. By Patrick Markey

SANTO DOMINGO, March 7 (Reuters) - The presidents of Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela ended a border dispute on Friday with a summit handshake after a week of regional diplomacy in the face of troop buildups.

"And with this ... this incident that has caused so much damage (is) resolved," leftist Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said before standing up and shaking hands with his U.S.-backed conservative Colombian counterpart Alvaro Uribe.

The dispute erupted on Saturday when Colombia raided inside Ecuador to kill a commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and its resolution brought the summit to a surprise ending after acrimonious moments, including Correa calling Uribe a liar.

The accord came after Uribe apologized to Correa at the summit under pressure from governments across the region. Uribe also said he could guarantee Colombia would not make similar raids if they cooperated in the fight against the FARC.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who had blamed the United States for the crisis as he sent tanks to the border with Colombia, joined in by shaking Uribe's hand vigorously, applauding loudly and smiling broadly.

"We are all happy -- we must unite and integrate," Chavez said.

The handshakes were broadcast live on television across Latin America in response to a special request from the summit host, Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernandez.

The resolution was a diplomatic victory for Latin America, whose governments from Mexico to Brazil managed the crisis by emphasizing negotiations and took advantage of the previously scheduled summit to force the sides to talk.

Fernandez engineered the end with a public appeal.

"What all of us would like is for this meeting to end with a hug, a handshake, between the presidents of Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador, together with their Latin American counterparts," he said to thunderous applause.

The end also will resurrect hopes for the release of FARC hostages, including a French-Colombian woman and three Americans. Chavez had negotiated the freeing of six captives in the weeks before the crisis.

LEADERS OVERCOME CLASH

Earlier Uribe and Correa had clashed at the meeting with Correa calling the Colombian a liar after he accused him of links to the FARC, Latin America's oldest insurgency.

The crisis had spread across the region with leftist allies Venezuela and Nicaragua joining Ecuador in cutting relations with Colombia, while Venezuela and Ecuador sent troops to their borders against the strongest U.S. ally in the region.

With the dispute resolved, Nicaragua restored ties with Colombia.

"Nicaragua reverses the rupture of relations with Colombia," Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said.

"I'll send you the bill for the ambassador's air fare," Uribe quipped as he anticipated sending his envoy back to Managua.

Major powers including the United States, France and Russia had also called on the leaders to reach a negotiated settlement.

Friday's outcome confirmed predictions from the Pentagon to Wall Street that the dispute would not escalate into the first military conflict in the region since Peru and Ecuador fought briefly over their border more than a decade ago.

(Additional reporting by Manuel Jimenez and Enrique Andres Pretel in Santo Domingo and Brian Ellsworth in Caracas; Writing by Saul Hudson; Editing by John O'Callaghan and Bill Trott)

The third shark tagging expedition in the Galapagos Marine Reserve (GMR) concluded last week. More and more is being discovered about these species, which still abound in the area, and each new piece of information enhances their management and further ensures their conservation.

The Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF), Galapagos National Park (GNP), WWF, and Conservation International (CI) launched this third voyage to seek an understanding of hammerhead, Galapagos, and whale shark movements inside and in the area of the GMR. The work of CDF’s BIOMAR team (Department of Marine Research and Coastal Conservation) has been supported by GCT’s Shark Campaign.

A National Geographic filming team went along on this trip to prepare a documentary on hammerhead research work and conservation in the region. During the operation, one hammerhead was followed for 44 straight hours, and two whale sharks and thirty hammerheads were tagged. In addition, all the information recorded in the previously installed underwater monitors was recovered. The most important achievement was the placement of two satellite tags on hammerhead sharks that are now emitting data on their positions…
Visit: www.savegalapagos.org/nov07_2.html

SPECIAL TOUR PACKAGES

JUNGLE TOURS

DIVING - LAST OPPORTUNITY

Dear Galasam.-

It is already more than one month ago that we have enjoyed our beautiful travel through Ecuador. Our trip to the Galapagos and to the Amazonas were unforgettable. Again I want to thank you because you had arranged such a beautiful lodge for us. But I also want to thank Blanca for here great hospitality. I only do'nt have a mailadres and I do'nt know how to write it in spanish So I hope you wil translate this letter to her. I will remember Ecuador as a beautiful and hospitable country.

I truly hope I will soon return.

With Love, Marie-José Vernooy

Hello Galasam.-

Hello, My wife and I just wanted to write and say how impressed we were with our tour. We had originally booked a 10 day tour of the Galapagos (Sept 23 to Oct 2) through GAP Adventures but as their ship had to go into dry dock they arranged for us to go on one of the Galasam ships, the Estrella Del Mar II. Now that we are back home we just wanted let Galasam know that we had a wonderful time and were very impressed with the quality of the tour. The ships crew were very friendly and helpful and the guide, Miguel Angel, was terrific. Not only did he have a good knowledge of the various plants and animals but he was also able to provide some of the history of the islands which made all the difference. What also impressed us was that he was able to converse in several languages which helped all the guests feel more comfortable as he would repeat his explanation in each language. Having a crew and interpreter as friendly and informative as this really helped everyone to get along well and when touring with a group it is the people that can make or break the experience. We will definitely recommend Galasam to our friends. As this is the only email address I could find on your website could you please forward a copy of this email to the Human Resources department and to the manager for Migual Angel and the Estrella Del Mar II.

Sincerely David & Gillian .