Roberto Plaza

More than a guide, Roberto is truly an ambassador of the Galapagos Islands. At the forefront of conservation efforts in the archipelago, he holds an important place in the modern history of the archipelago.

A local Galapagueno who saw the potential for problems developing in the islands in the early 2000s, Roberto was recruited by Conservation International to join a specialist group that was tasked with recalculating the capacity of visitors that the Galapagos Islands could safely sustain.

Assigned the task of devising a structure that would juggle conservation with the travel industry, Roberto took the wildly unpopular stance of placing the archipelago before his own livelihood by recommending a complete overhaul in island tourism. The implementation of an entirely new structure, whereby each boat could only visit a landing site once every 15 days, followed shortly after. Describing himself to us as “the most unpopular person in the industry at the time”, Roberto’s decision meant that all vessels had to be monitored and passenger numbers were restricted.

From that point onward, anyone joining a sailing around the archipelago would have to choose from two itineraries – itinerary A and itinerary B – with no exceptions. Today, owing in large part to Roberto, the Galapagos Islands are as pristine and enchanting as ever… and what was once viewed as a highly restrictive visitor deterrent transpired to improve both tourism and the condition of the islands.