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San Cristobal, Galapagos March 9, 2009, comments
on the world news about The Galapagos, from the
Galapagos and updates on the news here in our
own backyard, San Cristobal, Galapagos.
NASA MODIS Image of the Day: March 7, 2009 was a
picture of the Galapagos Islands taken obviously
from outer space on March 2. It is a spectacular
shot. If you go their web site you’ll see the
islands look green. That is because this time of
year after the rains, they are mostly green.
The Times On Line . UK has an article on how
Darwin, in this year of his 200th birthday is
now influencing today’s interior design.
Apparently animal paintings etc. have become
vogue.
Outside Online has an article about “adventure
travel” in the Galapagos. “Adventure Travel” in
the Galapagos is a marketing ploy. Being in the
Galapagos is an adventure no matter how you
arrive here or what you do here. There is plenty
of opportunity for physical activity. To kayak,
sleep on the beach and walk ten miles a day my
suggestion is to do that somewhere else more
suited to those activities. Companies try and
market the Galapagos for everything, learning
Spanish, rock climbing, surfing even hunting and
sky diving have been tried. It is the reason we
have had such a large increase in tourism here
over the past several years. These are a new
kind of tourist. Before most of our tourists
were more world conscious, they were
environmentalists, scientists and teachers. It
is as if traveling to the Galapagos has become a
vogue thing to do.
There are a lot of various articles about
Charles Darwin’s birthday. Larry De Witt of
History News Network writes the Charles greatest
work was not the theory of evolution, but the
forty years he spent studying earth worm poop
and its effect on the soil in his garden.
Wanderlust Magazine quotes Andrew Marr, BBC
correspondent and president of the Galapagos
Conservatory Trust, stating that for the sake of
the Galapagos, people should only visit here
once in a life time.
Here at home:
The renovation of the airport on Baltra
has been put on hold again this time to wait for
the elections in April which may clear up a
controversy over jurisdiction of the airport, is
it the National Park, the state or the federal
government that has jurisdiction?
San Cristobal, Galapagos Jan. 28, 2009, comments
on the world news about The Galapagos, from the
Galapagos and updates on the news here in our
own backyard, San Cristobal, Galapagos.
The Telegraph and Wales On Line have interesting
articles about a British comedian who had to
abandon the burning cruise vessel he was on. It
happened late at night in “shark infested
waters”. Rescued by another near by cruise
vessel they watched the ship burn entirely and
then sink. That was the end of their Galapagos
cruise vacation. Ships sink, have accidents,
fires, etc. fairly frequently here, but it
rarely makes the world news. I assume this time
it did because of the notoriety of one of the
survivors.
The New York Times reports how one of the
smaller cruise ships has gone “hybrid” with
solar panels and wind turbines which provide
about 17% of the electrical needs of the boat
which previously had been provided by diesel
engines. They are not talking about the
propulsion of the boat, that of course is still
provided by diesel engines, they are talking
about lights and air conditioning. I’m going to
guess this maybe saves a gallon of diesel every
couple of days. Still, it is better than
nothing.
A watch company has introduced a special dive
“Galapagos” watch. It has a giant tortoise
engraved on its back. I think General Mills is
also considering putting the Galapagos on boxes
of Wheaties.
Reuters has an article about a book that claims
Darwin’s “hatred” of slavery played a major role
in his ability to conceive of the ideas of
natural selection and evolution. The idea that
all of man kind has ancestors in common was a
fairly radical notion in the days of legal
slavery. Those couldn’t possibly be your
brothers and sisters that you were selling or at
least condoning the sale of into forced labor,
could they?
Here at home:
The rains have started up. It rains about every
other day, so the costal zone is turning green,
leaves are coming out on the Palo Santo tree
which eight months out of the year look as if
they’re dead, grasses and vines are sprouting,
mosquitoes are coming.
San Cristobal, Galapagos Jan. 20, 2009,
comments on the world news about The Galapagos,
from the Galapagos and updates on the news here
in our own backyard, San Cristobal, Galapagos.
I receive a weekly “Google Alert” of news
published that week about the Galapagos. It is
amazing how every week there is a number of
foreign tour operators offering “their new” or
“discounted” tours of the Galapagos. This week
four of the largest stepped up, two in Australia
one in Georgia, USA and the most amazing of all
was a Dallas, Texas based company offering you
the opportunity to pay them to contact an
Ecuadorean travel company directly…The
Huffington Post had an article about a
journalist’s perspective on his Galapagos
experience which was a little unique for this
type of article, “As a tourist (with regard to
the animals) in the Galapagos, you are not an
apex predator, the way you are in the rest of
the world. You're just an awkward, pinkish,
harmless something else. It's amazing how
amazing it is to be so uninteresting for once.”
