Fausto Rodriguez

Fausto was born and raised in the countryside in the Central Andes, south of Quito. This gave him a tremendous opportunity to grow up side by side with nature, to learn and appreciate everything about it.

In 1990, his mother sent him on a two-week holiday to Galápagos, where he met many people, made new friends and fell in love with the islands. He began working as a mate aboard different boats, leading Spanish-speaking groups. In 1996 he took the course and officially became a licensed Galápagos National Park naturalist guide. The same year he migrated to the United Kingdom, where he settled down in London to finish a degree in Languages and Tourism.

In 1999 he returned to Ecuador and began guiding again; he has led trips for many different companies throughout the country. He has become a naturalist with a general focus in wildlife, with particular interests and strengths in geology, plants, birds and mammals. He is passionate about guiding and teaching, and even though he has now been doing it for a while, he is still just as excited about the Galápagos Islands and their nature as when he first discovered them.

He received his Photo Instructor certification in a 3-day training workshop in 2010. Developed and taught by National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions photographers, the workshop equipped him with the insight and skills necessary to help you better understand your camera and the basics of composition — to better capture the moments at the heart of your Lindblad-National Geographic expedition.