather than international travel agencies or cruise ships. Apart from a small sales budget and airline cost, every one of your tourist dollars ends up in the hands of the inhabitants. Travel as part of the solution. Help us develop sustainable economic practices. In exchange you'll be able to “one up” the vast majority of visitors to these islands, be able to explain to them realities they weren't granted the opportunity to understand AND you'll have better photos and stories.

My adopted Uncle likes to talk about the first tourist he ever saw here. We've all heard the story so many times, but we never grow tired of watching the twinkle he gets in his one good eye. He doesn't get around so well anymore, had a cane and now a walker, but still his eye twinkles as good as it ever did.

“It happened in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and sixty-nine.” In that year there were no paved streets, there were three “sometimes” working cars on the island, there was electricity only for a couple hours a day, some days. Sometimes a week or weeks would pass without it. Candle light was popular; flashlights were rare because batteries were even rarer and expensive. People ate what they grew, supplemented by a sack of imported rice or flour and if times got hard, they could always eat lobster. It was easy to catch by hand and plentiful, the poor man's meat. It was not surprising for sailing yachts to arrive, but these were not “tourists proper”.

According to my uncle, the first proper tourist disembarked from a cruise ship owned by Metropolitan Tours. My Uncle held out his hand at the pier to a small, very beautiful woman and helped her from the dingy to the solid planks of the pier. She “pierced him” with her smile. She was accompanied by four other tourists and a guide who quickly separated the company from my Uncle's presence.

He watched them walk away up the pier toward the only store and smelled his hand. After her touch it “smelled of roses”. At this point of his story he'll pull out of his wallet a crinkled magazine picture or if you're in his home, point to a framed, glass covered picture on the wall of a less weathered, but still ancient copy of the same magazine picture he has in his wallet. It is a picture of Jane Fonda circa 1969.

“It is for the touch of this beautiful woman that I never married.”

The next day he came down with a horrible cold and within a week, everyone on the island had the same cold. He'll finish his story in these times where we have electricity usually 24/7, water delivered by pipe, five cruise ships anchored in the harbor and the people still as in his day practically unable to touch these visitors to our islands. And he'll have that twinkle in his eye, “This is why the powers that be keep us separated from the tourists, to protect us.” He does not have the words facetious or ironic. He doesn't need them. His one good eye sparkles.

Today most of the tourists we see are sheltered behind protective glass as they are whisked away from the arriving airplanes in buses, to launches and then to their cruise ships. Of all the tourist generated revenue in the Galapagos, less than five percent of it ever touches the hands of the true guardians of these islands, the inhabitants.

Tourist's choices in travel have profound impacts on the local environments and economies of their destinations. The Galapagos Islands are no exception. Responsible tourism begins with education and while everyone has seen a national geographic article or program on the wildlife of the Galapagos few have received accurate information on the reality of the people and economy that exist here.

The "floating hotel" idea for managing tourism was a great one when there were only a couple of them (mid 1970's). Now there are almost a hundred cruise ships operating at capacity. The human population has quadrupled in those years. The base reason this has gone unchecked is that of the many Presidents Ecuador has had in the intervening years, most were pro "business", meaning their own. There was opportunistic investing, sometimes as blatant as plans to turn the Galapagos into a kind of southern hemisphere Waikiki or cruise ship licenses sold without regard for consequences.

Today we have a far more stable political situation with a president who has made the preservation of the Galapagos one of his top priorities. Everyone is re-evaluating their approach. The only thing anyone is in full agreement on is that changes are needed and that land based tours such as the one our family owns and operates offer a ray of hope for improving local economies and bringing the islands closer to a sustainable use of resources. We are making minor head way, but the real power, the real force that can bring about change is on the supply side. With the growing awareness of responsible/eco tourism there is hope for positive change.

Our problems in the Galapagos are not unique. All over the world local economies are getting trampled by large tour companies who come in, exploit the resource and take the vast majority of the revenue with them. Here one of the big impediments to positive change is the cruise ship industry itself.

These ships get refueled in our ports with diesel shipped in from the mainland, burn these fossil fuels 24/7, leave their trash in our dumps, pump untreated sewage directly into the ocean, rip up reefs with their anchors, employ mostly from the continent, purchase produce and goods exclusively from the continent and the majority of them are owned by people who have no direct contact with the Galapagos except as a place to make money.