The News Here This Week:
They are preparing to shut down the airport in
Baltra for one year. This means all of the
flights to and from the Galapagos will be coming
through the airport here on San Cristobal. This
happened once before several years back for a
couple of months. All of the locals had believed
this would be a boon to the local economy,
however it turned out the only people to see an
increase in business were the taxi and bus
drivers. We’ll see what happens this time. There
has been a flood of businessmen from Santa Cruz
scouting hotels etc.
Our web page will soon have a page dedicated to
the Jeniffer Kayte Glover Endemic Species
recovery park where we will be keeping you
posted on developments.
San Cristobal, Galapagos Jan. 13, 2009,
comments on the world news about The Galapagos,
from the Galapagos and updates on the news here
in our own backyard, San Cristobal, Galapagos.
National Public Radio, in their program, “All
Things Considered” did a piece about the pink
land iguanas found on a volcano on Isabela. What
they are still debating is whether this is the
result of a genetic mutation or a whole new
species. On a side note, one of the few things I
miss from the US is being able to listen to NPR.
The New York Times has a piece about how large
international travel companies are adapting to
the changing global economic environment by
designing tours closer to home, making tours
more economical and marketing the tried and true
cash cow travel destinations, among them the
Galapagos Islands.
Chris Zelkovich, writing for the Toronto Star
has a fairly typical take on his Galapagos
Cruise Trip, he saw a lot of nature, his fellow
tourists weren’t too obnoxious, there was none
of the “beach and beer crowd” to upset him. He
finishes with the sentence “…tourists will
benefit the Galapagos more than they'll harm
it.” I would only add, depending on with whom
you choose to travel here.
The News Here This Week:
The temperature just ramped up a few degrees to
hot and muggy. The Endemic Species Recovery Park
is progressing. We had made a deal with the
city/mayor of San Cristobal that if we let them
use our atv to work on the new soccer field for
four days, they would allow us to use their
bulldozer for a few hours. We broke the
bulldozer in the first twenty minutes, so they
hauled it away. It took a threaten assault on
the Mayor’s character to get them fix the
bulldozer and give us the hours of work that
were promised, but it has been done.
San Cristobal, Galapagos Jan. 6, 2009, comments on the world news about The Galapagos, from the Galapagos and updates on the news here in our own backyard, San Cristobal, Galapagos.
Intrepid Travel is following Disneyland, Gap,
Rei, Adventure Life etc. this week by pushing
“their” new Galapagos tours with press and video
releases.
The Irish Independent has an article about all
of the good things it believes will happen in
2009, one of them being a “Tourist Bonanza” in
the Galapagos. I assume they are talking about a
cruise tour accompanied by Hoss and Little Joe.
The Latin American Herald has a follow up
article on the release of the last 123 of 1,600
“Hood” tortoises being “repatriated” on Ispanola.
Here at home:
The Jeniffer Kayte Glover Endemic Species
Recovery Park was inaugurated. Jen herself got
to help secure the park’s sign.
The floating dock for sea lions is now being
used by as many as twenty-five sea lions.
San Cristobal, Galapagos Dec. 17, 2008, comments on the world news about The Galapagos, from the Galapagos and updates on the news here in our own backyard, San Cristobal, Galapagos.
Market Watch has an article about a new state of the art fuel depo on Baltra which was certified by the World Wildlife Foundation. This is where most of the cruise ships get refueled. It looks a little like an oil refinery at the water’s edge of what would otherwise be a pristine island and beach. The old depot was in bad need of repair, huge tanks of petrol were leaking, and there was not adequate monitoring or safety equipment. Twice a week a tanker arrives and fills the giant tanks. Once a week every one of the cruise ships arrives to fill their tanks. There is a lot of petroleum moving around there. No one can argue that the new depot wasn’t needed. It could be argued that with changes in how tourism is handled here, the depot wouldn’t be needed at all.
