From a blog by Nigel Lang a crewmember on a Bowman 48 named “Lydia” taking part in the World ARC 2016.


Formal entry into the Galapagos is not simple, particularly for yachts. Fortunately the ARC organisation helped greatly. As a yacht you may only visit three islands including San Cristobal which has to be your port of entry and Santa Cruz which has to be your port of departure. Each crew member has to pay US$120 as an entry fee and cruising permit. Before the crew can go ashore the yacht has to be cleared by a small army of officials.

The first hoop was to have official divers down to check Lydia was clean in every respect of barnacles etc. We had taken the precaution as advised to have Lydia hauled out in Shelter Bay at the beginning of the Panama Canal in order that she could be professionally scrubbed clean. However one of our yachts had simply hired a diver in Shelter Bay to clean their bottom which was found to still have several barnacles on. As a result they were sent out 50 miles from the Galapagos with an official diver on board to ensure their yacht was squeaky clean before it was allowed to return to harbour.

Having passed our divers ' test we were boarded by about 7 officials in various uniforms who took all the entry forms we had completed, checked our passports again, then checked our medical bag for any out of date medicines, then checked our food lockers as we were not allowed to bring in such things as fresh oranges, opened meat of any kind or fresh milk and our tinned food was checked to ensure it was in date. We had to have official notices, (fortunately provided by the ARC) delineating which were our recycle waste bags and which were organic etc etc. Fortunately although most this first inspection team had a smattering or more of English,

Officially we still needed an inspection from a second team to check our yacht 's equipment before we were allowed clearance to go ashore. Although the officials were working overtime it became clear that this second team could not visit us and give us final clearance until the following morning.

Our tour guide passed on his understanding, (later corroborated by another previous guide), that the Ecuadorian government is planning to increase the tourist tax on landing in the Galapagos Islands from US$120.00 per person to US$2,000 possibly as early as June this year. Currently we came across many back packers and others staying in inexpensive accommodation all of whom may not be able to afford this swinging new tax if indeed it is introduced.

The rationale is that the Ecuadorian government is facing economic difficulties with the price of oil so low and wishes to increase its revenue from tourists but still restricting tourist numbers. In future it is thus possible if all this comes to pass that visiting the Galapagos will be only for the very wealthy and at the same time may kill off many small businesses here.

We were in the Galapagos this year, April to June 2016. It is expensive,costing us about $1800. We cleaned our boat off shore of barnacles that had got onto the boat during the 9 day trip. We passed the inspection no problem. The officials were friendly and courteous and they did a very minimal look around the boat as regards foodstuffs. Plus we had our dog with us, and just had to keep him aboard, which was fine. If is pricey but it was truly amazing and for us worth every penny. The wildlife is outstanding on land and in the sea. We saw whales, pods of 100plus dolphins, manta rays, hammer head sharks, penguins, sea lions, seahorses, turtles in the sea that must have been 6 ' acroos, plus huge land tortoises and many iguanas and blue footed boobies. It 's fascinating and unique in how theyre preserving the flora and fauna. Our advice...don 't miss it! On the way out the edges of their waters are surrounded by Chinese 's fishing vessels scooping uo everything they can. If the money helps to preserve the islands, that can 't be bad!