Gabriel Salazar

Gabriel was born in Guayaquil in 1969. He began his studies there, majoring in French and later studying English as well. Gabriel later joined the Ecuadorian-Russian Cultural Center and got a scholarship to study Electro-mechanical Engineering at the State Marine Academy of Odessa, in Ukraine. After four years in the field, he made another radical change in his life plan and started training as a physical therapist in the American-Russian Center of Bioenergetics in Odessa, Ukraine, after which he went on to practice in the Military Hospital of Odessa. In 1997 he left Russia after having lived there for eight years, his new destination the Galapagos Islands. Here he started a career as a therapist but was seduced by the natural wonders of this magical archipelago and the stillness of the islands. Inspired by one of his heroes, Jacques Cousteau, he took the Galapagos National Park training course in 1999. He has since been swinging between his business as a therapist and life teaching about the islands as a Naturalist Guide, fluent in Russian, Spanish and English. In October 2004 he received his diving certification and started to explore the magical underwater world of the Galapagos Marine Reserve.