The Baltimore Sun has an article about “Going Green” while traveling to the Galapagos. The jest of which is that it recommends that travelers book cruises on only the smaller, locally owned cruise ships. They currently handle approximately 10% of the cruise passengers. My mother in law handles the insurance for most of these. While I agree that it is a “greener” way to arrive here because it places more of the tourist dollars in the hands of the inhabitants, “the true guardians of these islands”, it is hardly “going green”. These ships still burn fossil fuels 24/7, still rip up reefs with their anchors and still pump raw sewage into the ocean.
CNN wrote an insightful article about saving sharks from poachers. China is the market to which most of the shark fins or sold. The article’s point was that were China to take the lead in eliminating that market, the poachers would have no reason to continue.
Here at home:
Last week we broke ground on the Endemic Species Recovery Park and work is progressing in the usual third world way, with fits and starts.
The park built a floating deck for the sea lions right out in front of the office. The sea lions are constantly climbing up and into boats where they rest, defecate, etc. The deck has been there more than a week and I’ve yet to see a sea lion on it.
San Cristobal,
Galapagos Dec. 10, 2008, comments on the world
news about The Galapagos, from the Galapagos and
updates on the news here in our own backyard,
San Cristobal, Galapagos.
The first thing on Google News Alerts
about the Galapagos is about us.
In a press release posted on The Open Press we
talk about the park we are making. We in
coordination with the Charles Darwin Foundation
and donations from one of our “hearts”
(visitors) are creating a Endemic Species (of
plants) Recovery Park on our farm in the
highlands. This involves clearing more than an
acre which is now covered in invasive/non-native
species and planting endemic species. The
Charles Darwin Foundation is supplying the
plants and technical assistance, we are donating
the land and will be responsible for the
maintenance of the park. We are going to be
doing four experiments in the suppression of the
invasive/non-native species which will obviously
try to re-habitate the area. It is a kind of
living laboratory. Also on the premises we will
be allowing each of our hearts the opportunity
to plant a tree in their name here on San
Cristobal, Galapagos, Ecuador.
In other news the United Press International and
the Associated Press are reporting that
apparently the eggs laid by Lonesome George’s
concubine appear to be sterile. This is a big
disappointment for scientists as Lonesome George
is the last living species of his particular
breed of giant tortoise.
Dan Rather on HDNET has a “Dan Rather Reports”
on some of the challenges we face here, airing
at various times. I haven’t been able to see it.
You can check HDNET’s scheduling. I wish he had
spoken with us.
The North Florida News Daily has a nice article
about family or generational travel is a good
thing. Many of our groups are just that,
grandparents, with their sons and daughters and
grand kids traveling here together. Our land
based and customized tours offer many options
that just aren’t available elsewhere.
San Cristobal, Galapagos Dec. 2, 2008, comments on the world news and updates on the news
in Galapagos.
The Guardian, The Telegraph, New Scientist and Science Daily all report that Antarctic islands surpass Galapagos for biodiversity. Blasphemy! If it is true how long will it be before the cruise industry starts sending ships in mass?
The New
York Times and Scientific America report the
discovery that some plants found in the Galapagos
that were thought to be introduced by humans
actually predate the first human contact with the
islands. This they have determined through the
discovery of fossilized pollen spores. That some of
these plants appear to be invading larger areas is
thought now to be there simple reclamation of
habitat.
Here In The Galapagos
The Flying Tortoise Ranch is donating a portion of
its property to reforestation of endemic Galapagos
plant species. The project is being overseen by the
Charles Darwin Foundation. It involves the
eradication of all the invasive and introduced
species of plants currently growing there while
maintaining the few endemic species and the design
and organization of a park like setting for future
visitors.
San Cristobal, Galapagos
Nov. 25, 2008, comments on the world news and updates on the news
in Galapagos.
Every week another travel agency
joins the ranks of tens of thousands of
international tour companies, based everywhere but
here in the Galapagos. They announce “their” new
tour of the Galapagos. Photography tour, art tour,
family tour, walking tour all the things we do
naturally as we customize tours for each of our
group’s interests. What those companies mean by
“their” new tour is their new way of making money by
sending people here. A couple of weeks ago it was
Disneyland who had decided to get in on the act.
This week it is a Colorado based company who somehow
feel it is their right to make money off a location
in the world for which they share none of the
responsibility for its care or immediate
environment. It would be as if someone offered tours
of your neighborhood, promoted it on the web, made
money from these tours, but had no responsibility
for the maintenance of your streets, nor care about
the impact tour buses would have on the general
quality of life in your neighborhood. Add to that
the fact that the large international tour agencies
appear long before local agencies in search engine
results or rankings. Search engines design programs
necessarily based on traffic to a web site, links to
that web site, content and age of that web site.
