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The Galapagos Islands are unquestionably a part of Ecuador, and Ecuador is the islands' rightful owner. The islands form one of Ecuador's 24 provinces, and is as much a part of the country as Pichincha, Manabí or Guayas.
This was not always the case, however. Prior to Ecuadorian independence, claims on the island were hazy at best. The original visitor the islands was Spaniard Tomás de Berlanga, and then for a while the Galápagos were visited mostly by British pirates. The first settler was a British trader, but he left the islands after a short while.
At the time, the islands were not highly coveted. The soil had been found to be mostly unsuitable for farming, and society had not yet come to see the immense biological diversity of the Galápagos as a natural resource. The islands were mostly just a stopping point for whalers and fishermen passing through the southern Pacific. Spain, which had the strongest claim to the Galápagos during the 17th and 18th centuries, did nothing to develop the islands economically or settle people there, and because the islands seemed so unpromising financially, the Spanish crown never formally laid claim to the Galápagos. Even as the Spain Empire broke apart, there was little interest in asserting formal control over the rocky islands far out in the Pacific. In large part, this was due to ongoing border disputes that plagued the mainland.
In 1830, Ecuador declared its independence from the federation of Gran Colombia, though its full independence was not universally recognized until 1832. One of its first acts was formally claiming the Galápagos Islands as its own, which it did in 1832.
The islands form one of Ecuador's 24 provinces, and is as much a part of the country as Pichincha, Manabí or Guayas...
This claim was largely accepted by the global community. There were several reasons for this. First, few countries had any interest in the Galápagos, which were still viewed as largely resourceless wastelands. Secondly, the Galápagos Islands are directly off-shore from the Ecuadorian coastline (at the same latitude as Manabí province), so Ecuador had a much more logical basis for claiming the islands than did its neighbors.
The international community quickly came to accept Ecuador's claims over the Galápagos. Numerous negotiations were held with the Ecuadorian government in the ensuing decades, aimed at earning commercial concessions in the islands and implicitly accepting Ecuadorian sovereignty over the islands. An 1888 treaty in France explicitly declared Ecuador's sovereignty over the islands, as the islands were attracting foreign interest due to its guano reserves. Throughout the nineteenth century, numerous countries tried to buy the Galápagos Islands; first for their usefulness to the whaling industry, then for their supply of guano, and finally for their strategic position guarding a potential canal across the Central American isthmus. Despite the poor financial state of the Ecuadorian government at that time, and the fact that possessing the islands actually cost the government money, the Ecuadorian people refused to sell the Galapagos. The islands were a source of pride and were also considered very important for the defense of the mainland.
After claiming the Galapagos Islands, the Ecuadorian government introduced the first real settlement of the islands, granting concessions to large landowners. The process continued over the next 170 years, as Ecuador has truly integrated the islands into the nation. Of the thousands of people who have settled in the Galapagos over the ensuing decades, the large majority have come from Ecuador's mainland provinces. They have brought with them their traditional music, food, language and culture, making the islands ever-more Ecuadorian.
The Ecuadorian government has also poured millions of dollars into preserving the islands over the last century. In 1930, large tracts of the islands were set aside as a national park, and in later decades the waters around the islands were protected as well. These acts were costly for the government, but were viewed as essential for protecting the wildlife that made the Galápagos the wonder that they are. Millions more dollars have been poured into captive breeding programs and removing invasive species introduced over the centuries.
By law, demographics and practice, then, it is clear that the Galapagos Islands belong to Ecuador. In fact, today, when most people think of Ecuador, the Galápagos are one of the first things to come to mind.
Ecuador also remains the jumping-off point for visiting the Galapagos Islands. It is the only country offering flights to the islands. Though some tour operators may offer tours combining Peru with the Galapagos or Colombia with the Galapagos, this is, in fact, impossible. The only flights to the airports at Baltra and San Cristobál, the only two commercial airfields in the country, depart from Quito and Guayaquil. These flights are easy to book and are short in duration. Quito and Guayaquil also have a large number of travel agencies that can help arrange for your flights, hotels, cruises and other travel needs within the islands. Nowhere else in the world is it so easy to plan a vacation to the Galapagos Islands.
Connecting to Guayaquil or Quito from Bogota or Lima simply adds on extra time to the trip. The extra leg of the trip also adds additional cost, as flights from Colombia and Peru to Ecuador can be quite expensive. Bus travel between these cities can be immensely time-consuming, as well. It is far more convenient to travel from Quito or Guayaquil.
By foregoing Ecuador, travelers would be missing out on some natural wonders on the mainland. Both Quito and Guayaquil are extremely convenient bases for exploring the soaring Andes mountains, dense rainforests, misty cloud forests and sun-drenched beaches. Nature lovers, bird watchers, hikers and rafters can get a taste of the country's natural wonders before they even visit the Galapagos Islands. The same cannot be said for visitors based in Colombia and Peru, where the great distances between attractions make it difficult to experience all of these different eco-systems in a short amount of time.
