Ecuador: Natural Wonders & Ancient Cultures with Peru & the Galápagos Cruise

Small groups lead to big experiences on this Small Group Discovery tour. And this Small Group Discovery tour is an adventure of epic proportions—while enjoying inspiring boutique hotels, insightful private tours, incredible culinary delights, indigenous cultures, and ancient ruins. Love a good mystery? Peru is the perfect escape to delve into the world’s most intriguing lost and found story. Featuring not one, but two days behind the misty gates of Machu Picchu, this tour takes you high into the Andes and deeper inside the Lost City of the Incas to unearth its centuries-old secrets. Navigating the cryptic maze of trails, temples, and terraces in the world’s most famous forgotten city is one for the memory books. Other great finds on this tantalizing tour of Peru? Up-close encounters with llamas, alpacas, and other Sacred Valley locals; vibrant, handwoven textiles in the former Inca Empire capital of Cusco and the bold, multicultural capital of Lima. Continue the Incan mystery to Ecuador, a small country geographically speaking, it delivers a vast variety of dramatic landscapes spanning a variety of climate zones supporting an abundance of flora, fauna, and fantastic experiences that far out measure its borders. Without ever leaving the country, travelers can move in just a matter of hours from jungle-rainforest to the high slopes of the Andes, and down to the Pacific coast for a breathtaking and diverse array of panoramas and pristine natural wonders. From the highlands to sea level, Ecuador's fascinating diversity is echoed by its people whose cultural origins and traditions continue to be formed by their immediate geographical environment. Go further to explore Ecuador’s extraordinary natural world as you follow the courses of rivers wide and narrow. Rest along the shores of pristine lakes and explore mysterious caves. Sail in the wake of Charles Darwin to discover marvelous plant and animal life adapted over the millennia to the undisturbed and isolated Pacific archipelago known as the Galápagos Islands. Here, such exotic residents as the blue-footed booby, marine iguana, and ancient tortoises for which the islands are named, evoke the adventurous spirit of wonder in every visitor. An epic adventure of a lifetime!