Quite rightly the Ecuador Government is extremely anxious to protect the natural environment of these islands but this does lead to a complicated arrival and checking in process for which you have to engage an agent.  You are not allowed to try and do it on your own and, in fact, having an agent does make life a lot easier.  You are here to enjoy Galapagos not spend days navigating the entry requirements.

Dancing Bear had already made contact with an agent that had been recommended to them and they kindly arranged for him to visit the day we arrived.  Jonny Romero proved to be extremely helpful if a little chaotic but then you do need to take some responsibility yourself for making sure that everything happens as it should.  The first thing is that Jonny arrives with a gentleman from the Ecuador Navy no less and two people from the Environmental authorities.

While the Navy go through a very long form with the ship’s Captain the environmental team go through a very long form with the First Mate covering how we deal with rubbish (pay a dollar and give it to the rubbish boat that comes each day), sewage and oil disposal and what food we have on board.  Everything was photographed including the little food waste bin, toilets and fridge.  We thought we may have the pork and chorizo that we had brought with us from Panama removed but that was fine; the issue was the two oranges and one passion fruit.  From the frantic hand signals and limited English and Spanish we concluded that they may be harbouring dangerous insects so were more than happy to hand them over.  They were double wrapped in polythene and then taped over and over with biohazard marked sticky tape.  Blimey.

Fortunately Jonny did a lot of the running around getting forms and photocopies and things signed and stamped so our next stop was a delightful visit to immigration based in a breezeblock shed just outside town.  They were charming and helpful but needed photocopies that we did not have and they would not do even if we paid so Jonny had to leave us there while he went back to his office to do the necessary.

Just one more thing, the visit by the diver to check the hull.  If you have anything growing on your hull that they don’t like the look of, or if your hull has simply got a good marine growth over it then you are sent at least 70 miles off shore to clean it.  This would clearly be difficult given that you are then in the ocean and even if it is calm you may not have the necessary diving kit with you and even if you did you may not feel particularly inclined to take your chances with the sharks and/or wait for calm enough conditions to hop in.

Some boats stopped at the Las Perlas islands just off Panama specifically to clean their hulls but we were still in pretty good shape having only been in the water a couple of months at this point and given Tashi Delek a thorough going over with the antifouling paint in Trinidad.  Nevertheless it was amazing how quickly the plant life appeared round the waterline in the warm, sunny and nutrient rich waters of Galapagos.  We had to go round in the dingy twice to scrub it off.

The diver duly arrived, swam underneath and gave us the all clear.