Galapagos - Ecuadorean Presidential Decree

[octopusdivers]

Hello everybody. We need help! We are a group of 16 divers from Czech republic and we have payd deposit for a liveboard for november with Daphne Cruises. We also bought non refundable airline tickets. But since we transfered the money to their account, we have not heard anything from them. We wrote a few emails, send fax and tried to call, but no response. Does anybody know if they are still in business? Or any idea what should we do? Thanks for any sugestion
Radovan Vancura
Octopus Divers
Prague, Czech republic

 

[cowjazz]

I believe the Daphne is affiliated in some way with Scuba Iguana. You may want to check out their website, and see if there is any contact information: http://www.scubaiguana.com/html/boats_equitment.html . If Scuba Iguana is affiliated with the Daphne, they might be able to answer your questions.

I thought my situation was bad. I hope this works out for you.

 

[Fionab]

Our UK agent also deals with Daphne and the other day they posted a copy of their dive permit, but there was no suggestion they had gone out of business, just in the same "boat" as most of the others.

To be honest no one seems to be getting any information, we have no idea if our October trip is on or off.

 

[chadbeck]

see my post from the owners of scuba iguana on page 16-post 156. That was what I got when I emailed them about land based info....she also said this in the email "We received confirmation today that the live aboards won’t be allowed to offer diving itinerary; you’ll find attached a document form one of the co owners of Scuba Iguana explaining the context of the situation." This was on monday..

 

[tiggerbella]

The only thing that I have heard is that the Dive Shop owner who arranged our trip spoke to Ken Wed. July 25 and that Ken told him that we would be hearing something soon.

No idea what that means.

A co-worker of mine who is a Spanish speaking native has been combing Spanish news as well, to see if he has seen any mention of this issue, and he has not seen anything. In fact he asked if I was sure that this is actually happening. It seems that any news medium is covering the Shark fin issue, which is very important, but not a single news medium is covering this change in GNP dive policy. Including some specific dive news websites. Only the forums seem to be mentioning this.

I forwarded him the link to the Galapagos National Park notice.

He suggested calling the Embassy. I will try this tomorrow, but he, as well as I, are both doubting that they will know any more than the rest of us.

I have been using this opportunity to do some research on Travel Insurance.

 

[cowjazz]

Believe me tiggerbella, I feel your pain.

Thanks for having your friend checking the Spanish sites.

My LDS got the same message from Ken. "We should here something soon, and I expect this to get resolved shortly." was the basic message. It is about what I expect at this point: a positive note to keep our hopes up, and keep us from inundating him with emails and phone calls. At least he is providing some information and contact to people who booked through Galapagos Adventures. That is a good thing. Just ask our friends from the UK and CZ how frustrated they are with little or no information about their trips.

Realistically, divers are the minority of tourist to Galapagos. I remember Ken's letter stated 128,000 tourist a year visit the Galapagos. The decision that has us developing spastic colons only affects around 20,000 divers. Many are booked a year or two from now, probably do not frequent message SCUBA message boards and have no idea about the situation. We are the minority of the minority of tourists, and the attention our situation is receiving reflects that. If the 100,000 land tourist were affected, I'm sure you would see more coverage. It is crumby, but it is the reality of the situation. Our emergency just isn't an emergency to the rest of the planet.

All we can do is what you stated. Keep calling, e-mailing, making a pest of yourself, and post the information you obtain here to keep others informed.

As far as insurance goes, I'm not aware of a trip insurance that will cover a situation like this.

 

[baitballer]

I have been told by a friend that there is a meeting being held on Monday between all of the parties involved i.e. operators, GNP, ministers etc where a decision will be annonced or made. This was the meeting which was supposed to happen last Monday but the GNP cancelled it.

Whether this will actually happen or not I have no idea. This is about the third time we have been told this and so far nothing has happened so I will be pleasantly surprised if a decision is made. Any decision would be good, even a negative one would put us out of our misery. This will be the final day just about before my trip will have to be cancelled.

 

[tiggerbella]

Don't be sorry for me.

Here's what I know about the situation that I, and maybe others are in:

Some money is in Ecquador, for the individuals that actually own the boat.

Some money is still with Galapagos Adventures.

Some money is still in the Dive Shop account. ( although not much)

Our group has not yet put any money except for $20.00 a piece down on group airfare, which we have now lost as it has been too long past the due date to put the rest of the money down to lock in the airfare. Fine, we will deal.

Travel Insurance: An earlier mention, on this thread, of an individual that had called American Express Travel Insurance and found that this situation would most likely be covered panned out to be true, so far that I and another individual can tell. Travel Shield. Access America covers only their list of Tour operators for Financial default. You would have to look at the list to see if your tour operator is covered under Access America. Travel Shield does not have such a list. I not only read the policy I called. AIG, which is who DAN goes through, does not cover financial default of an operator.

I could go on, but I am sure that you guys are now tired of hearing about insurance!



Thanks! As I do understand the limited scope of people who are affected by this I understand the lack of information in the media. And this was mentioned earlier in this thread. However, I am intersted in how this whole thing is going down. And how the various Scuba magazines/web sites will or will not cover this..... and I will continue to be looking for the information elsewhere as well as this thread. I find this entire thing fascinating as well as distressing.

 

[tiggerbella]

I am not in ANY way insinuating that ANYONE will lose their money by my mention of tour operator financial default.

People should expect refunds. That being said, I try to look at the worst case scenario and plan for that.

 

[baitballer]

HUGE NEWS............................

Rumour has it the GNP director will allow all trips to go ahead as planned from next week! Will believe it when I see it in writing but if you have trips booked in the next few weeks looks like we are going. All operators will in theory have there temp permits next week and they can get back diving.