They have few other ways to determine the value of a
website to people searching within a given realm. A
site that receives visitors looking to go to many
destinations around the world will receive that many
more visitors, have that many more links and so be
among the first companies appearing for web searches
for example say, the Galapagos. Among the first 50
results (of two-million) of a Google Search for
“Galapagos Tours” only one even had an office in the
Galapagos. Of these 50 sites some are central
clearing houses for information about various
companies for a fee to those companies, but the vast
majority are foreign owned travel agencies marketing
tours all over the world.
Reuters had a nice succinct article about Lonesome
George, the last of a breed of giant tortoise who
they’ve been trying to mate with other tortoises.
Bonnie Hamre in About.com news letters had a
wonderful write up about our web site with a
connecting link to it. We were in the news again
with our press release in The Open Press, announcing
our web cam to the world.
Here in Galapagos:
The National Park regulation that states one
National Park guide can over see groups of up to
sixteen people is going to be changed to up to
eight. This only makes sense. When we have groups of
more than ten or twelve we naturally break them up
into smaller groups. The wild life is incredibly
tame here, but sixteen people approaching them is
too many and one guide can’t possibly ride herd on a
group that large, nor obviously answer everyone’s
questions.
San Cristobal, Galapagos Nov. 11, 2008, comments on the news and updates on the news in Galapagos.
ABC News had an article this week by Taylor Behrendt describing the wonders of the fauna here and the need to protect them.
Examiner.com had a similar article by Rita Cook who stated "A Galapagos Island cruise is really the best way to see the islands…" and went on to extol the virtues of Jacuzzis on the cruise ships and offered a link to a web site that markets them. Travel writers are an interesting breed of people. A few are extremely perceptive and insightful. They generally have very little time to come to their conclusions about a destination. The majority seldom look beyond surface appearances, often relying on the opinions of those they come into contact with to form the basis of their articles.
In the telegraph.co.uk, the "grown up gapper", reporter Ruth Holiday is finally looking a little deeper into the culture she is surrounded with. I expect next week she'll be writing about how in 1995 the local fishermen attacked the National Park headquarters, angered at new fishing regulations.
National News:
Reuters reported the choice of our president, Rafael Correa to expand mining operations to help diversify the oil-dependant economy. This is somewhat at odds with his environmental protections policies, but there are always trade offs and he has shown a unique ability to balance the needs of his country.
Here In Galapagos:
The water temperature changed five degrees this week heralding the coming of the warm season and the Christmas Holidays. My wife unpacked our fake Christmas tree.
San Cristobal, Galapagos Nov. 4, 2008, comments on the news and updates on the news in Galapagos.
The Telegraph.co.uk has the continuing articles of Ruth Holiday, "The Grown Up Gapper", as she takes up here volunteer position teaching English on Isabela. Again, her observations seem pretty accurate. We're waiting for her to come around to some conclusions about local economies, tourists, cruise ships and large international travel agencies. We have faith that she’ll get there.
The Ethical Traveler had yet another article about the need balance economic and environmental concerns in the Galapagos, this one written by Tania Campbell which as most of these types of articles fails to mention the possibility of handling this problem from the supply side with the education of possible visitors before they make their choices in their manner of a travel here.
Bloomberg.com reported that Ecuador's Economy Minister, Pedro Paez Perez stated in a TV interview that our economy would grow by 5% next year even with the global financial crises. It was reported in the same article that Standard and Poor's Lisa Shineller stated that number was not likely, but that their forecast for Ecuador was a 3 growth in 2009, still not a bad number relatively.
Here on San Cristobal:
Ingala (the government branch that enforces the laws regarding who can live, come or vacation here), The Charles Darwin Foundation and The Galapagos National Park invited us to attend a presentation they were all giving together about the need to work together toward a common goal. The presentation focused on the importance of realizing that the socio-economics of managing the people living in a World Heritage Site has as much importance as managing the wild life and enforcing regulations because the two go hand in hand. You wouldn't think this would be a new perspective in the Galapagos, but it is. There were maybe two hundred people there, all the who's whos, the governor, mayor, heads of the three above mentioned agencies etc. and of course many of our friends. I don't know if we were the only "commercial" (as in working company) invited, but we were the only one present.
San Cristobal, Galapagos Oct. 28, 2008, comments on the news and updates on the news in Galapagos.
