Great News for Cruisers in Ecuador

Tripp Martin, harbormaster at Ecuador’s Puerto Amistad YC, reports some welcome news from that part of the world. "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," Tripp told Latitude. "The new rule allows the four mentioned yacht clubs to basically serve as ship’s agents for private boats, and has greatly simplified the check-in/zarpe process. The new rule allows the yacht to send a simple email to the Navy on arrival. Once acknowledged and entered into their database, the boat will be received in the capitania. You will not have to hire an agent in these places, there is no requirement to check in while underway, as has been eroneously reported."

Tripp also reports that the government is actively working on other cruiser-related issues — namely, how long a boat can stay in the country and the availability of fuel. "It’s been widely reported 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."