Colette Moine

Colette Moine was born in France and moved to Ecuador with her family as a baby. She grew up in between both countries and used to come to the Galapagos Islands on holidays to visit family and help with the restaurant they were running, while training to become a SCUBA Dive master as the water was always her preferred environment Working as a translator for French groups, Colette learned about the natural history of the Galapagos Islands straight from the field and the shared experience with guides.

This eventually led her to become a Naturalist guide, and perseverance and study allowed her to pursue her dream. She went to the United States to get her GED and eventually got her license from the Galapagos National Park in 1999. Colette worked for a few years in a locally-based dive center, taking divers on daily expeditions to all the different great spots to look for underwater wildlife. She then started working on live-aboard as a free lance guide, alternating between the land and dive tours around the islands with a slight preference for the most active ones that include snorkeling, kayaking , biking, horse back riding as she has a great love for all outdoor sports.

Being such an active person led her to a few ocean crossings on different sailboats as delivery crew, from the Galapagos to French Polynesia, Fiji, Samoa, Cook Islands, all the way to New Zealand where she stayed for a year, studying and exploring the great outdoors. After all this adventures, she decided it was time to settle down, came back to Galapagos and built her house in the highlands of Santa Cruz. This is where she spends her free time working hard in her garden and enjoying the simple country life style with her pets.