Galapagos Islands struggle with remoteness during pandemic

A sea lion sits last week outside a closed hotel in San Cristobal, Ecuador, in the Galapagos Islands. The majority of the island hotels are usually occupied throughout the year, but all reservations have been canceled through July. More photos at arkansasonline.com/512islands/.
(AP/Adrian Vasquez)
A sea lion sits last week outside a closed hotel in San Cristobal, Ecuador, in the Galapagos Islands. The majority of the island hotels are usually occupied throughout the year, but all reservations have been canceled through July. More photos at arkansasonline.com/512islands/.
(AP/Adrian Vasquez)

SAN CRISTOBAL, Ecuador -- Before the coronavirus, sudden life-threatening ailments among tourists, fishermen and others on the Galapagos Islands were considered so rare that hospitals didn't have a single intensive care unit bed.

Now, officials are racing to equip medical teams on the remote islands with breathing machines while also trying to stanch an economic crisis that has left many of the 30,000 residents jobless.

[CORONAVIRUS: Click here for our complete coverage » arkansasonline.com/coronavirus]

The island chain's famous isolation is now heightening its hardship.

For seven weeks now, not a single tourist has arrived at the UNESCO World Heritage site that inspired Charles Darwin. Studies of the archipelago's unique marine and avian wildlife have halted. And residents are making urgent changes, such as growing carrots, peppers and tomatoes at home so they don't go hungry.

"Galapagos is the land of evolution," said Joseline Cardoso, whose small family-run hotel on Santa Cruz island is empty. "The animals have adapted, and we humans cannot be the exception."

Ecuador is among Latin American nations hit hardest by covid-19, and authorities on the Galapagos Islands believe their first cases probably came from Guayaquil, the coastal city where hospitals turned away patients and the dead were left in homes for days.

The storied islands have been relatively shielded by what happens 600 miles away on the mainland. A financial crisis two decades ago left many Ecuadorians penniless, but steady international tourism kept the Galapagos afloat. Last year, more than 275,000 people came to see the swimming iguanas, giant tortoises and birds with webbed feet the color of blue cotton candy.

Islanders rely on military aircraft to ferry the critically ill to Quito or Guayaquil. Many go to the mainland for appointments, and some hire doctors to fly in for major events such as childbirth.

Locals like to joke that, "In the Galapagos, it is prohibited to get sick."

But the coronavirus has upended any sense of island immunity.

The islands' first four cases were diagnosed in late March, all believed to have come from Guayaquil before travel was cut off. Soon after, the first island-associated death was announced: a worker in his 60s who had been on the Celebrity Flora yacht and fell ill after returning to Quito.

There are now 107 cases in the Galapagos, including about 50 crew members still aboard the Celebrity Flora, a luxury ship operated by a subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Cruises. It docked in time for passengers to get flights home.

[Gallery not loading above? Click here for more photos » arkansasonline.com/512islands/]

Authorities have scrambled to equip hospitals, where there are only four ICU beds -- about one for every 7,500 residents -- and a lab to do virus tests. The Charles Darwin Foundation donated two of the new ventilators.

In addition to military transports, a police aircraft is being mobilized. The president has offered one of his two planes, said Juan Sebastian Roldan, his Cabinet secretary.

Most of the cases have been mild, with only two people hospitalized.

The bigger blow has been to tourism: At least 800 visitors usually arrive daily, and officials estimate the islands already have lost at least $50 million, a quarter of the expected annual income.

"The base of our economy has entirely collapsed," said Norman Wray, governor of the islands. "This is completely changing the future of tourism in the Galapagos."

A Section on 05/12/2020

Upcoming Events