New Regulations in the Galapagos!
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Mar 17, 2011 | by Kevin Loughlin
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2011 IS THE YEAR TO LAND ON THE GALAPAGOS!
The new regulations begin in 2012.
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The Galapagos National Park has issued a notice to all tour operators informing them that all Galapagos vessels must begin operating with a 15-day/14-night itinerary as of 2012. This would require an 17 or 18-day total trip to include the necessary overnights in Ecuador.
For 2011, our 11-day tour itinerary (which includes 8-days/7-nights on the boat) will stand as is.
The purpose of this measure, according to officials, is to cut visitation at 15 heavily used sites, give equal access to all boats at the best sites, increase the use of under-used sites, and reduce the total number of visitors by cutting out shorter itineraries.
We are all for protecting the islands with incredible wildlife and astounding scenery. However, reading between the lines, I am afraid that this is the first step to the government allowing the much larger cruise ships access to the most desirable islands (where they currently are not allowed) there-by reducing the number locally operated yachts that can stay in business.
For 2012 we will wait and see how this plays out and we may need to create an 18-day tour itinerary, which will include 15-days/14-nights on the boat, in order to visit all the best islands we want to see. This will obviously be a more expensive trip and more difficult for many to fit into their schedule.
Shorter tours might be possible, however, we would not have any control over which islands we visit for short tours and will miss many of the best locations that require the longer tour!
So if you have had any thoughts of visiting the Galapagos Islands, this is the year to do so! Take advantage of our current 11-day itinerary, August 2 – 12, 2011 and don’t miss out on seeing the incredible, unique wildlife the Galapagos Islands have to offer!
You can read about our previous trips on this blog at:
http://blog.wildsidenaturetours.com/search?q=galapagos
Don’t miss the boat… visit our itinerary and register now while we still have space available on our 16 passenger yacht!
http://www.wildsidetoursinc.com/itineraries/galapagos_eduventure.html
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The Galapagos Islands are the most incredible living museum of evolutionary changes, with a huge variety of endemic species (birds, land and sea animals, plants) and landscapes not seen anywhere else.
So true Zuri, even after more than a dozen trips to the Galapagos I am still in awe!
-Kevin
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The Galapagos islands host a lot of species endemic in the island. I wish I could go there because it is very beautiful there and you can see rare animals such as the Blue-footed booby and the Galapagos lizard.