ABC News Travel Section: An article by Jefferey Kofman titled, Invasion of the Tourists: Journey to the Galapagos Islands talks a lot about the wonders of the Galapagos, but very little about the subject of the title of his article. He quotes Felipe Cruz, current head of the Charles Darwin Foundation here in the Galapagos as saying it isn’t the country of Ecuador that has let the islands down, but rather the world. Kofman fails to explore or follow up this novel idea. I would imagine if he had it would have led to an examination of the international tourism industry and the part that travelers choices play in local ecologies and economies. He also has some inaccurate numbers. The population of the entire Galapagos is around 30 thousand, not the island of Santa Cruz alone and the number of tourist who entered the Galapagos last year was 110,448, not the 140,000 he quoted. These numbers are readily available from "Ingala" (the government agency in charge of who comes and goes from the Galapagos).
Telegraph.co.uk has an apparently ongoing article about the experience a writer is having here in the Galapagos. The writer, Ruth Holiday had just made it to Baltra/Santa Cruz and is on her way to Isabela where we will presumably get the next installment. She is already quite impressed. I’m looking forward to her next article. She writes well and isn’t too far off base with most of her observations.
Every week there are a number of press releases issued by international travel companies offering new tours here in the Galapagos, many of them following our lead of land based tours with the exceptions that their tours are offered because there is a demand and not for ecological reasons and these are “package” tours brought to you by companies whose main interest in the islands is as a place to make money.
San Cristobal, Galapagos Oct. 21, 2008, comments on the news and updates on the news in Galapagos.
The Santa Barbara Independent had a nice article on Gabrielle Johnson who works for the Charles Darwin Foundation. She has been willing to give her time to make dinner presentations to our groups. It is nice to have her on the island.
The article I commented on last week by Chris Kraul of the Los Angeles Times was reprinted again in the Chicago Tribune.
Market Watch and International Business Times, NY, have an article on how Toyota is sponsoring a trip for thirty grade school teachers to come to the Galapagos. They have them on a three day boat trip that goes to two islands that no one is allowed to visit, Espanola and Fernandina. Perhaps the park is allowing them. Where they might really get a lesson is if they spent time in one of the Pueblos.
The McGill Daily "cold and distant since 1911" has an article about how scientists discovered genes from an extinct species of giant tortoise in an existing species and plan on bringing extinct species back to life by selective breeding.
San Cristobal News
The thirty applicants who passed the exam and will take the course to be National Park Guides were thrilled, while the two-hundred and twenty who didn't were not. The tests were sent to Quito to be graded and only the results were returned. When some of the students asked to see their tests and they weren't available, it generated a lot of animosity and suspicion about the “grading” process.
Oct. 14, 2008 San Cristobal, Galapagos Ecuador, Comments on the week’s news about the Galapagos and the news here in Ecuador
On Oct. 13 Asap news ran an article title "Ecuador attempts to rein in Galapagos tourism boom". The author stated that "Over the last few decades thousands of workers left mainland Ecuador for the lure of jobs in the tourist industry in the Galapagos working as cleaners, maids, shop assistants and waiters." He had been referring to illegal immigrants. The Galapagos immigration law passed in 1997. Up until that point, any Ecuadorian citizen could have immigrated legally to the Galapagos. We did have a legal immigration boom shortly before the law was passed brought on not by an expanding tourism business, but by the sudden appearance of a market for sea cucumbers in Japan. The islands were flooded with fishermen from the continent who came to cash in on this "gold rush". Many of them actually did as they decimated the sea cucumber population. There is still to this day a thriving poaching business praying on these creatures.
In a related and more informative article written by Chris Kraul of the Los Angeles Times that was published this week in the Houston Chronicle is a quote by our Minister of the Environment stating that the answer to many of our problems here lies in "the development of a new tourism model". We are proud to be one of the companies pioneering this new model.
The Ashbury Park Press had an interesting article about the renovation of “Old Town” (Colonial) Quito. Only a few years ago we would not send our clients down there nor have them stay in hotels located there because of the crime, grime, drugs and prostitution that proliferated there. Now, it is one of the highlights of our tours and practically all of them spend a night or two there.
Today two hundred and fifty applicants to train to be Galapagos National Park Guides will receive the news if they made the cut for the thirty available positions.
