Equatorial adventures in Ecuador

Ecuador - Friends have asked, why Ecuador? First visit to South America, hiking Amazon basin rainforests that have the most biological diversity in the world, standing at Latitude 000.0 on the Equatorial line, visiting native South American cultures or observing the wildlife in the Galapagos that inspired Darwin . Any one of these activities would be worth the visit to Ecuador. We intend to do them all. Traveling with Kentucky friends Danny and Barbara, we are experiencing our first Roads Scholar (Elderhostel) trip, With lectures, native cultural insights and naturalists to guide us on nature hikes, we expect this trip to be a bonanza for learning, photos and seeing lot's of sights usually found only in National Geographic. Leaving Miami on Feb 2, we spend a couple of days in Quito, head to the Amazon basin area (Coca) for 3 days of hanging out in the rainforest. Then we hit the road with lodging stops in Otavalo, Riobamba, Cuenca and Guayaquil. From there we leave Danny and Barbara and extend our trip to the Galapagos, cruising the islands on a small ship (100 passengers) and making wet landings on multiple islands to observe unique species of wildlife only found in these Pacific islands.

Planned Dates

Feb 02, 2012 to Feb 17, 2012

Countries

2