In Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, on San Cristóbal Island, work has begun near Punta Carola, one of the most iconic beaches in the Galápagos Islands.
Since the beginning of 2022, backhoe loaders have been installed, the cacti that only grow on this island have been cut down and part of the volcanic rock has been blasted in areas where iguanas and turtles nest.
These works are intended to widen a road that would make it possible to launch the hotel complex of the Hogalápagos group.
However, according to the organic law of the special Galapagos regime, the construction of tourist infrastructure on the islands must meet many requirements, which, until now, continues to prevent the construction of the hotel.
In 2015, the municipality of San Cristóbal adopted a resolution to stop this hotel project and make the promenade from Playa Mann to Punta Carola – 8 hectares in total – a protected tourist area and of scientific interest, even if these are private lands.
Moratorium on hotel capacity
Six years later, the Minister of the Environment, Gustavo Manrique, signed the implementation of a moratorium on the reception capacity of the islands. In the Galápagos, the number of beds is limited, and therefore the number of customers that tourist establishments can receive.
But the diggers and rubble present in the area have alerted people like Jenny Quijozaca, specialist in marine ecology and spokesperson for the Municipal Assembly, a collective created to preserve Punta Carola.
The disputed land is located on the edge of the national park, which covers 97% of the surface of the archipelago. It is part of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, the capital of the Galápagos province and the island’s second city.
Therefore, even though it is privately owned, building permits for this land fall under the jurisdiction of the municipality (not the park). And this sends contradictory messages: in April 2022, the mayor, Henry Cobos Zavala, voted in favor of the hotel project, and since then he has avoided the subject.
More than 130,000 tourists per year
The latest developments raise fears that Hogalápagos will achieve its ends. This would set a precedent and allow mass tourism to step into the breach. The face of tourism in Galápagos could then change radically: until 2021, there were 310 tourist accommodations that welcomed more than 136,000 tourists per year.
And that was already a problem: in the Galápagos, if tourism is developing, basic services are not following. Puerto Baquerizo does not have mains drainage or access to drinking water.
According to Bitácora Ambiental, a blog that follows the project, and information from Jenny Quijozaca, who had access to the plans for the complex, the Hogalápagos project would include a main building made up of modules, a second building, nine bungalows, a conference center , a gymnasium and a spa. It is designed to accommodate mass tourism, as is already happening in Hawaii and Bali.
The 1is May, I arrived in San Cristóbal, two days before the start of a World Surfing event. That evening, several associations on the island had organized a rally on the beach on the occasion of the sporting event to express their opposition to the construction work that had begun several months earlier in Punta Carola.
The sun shone as always, or almost, in the Galápagos, and the atmosphere was as combative as it was joyful. Children were running on the beach and families were chatting near the representatives of the various organizations.
“A zone of lawlessness”
Jenny Quijozaca took care of the rally and handled the loudspeaker, accompanied by her young son. On the sand, local activists had formed a line that mimicked the movement of a wave around the beach while some surfers circled in the water and were filmed by a drone that buzzed above their heads.
This gathering is one of the many actions organized by the Municipal Assembly to demand more transparency on this project and to enforce the law.
Ratification remains the crux of the matter. And everyone I met at the rally told me the same thing. “San Cristóbal is an area of lawlessness”, says Jenny Quijozaca, sitting at a table in the shade near Playa Mann.
Among islanders, environmental activists and locals, concerns go beyond the issue of mass tourism. Vinicio Andrade, president of the Association of Hoteliers of San Cristóbal, is very clear on the subject. “In the short term, of course we agree, he said to me, referring to the income that this new influx of tourists could bring them. But everything is done wrong and through.” And to add emphatically :
“We are not opposed to development, but we must respect the space given to it in society.”
The idea of converting the Galápagos, a natural heritage of humanity, into a mass tourism destination is not new. But this project requires studies, debates and public consultations, which have not yet taken place.
On the terrace of a hotel opposite the Puerto Baquerizo pier, Jaqueline Vásquez, who has lived in the Galapagos for fifty years, tells me that she is afraid of seeing San Cristóbal change in a radical way without being able to do anything against the hotel chains. I remind them that nothing is done yet. “But you have to see the facts, replies Jenny Quijozaca. We would have liked to have been warned.” In San Cristóbal, everyone remains on their guard.