The Eastern Pacific - Pacific Crossing Notes: A Sailor's Guide to the Coconut Milk Run - page 218

Permits & Fees
Other than making a quick, in-transit stopover ($25 for under forty-eight hours), sailors
currently have two options for visiting the Galapagos. The first is a one-port stop of up to
twenty-one days. In the past, sailors could eke out a few extra days or visit additional ports
thanks to a broad interpretation of what constituted an “emergency,” but nowadays officials
are inflexible and keep a close eye on the movement of private vessels. The one-port option
may seem a bit of a dud, considering that the Galapagos are famous for the variation of
species from island to island. However, only the vessel is confined by the one-port rule.
Crews can travel freely between the four inhabited islands by taking ferries ($25, about two
hours each way).
The three-week, one-port stop option requires no advance paper work. Just turn up in one
of two ports of entry (on the islands of Cristobal and Santa Cruz), and agents will appear to
help you (and take your US dollars, the official currency of Ecuador). All told, a two-per-
son crew aboard a six-ton vessel will pay approximately $500 (cash only) in immigration,
customs, and national park fees, plus an extra $100 for the required agent. A fumigation
certificate is also required: a meaningless $50 document that can be obtained upon arrival
from an agent, but may be cheaper to get ahead of time (in Panama, for example, canal
agents sell the certificates for $35 to $40).
The second option for private vessels is to obtain a cruising permit, or Autografo . An Auto-
grafo grants your vessel ninety days to move between four inhabited ports on four islands:
Cristobal, Santa Cruz, Floreana, and Isabela. An Autografo can only be obtained through
an agent (typically charging $300 to $500) and takes three weeks to process, so begin the
process long before your departure date from the Americas. Other entry fees still apply, so
even small boats will spend close to $1,000 to enter the Galapagos with an Autografo.
(Technically, there is a third option, in which you pay thousands of dollars to declare your
boat a tour vessel and hire a private guide.)
Of course, every rule has an exception, especially when South American bureaucracies are
concerned. There are indeed reports of sailors obtaining an Autografo for “only” $300 upon
arrival. Still other cruisers report that ill-tempered port captains have randomly curtailed
the normal twenty day permit to only fifteen. All of this falls outside official guidelines and
is difficult to verify. The vast majority of cruisers, however, report that officials hold a firm
line with either of the two official entry options regardless of pleas, repeated attempts, or
bribes.