ECUADOR and the
GALAPAGOS ISLANDS

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Next trip: August, 2006, "Three Faces of Ecuador."
Itinerary

EMERALD green, tropical rainforests, windswept highlands, and ice capped volcanoes, all within a country the size of Nevada! You can find yourself among clouds of neon butterflies one day, and purchasing from indígenas in a multi-colored highland market the next. The third day will find you five feet from courting albatrosses or a basking sea lion on the Galapagos Islands, whose extraordinary wildlife shaped Charles Darwin's theories of evolution.

To this rich environmental tapestry add the warp of the Spanish Colonial architecture and the weft of diverse indigenous groups. You can appreciate why Ecuador is often seen as a miniature of South America.

On a typical trip you will visit:

• The Sierra, formed by two chains of the Andes, including over 30 volcanoes, which jut imposingly from the lowlands toward the sky. This is the agricultural and indigenous center of life, an area of patchwork fields crawling up the mountainsides, imposing haciendas, and isolated farmsteads. See Quito and visit the "Middle Of The World" where you can stand with one foot in each hemisphere!


• The Oriente, an area extending into the Amazon basin, covered by dense tropical rainforest. An exotic region, under increasing threat from oil production and colonization. Stay in an eco-lodge created for comfort with environmental concern.


• The Galapagos Islands, six hundred miles from the mainland. Once feared as a bewitching and waterless hell, then the haunt of pirates and later still a pit stop for whaling ships, the Islas Encantadas are home to about 16,000 people who live in 8 towns on the four inhabited islands.

A 15 day trip typically includes 3 days in the world famous market town of Otavalo, where we will wander among the stalls to purchase hand-woven sweaters, carved wooden bowls, antiquities, locally made silver jewelry, alpaca blankets, and other native crafts. You will spend 4 days at Sacha Lodge, which was carefully designed to offer comfort to the traveler yet preserve the rainforest ambiance and 5 days in the Galapagos Islands, on the Galapagos Explorer II. Our cruise ship, equipped with stabilizers and large windows in every cabin, provides the best naturalists in the Islands to accompany our shore visits. January is the best time for snorkeling in the Galapagos and you will find the perpetual spring weather of Quito a remarkable change from home.

Click here for Itinerary: August 2006 trip, "Three Faces of Ecuador."