The entire team at Metropolitan Touring wants first to express its solidarity with the people of Ecuador, especially in coastal areas such as Pedernales, Portoviejo and Manta that have suffered serious damage. We particularly lament the loss of life and send our heartfelt condolences to the families who have lost loved ones in this tragedy.
As always, we place our guests’ safety first and we have worked around the clock to ensure that our operations can continue in the best terms possible considering the emergency. We have taken extra security precautions and are performing prior inspections of all visit sites to ensure our guests’ wellbeing. At this moment we can inform the following:
- Quito: All guests are safe and calm and continue with their normal itineraries.
- Land Routes in Continental Ecuador: Certain areas (Cotopaxi, train routes) are temporarily closed and we have reprogrammed visits to other areas without restrictions.
- Guayaquil: All guests are safe.
- Galapagos: All ships returned to normal operations late last night and visits to the islands continue as planned. The Finch Bay Eco Hotel is operating normally.
- Mashpi: Routes to the lodge have reopened after closing for a few hours last night due to landslides. Government emergency personnel have cleared the roads and access is now normal, according to our hotel manager. Guests are entering and leaving the lodge according to scheduled itineraries.
- Airports: Airports in Quito, Guayaquil and Baltra are operating normally.
- The state of emergency declared last night by the President continues in effect and the government has centralized information on the earthquake and its aftermath in a central emergency committee. Updated official information in Spanish is available here.
- We will keep you informed as more information becomes available.