ABC news published an article Oct. 1 titled "Galapagos Islands Face Greatest Threat: Man" For those of us that live here, this is not news. While awareness of a problem is the first step to finding solutions, that is all it is. This particular article was succinct and mostly accurate though managed to skip a number of salient points. The growth in the population here first began with a fishing boom, harvesting sea cucumbers. It has continued to grow because of lack of government control. In the past ten years we have had eight presidents, the previously seven can be described as "pro-business", meaning their own. There were plans to turn the Galapagos into Waikiki south, the indiscriminant selling of licenses to cruise ships and a complete lack of control of immigration. Today we have a government that appears as if it will survive its term and perhaps a second and has put the preservation of the Galapagos as a top priority. The article mentioned the restricting of cruise ship licenses to eighty-four as a measure to reduce tourism, but failed to mention an increase in the Park entrance fee to $200 and a plan to enforce a minimum of seven days for tour lengths. Over the past couple of years three and four day tours have become popular with the cruise ship industry. While pointing out there are no sophisticated sewer treatment plants on the islands, it fails to point out that the cruise ships dump raw sewage directly into the water nightly, burn fossil fuels twenty-four hours a day and routinely rip up reefs with their anchors. The article does not offer any advice or solutions. Our efforts at Come To Galapagos have been to try to solve the problem from the supply side and to educate visitors about the consequences of their choices of how they travel.
Sept. 30, 2008 San Cristobal, Galapagos Ecuador
This week, The Washington Post’s “Leftnews” has an article about the referendum rewriting the Ecuadorean constitution which was approved by the voters on Sunday. They incorrectly stated that the new constitution allows same sex marriages. That was included in one draft, but was dropped along with recognizing Quichua as a national language.
The new constitution does provide the environment specific rights normally associated with individuals.
Probably the most important aspect of it is the centralization of control over states rights within the Federal government. This means for the Galapagos that the important decisions regarding environmental care, human development and tourist access will be made in Quito. This may turn out to be a good thing for the Galapagos. Up to this point decisions regarding tourist access and development as opposed to environmental care have been predominantly made by people who profit directly or indirectly from tourist access and development.
Sept. 22, 2008 San Cristobal, Galapagos, Ecuador
Galapagos in the News this week. Comments from a resident.
The Times Online, reported yesterday that the Galapagos National Park is going to double the entrance fee next year. Which is correct, though they might have reported that months ago. The interesting thing about the article is that it goes on to explain that the increase fees are “one of a series of measures introduced by the Ecuadorean government to limit tourism to the fragile archipelago”. “The series of measures” has not been fully outlined yet as we are waiting to see if a national referendum is passed next week. This referendum has to do with re-writing the Ecuadorian constitution. If it passes the Federal government will take far more direct control of the islands than it has in the past. One of the other “measures” may be to require tours of the islands to last at least seven days.
Trans World News has an article promoting animal photography workshops in locations throughout the world, one of them being the Galapagos. From our perspective photographers tend to be more ecologically conscious than other visitors and promoting that kind of visitor is far better for the islands than some of the other more questionable activities that are or have been promoted like sport fishing, surfing, kayaking even rock climbing and hunting have been tried.
The New Scientist, in an article explaining the ecological virtues of concentrating tourists, incorrectly states that the Galapagos limits the number of visitors. They did put a limit once and the first year it was in place more than twenty thousand tourists over the limit arrived.
PR Web, a “press release newswire” has a release by Wild Life Adventures of California apparently now are offering upscale/high end vacations to various new destinations, the Galapagos being one of them. I’ve never heard of them, but suspect they’ve contracted with some of the cruise ships.
The Open Press, another press release outlet published a release by “Adventures Within Reach” who are “Now Offering Galapagos for the Holidays”. I’m not sure who Adventures Within Reach would negotiate with to own the Holidays, but who ever it is, I hope they get a title report before they make a trade for the Galapagos.
Travel Blackboard, apparently a newsletter about travel has an article proclaiming the delights of a ten day tour that ”encapsulates” the best of Ecuador. In a ten day tour participants see the rain forests, the volcanoes, the Indian markets and the Galapagos. You could probably see all of that in seven days. If you’re going to tour that way, why waste the extra three days?
The World Aeronautic Press Agency, in its news report had an article about the remodeling of the airport on Baltra. They are expanding the airport and repairing the runway, however it will be built with natural materials and fueled by wind and solar energy.