Customized land based tours offer visitors the ability to visit several different islands, receive a level of personalized service and accommodation unavailable on cruise tours and help bring about positive change toward sustainable economic practices within the Galapagos. For example, working with local fishermen who have lived all their lives harvesting their living from the sea (depleting fisheries) working with us they have exchanged their license to fish commercially, irrevocably for a license to work with visitors, taking the visitors out in their boats, demonstrating how they used to fish with hand lines, explaining the history of the fisheries, what has happened, the reality that exists now and then catching the nights meal to be shared with their family. The environmental impact is that instead of harvesting thousands of fish a year to survive a fisherman's family can survive harvesting only a hundred. It allows visitors a glimpse not only into the history but also the culture and current reality of the Galapagos, allows a cultural exchange which is perhaps as important for the fishermen as it is enjoyable for the visitor and allows the ability for the fishermen to have a sustainable option for making a living. We are doing the same with the farmers. For the past ten years, the population has been able to purchase produce, meat and eggs imported from the continent at a cheaper price than the small farms here can produce these items and survive. The reason for this is the large commercial farms on the continent which do not need to adhere to any government mandated standards as to the use of chemicals, growth hormones, etc. have been able even with the cost of shipping to under cut the market. Most people book their vacations here months sometimes even a year in advance. This allows us the opportunity to plan ahead. We can say to the farmers, “On this date we are going to need X number of lettuce, eggs, tomatoes, fruit etc.” This allows the farmers the ability to plant many of these crops knowing they have a secure market and with this the willingness to follow best practices with regard to organics, water use etc.

The choices of vacations to the Galapagos fall within three categories. The first and overwhelmingly most popular is to take a "cruise ship" vacation. The reason for this is that most people are not aware of the other options. That being said, it is rare that anyone has a bad experience in these, unless they choose the bargain basement variety.

The second most popular option is to arrive in Quito with a back pack, book a flight to the Galapagos and find your own way around after that, which is fine if you have a month or two to spend here. If not these people often miss out on many of the delights of these islands as it takes some time to learn what, where, when, why and how to do and also what not to do where when why and how.

The third option is the road less traveled. That is us, Come To Galapagos, LLC.

Many people are better served with a cruise vacation. With these they will be traveling with other tourists which can be comforting, in some cases as many as eighty. They will visit several islands for scheduled periods of time. The cruise ships run on very rigid schedules. So you can know what you will be doing say tomorrow at 10:15.

On board are National Park guides whose job it is to explain the various aspects of particular sites. They've said the same things so many times they have nightmares about their “speeches”. These tourists are quartered in small rooms. Almost all have private, though tiny bathrooms.

The cruise tours travel between islands during the night so that each day, the traveler wakes up to a new location, a new island, though truth is, if they weren't told they would hardly know the difference. They arrive from the mainland in either San Cristobal or Baltra, to be whisked away in a bus, to a water taxi, to these cruise ships and return the same way with little or no contact with the local people.

On the other hand, with a land based tour the tourist will not be seeing seven islands in seven days (if this is Tuesday, this must be… Floreana?), will not have a group of fellow tourists outside their immediate companions to converse with or need to be quaffing sea sickness pills.

They will however have: the opportunity to get to know these islands rather than just see them, the ability to choose where, when and how they'd like to explore them, the chance to have an experience that is both naturally and culturally rich, their own personal, private, bilingual national park guide available twenty-four seven, a decent size bathroom and a flexibility of schedule. Our clients have richer animal encounters owing to their personal local guide and the flexibility of the schedule. An extreme example might be if there is suddenly a giant pod of dolphins outside the bay as happens from time to time, they can snag a boat and go swim with them, but even with this most of the letters we receive in thanks focus on their experiences with the native people.

Probably the most important reason to choose touring with Come To Galapagos over the traditional cruise tours is to be traveling for the benefit of these islands and their true guardians rather than international travel agencies or cruise ships. Apart from a small sales budget and airline cost, every one of your tourist dollars ends up in the hands of the inhabitants. Travel as part of the solution. Help us develop sustainable economic practices. In exchange you'll be able to “one up” the vast majority of visitors to these islands, be able to explain to them realities they weren't granted the opportunity to understand AND you'll have better photos and stories.

CST#2083876-40