Please read each of the sections below carefully. They provide important information about your Operation Wallacea expedition in Ecuador and the Galapagos. Should you require further assistance please do not hesitate to contact your nearest Operation Wallacea office.
For the terrestrial only expedition you need to land at Quito (UIO) airport before 2000hrs on the Monday before your expedition starts.
For the terrestrial and marine expedition, you need to land at Quito (UIO) airport before 2000hrs on the Monday before your expedition starts. Please make sure that you also book your flights to the Galapagos Island; Baquerizo Moreno Airport in San Cristobal (SCY) for the Tuesday in the middle of your expedition (if you are unsure which date this would be please email us or ecuador@opwall.com).
It may be possible for you to book the international flights to Quito separately to the flights from Quito to San Cristobal, but if you can book it on one ticket we would strongly recommend this, to save any possible problems with flight delays and connections.
For the terrestrial only expedition you need to depart from Quito (UIO) anytime on the Tuesday after your expedition ends.
For the terrestrial and marine expedition you need to depart from the Galapagos Islands; Baquerizo Moreno Airport, in San Cristobal (SCY) on the Monday your expedition ends.
When you arrive at Quito airport you will met by an Opwall representative and transferred to a hotel to stay overnight and travel to the expedition site the next day (Tuesday). On the Monday at the end of your expedition you will fly from the Galapagos to Quito or Guayaquil airport for your homeward flight.
The internal travel package will be arranged once we have the details of your international flights.
As part of the internal travel package it is possible to arrange additional nights in Quito before and after your expedition, and the relevant airport transfers. However, this will be at an additional cost – please contact us for more details.
Please ensure when booking your international flights that the cost of your ticket includes hold luggage.
School groups that have chosen a fully inclusive expedition package do not need to book international flights or internal travel. Operation Wallacea will be in contact with the group leader directly and will provide you with a fully inclusive quote for your international flights, internal travel and expedition costs.
Schools also have the option of having Opwall search for the best flight deal for the group and once the school group leader has approved the purchase, the tickets are then bought by Opwall at cost on behalf of the school. A flight booking fee per person is charged for this approach. Details of the flights for the group will be entered onto the portal by the Opwall staff booking the flights.
Alternatively, if the school has reliable travel partners then they can book the flights themselves and just pay Opwall for the expedition and internal travel costs. Under this scenario the group leader needs to enter the flight details through the Opwall portal and email a copy of the itinerary or E-ticket to flights@opwall.com.
If you are a contracting summer staff member, you can contact our preferred travel partner Travel Nation, who will provide you with competitive quotes for your international flights.
Travel Nation
Tel: 01273 947 313
E-mail: opwallvolunteers@travelnation.co.uk
International Contact: +44 (0) 1273 947 313
Once you have booked your international flights, please enter the details on the Opwall portal.
Please be aware that your passport must have at least 6 months validity (period before expiry) at the time of your arrival into Ecuador. Failure to have at least 6 months validity on your passport will ensure denial of entry into Ecuador.
If you are a UK, EU, US or Canadian citizen you can be issued an Ecuadorian visa for up to 90 days on arrival in Quito. Nationals of other countries should check with the Ecuadorian Embassy to ensure they have the correct documents to enter Ecuador.
By joining an Operation Wallacea expedition you are contributing directly towards the study and protection of threatened biodiversity, bringing significant financial benefits to small local communities, and working towards protecting valuable carbon stocks from deforestation. We are extremely proud of the impact we and our volunteers have had over the past two decades, creating a significant benefit to the environment.
However, we want to do more. Specifically, we want to make Operation Wallacea completely carbon neutral. As an organisation we offsetting our own emissions from staff travel (both road and air) and from running our offices. But we also want to encourage all our participants to offset, at the very least, the carbon emissions from their own international flights – and ideally more. To do this we will be supporting the Wallacea Reforestation Initiative in partnership with our sister charity the Wallacea Trust (UK Charity 1078362), and you can read more about this exciting project here that takes a new approach to tropical reforestation that benefits not only climate, but biodiversity and livelihoods too.
Once booked and we’ve received your flight details, you’ll receive an email from us with a recommended donation amount, where we take the exact flight routes you’ve booked on to for your expedition, and run them through the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) carbon calculator. This calculator can be found here and the method used is found here. This gives us the total estimated amout of carbon your flights will emit into the atmosphere, and we assign a value of $10 USD (or £7.69 GBP) per ton of carbon. We only used the flights that we’re aware of, so if you have any more you may want to up the donation!
If you’ve not yet the email and wanted to donate the exact amount, email carbon@opwall.com and we can let you know. If you’re happy with an estimate, a £15 donation will cover the carbon produced by the flights in more than 95% of cases.
To donate, click the button below.
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