August 26, 2008 San Cristobal, Galapagos Ecuador
A man wrote an insightful letter to the editor of the New York Times, commenting on an article “Risking Galapagos”. His main point was that while the article talked about balancing tourism and conservation, it failed to take into account the plight of the mostly disenfranchised inhabitants, “the true guardians” of the islands as we like to refer to the local populace. He also comments on our president’s referendum which will be voted on next month. See below in the “News From Here”.
- The Fort Mills Times has an article about a very happy retired zoologist who was able to visit the Galapagos. He took a cruise tour and his comment was, small rooms, but the food was good. They do tend to over feed on the cruise tours. People spend so much time on those boats rather than actually on the islands and there isn’t much else to do besides eat.
- The Wall Street Journal writes about how Aerogal, one of the two airlines flying to the Galapagos and the airline we use exclusively for our clients was the first airline to be awarded the “Smart Voyager” certification for its efforts toward operating in as environmentally responsible manner as possible.
- The Barbados Advocate published a rant by David Harper about how our greed is destroying the planet. It is hard not to agree with him and understandable why he would be so angry, but as often happens with these kinds of pieces, they preach to the choir and turn away possible converts with excessive bombast.
The News Here:
-The National Park is commencing two courses for Galapagos National Park Guides. One here in San Cristobal and one on Isabela. It is a three month very intensive course and there is a lot of competition to get into them. They will turn out four hundred new guides. This doesn’t mean that they will all instantly have work. Out of that four hundred, we’ll probably train three or four new guides to work with us.
Everyone is talking about the referendum of our president that will be voted on next month. With regards to the Galapagos, he wants to put more control over what happens here in Quito. The referendum will very likely not pass here. I can see pros and cons. It would be as if the federal government of the US wanted to pass a referendum reducing the power of the fifty states to self govern. In the case of the Galapagos, I’m not entirely sure that it isn’t such a bad idea. In Ecuador the president already appoints the Governors of each state. Our problems have largely been created by the revolving door of presidents that have passed through over recent years.
August 19, 2008 San Cristobal, Galapagos Ecuador
According to the Orlando Sentinel and The Bradenton Hearld, AP Adventures, a subsiderary of Disney is adding eight new destinations to its list of family tours and among them is the Galapagos. Yes, Disneyland Galapagos will become a reality in 2009. Almost anyone who has been here and practically everyone who lives here will be equally disappointed to hear this. Disney would not begin offereing tours here unless they felt they could make some money and that somehow they have a right to do this in the Galapagos. They are not unlike many other travel agencies. Google "Vacations Galapagos" and try to find a Galapagos owned and operated company. They do exist.
The other news this week is the Government of Ecuador has insisted that second largest bank in the country start paying taxes. The bank, Bank of Pichincha one of the largest in Ecuador has stated that it has never made a profit.
August 11, 2008 San Cristobal, Galapagos Ecuador
The news coming out of the Google Galapagos news alert this week is mostly blog entries about people’s trips to the Galapagos. Discover magazine has one, Science Blogs another.
The Jackson Sun has an article about a woman who visited and thought she was sitting just three feet away from a seal, turned out it was a sea lion.
The Stamford Advocate writes about concerns of certain members of the Board of Education regarding international field trips to places like the Galapagos for high school students. I’m with them, but for different reasons. These groups of high school kids tend to be so large and economy packaged that I can’t imagine their fondest memories of the Galapagos are anything other than the puppy love kisses they exchanged when their tour leader wasn’t looking.
The Times Online has an article on “How to do Ecuador in Comfort in a Week” which is basically by not going to the Galapagos. I agree with them too. People need a minimum of nine days of travel to make a trip to the Galapagos “in Comfort”.
The news from here is Ingala (the government agency in charge of immigration and visitors to the Galapagos) has initiated a requirement that all persons working here in the Galapagos who are not native Galapagenans, must take a course about the conservation of the islands. This impacts many who have been here for years and also any new arrivals. Personally, I think they ought to require the course for anyone entering the Galapagos whose stay will not be over seen by a Galapagos National Park guide.
The problem with the fuel for the small airplanes has been solved. Apparently the problem had to do with the Ecuadorian Government’s seizure of the company who supplied the fuel to the small airlines. The company was owned by a family who several years back, closed their bank and left the country with millions of other people’s money. The government is in the process of seizing and selling off the assets of this family to help reimburse those who lost money. The difficulty was with keeping the company functioning as the government tried to sell it, rather than any shift in economic policy.
