GALAPAGOS
ECUADOR & THE GALAPAGOS
Until recently, most tourists twinned the Galapagos with Peru, missing out on the Ecuadorian mainland. It’s a real oversight – tiny Ecuador is incredibly diverse, packing Andean peaks, Amazon jungle, cloud forest, colonial towns and sandy beaches all into a country only a sliver larger than the UK.
This is already starting to change, with visitor numbers up 17% year on year for the first four months of 2014. The destination is investing heavily, not only in promoting Ecuador in source markets, but also in major improvements on the ground – there’s a new international airport, the historic centre of capital Quito has been beautifully restored, and the famous Devil’s Nose railway in the Andes has been rebuilt and a new tourist train, Tren Crucero, travels the route. The luxury end of the accommodation market is growing, with a number of truly stunning new hotels (see reviews), so there’s a host of compelling reasons to recommend it.
The tourist board is increasing its activity with agents, with a specialist trade site and a series of English language webinars. Find out more at
trade.allyouneedisecuador.travel As with much of northern Latin America, there are no direct flights from the UK, so clients will need to connect through Europe or the States. KLM flies daily to Quito from Heathrow via Amsterdam, from £672 return. Connections are also available from 17 other airports in the UK and Ireland.
klm.com
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Santa Fe landscape; La Pinta; Diego, the 115-year-old tortoise; the pool at Finch Bay Eco Lodge
In fact, on Fernandina I almost fall over a tiny version – a black marine iguana, basking in the sunshine. They carpet the shore, sprawled across one another, occasionally convulsing with sneezes – the method by which they rid their bodies of salt. Every island has its own character, from Fernandina’s swirls of black lava, where seals, iguanas, cormorants and crabs vie for our attention with an orca feeding out to sea, to ruby-red Rabida, where proud pelicans patrol the shore and in-land we spot the brightly- painted Galapagos dove. On North Seymour, we watch the
blue-footed boobies perform their Charlie Chaplin-like mating dance, and marvel at the male frigate birds who look as if they’re wearing their hearts around their necks, inflating
78 — aspire september 2014
their red throat pouches to attract the ladies. Off Isabela Island, we snorkel among the largest turtles I’ve ever seen, until our attention is distracted by the darting forms of Galapagos penguins. On Santa Cruz we sidle up to giant tortoises, wild in the highlands, and captive in pens at the Charles Darwin Research Station, where we meet 115-year-old Diego, who lives with a harem of 11 females and has helped bump up the numbers of his species by producing more than 500 children.
CHOOSE TO CRUISE
With 18 islands in the archipelago, the best way to see as much as possible is undoubtedly to take a cruise. Itineraries are tightly controlled by the National Parks service to limit
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