New Regulations In Ecuador Easier For Yachts

Created by doina. Last modified on 2008-01-30 13:29:31
Contributors:
Topic: Cruising Information
Countries: Ecuador, Galapagos

The situation in Ecuador has been rather "interesting" this year to say the least. It also has been somewhat transitory as the officials have put new rules in place without understanding the impact on the cruising fleet.

For the past four months, Puerto Amistad, Puerto Lucia, Salinas YC, Guayaquil YC, the Ecuadorian Yachting Association, Ministry of Tourism, and the Navy have all been working together to reform the rules changes in order to make them less onerous. This has recently born fruit in the form of a new order from the admiral of the navy regarding private yachts.

The new rule allows the four mentioned yacht clubs to, in effect, serve as a ship's agent for private boats as well as greatly simplifying the check-in/zarpe process. The new rule allows the yacht to send a simple e-mail to the Navy upon arrival. Once acknowledged and entered into their database, the boat will be received in the capitania. YOU WILL NOT BE OBLIGATED TO HIRE AN AGENT IN THESE PLACES. There is also no requirement to check in under-way as has been erroneously reported.

This is obviously a welcome change for all of us down here in Ecuador.

There have been a couple of other issues this year with the length of time a boat can stay and with the availability of fuel. We are working with the Aduana to try to reform the regulations to allow yachts to stay for up to ten years. This effort hasn't yet yielded any tangible results, but the authorities are working with us in good faith to update the rules. The same can be said about the fuel situation where foreign boats are not supposed to buy subsidized fuel. The rules are still somewhat up in the air, but no one has been denied fuel, and it's a question of time before we get some kind of resolution.

It's been widely reported on the internet as well as the printed press that the Ecuadorian government has become hostile to cruisers, and implied that they don't want us here. The reality is far different. What's going on is that the new government has tasked the authorities to clean up their act in many major areas, and they've responded with some knee-jerk reactions that have been terribly implemented. Slowly we're trying to get them corrected, but we're working with extremely bureaucratic organizations. Cruisers have basically been unintended collateral damage in their efforts to get rid of fuel smuggling, control of the borders, etc.

I hope that everyone who has been considering coming to Ecuador takes into account the rules changes we're making and chooses to come down and take advantage of all the wonderful things the country has to offer.

Fair winds,

Tripp Martin, Puerto Amistad Yacht Club