July 28, 2008 San Cristobal, Galapagos Ecuador
The big news this week in the papers regarding the Galápagos is that Lonesome George may soon be a daddy (China Daily, Pittspurgh Post Gazette, ABC news, Times Online, American Chronicle, amNew York and CBBC newsround). Each of the Galapagos Islands has or had a slight variation of Giant Tortoise, even separate volcanoes on the same island have variations. Some of them have become extinct. Lonesome George is the last of his kind from Isla Pinta and they have been trying unsuccessfully to mate him with another tortoise to continue his line for years, had practically given up. Now one of his mates has laid some eggs and so everyone is celebrating though they won’t know if the eggs are fertile for some weeks still. Tortoises are slow, long living creatures as opposed to ourselves who do things in their own time. George probably just wasn’t quite ready to commit to fatherhood on our time schedule.
In a move apparently aimed at ending government subsidies of some businesses, the Ecuadorian government had virtually ceased selling airplane fuel to small airline companies here in Ecuador. They had previously received this fuel at a discounted cost. Almost all petroleum products here are sold at a discounted price, a government subsidy to the people and businesses of Ecuador. Gas for cars costs $150 a gallon. The cessation of selling air plane fuel had the immediate effect of grounding these airlines. Here in the Galapagos this means for the time being at least, people can not fly between the islands. The small plane company here is rumored to be negotiating the purchase of air line fuel from a Columbian company.
July 22, 2008 San Cristobal, Galapagos Ecuador
The news about the Galapagos printed in the US and Canada this week featured such items as a dancer making her way around the world, stopping in the Galapagos (Reuters), a man talking about the ingeniousness of visiting something else in Ecuador besides the Galapagos, 'as long as he was down here' (Pittsburgh Post), A travel company tour leader expounding the virtues of a Galapagos tour (National Post, Toronto) These travel company tour leaders are something like a guide taking you into Nordtroms and receiving all the commission from the items that you buy yet do not have the responsibility of maintaining the store nor merchandise. There was a piece in the Washington Post about "Best Travel Bargains". Apparently one of the cruise ships wasn’t entirely booked for one week this August so they’re trying to pack it with "economy" offerings.
The real news here in the Galapagos this week is that the National Park has stated it will go ahead with plans to double the park entrance fee to $200 and that it will force cruise tours to offer cruises no shorter than seven days. The increase in the Park entrance fee will double their budget and perhaps dissuade people from making a trip here for only a couple of days. The Park’s budget would not be adequate if it were ten times what it is now. The cruise tours have been offering shorter and shorter cruises which has resulted in an estimated 25% increase in the number of passengers/visitors and an estimated 15% increase in profit.
The other news is that they are planning on shutting down the airport in Baltra for one year in order to make repairs on the runway. The last time this occurred all of the traffic to the Galapagos flowed through San Cristobal for three months. Seven planes a day and all of the cruise ships coming and going from the harbor here. It was thought that this would create an economic boom for the local populace, however the net result was a boom only for the taxi drivers and enter island airline and small boat shuttles to and from Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz.
July 18, 2008 San Cristobal, Galapagos Ecuador
Yesterday our relatively new president, Rafael Correa arrived for meetings this weekend with Assembly leaders and local government officials.
This morning on the “Early News” of the local TV station he announced a plan to levy a new tax on all tourism services of 12% of their gross revenue and the restructuring of the existing government agencies to both streamline a confusing and often conflicting bureaucracy and place more direct control over local policy in Quito.
This is yet another of various “radical” steps he has been taking as he attempts to reform a country and political system that has been rated as one of the ten most corrupt in the world.
Our perspective as Come to Galapagos, LLC (USA) and Come to Galapagos CIA.LTDA (Ecuador) is that this is primarily aimed at the cruise ship industry as a way of both expanding a tax base for the country and a short cutting of the “pork barrel buffet” of corruption which receives revenue from the Galapagos, but does neither pay to protect them nor support the local economy. We suspect no one here will be happy answering to Quito about our problems. We acknowledge that locally we have been challenged trying to accomplish things with the above mentioned “confusing and conflicting bureaucracy” and our own internal confusing and conflicting alliances, however we suspect President Correa will find it equally if not more challenging trying to do the same from Quito.
It should be noted that President Correa taught at the University here. One of his first actions as president was to put the care of the Galapagos near the top of his agenda and that it is quite likely that he will be the first president (of eight) to serve his entire term of office (four years) in Ecuador in more than ten years. The stability of this alone with regards to consistent policy in the Galapagos, however leftist his views may be in our minds, is worth supporting.
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