Ecuador, Quito & the Galapagos Islands · August 2021
Ecuador & Galapagos: Andes to the Islands
This was a journey of two wildly different worlds, stitched together into one unforgettable trip. We began high in the Ecuadorian Andes around Quito, all cloud forest and volcanoes, then dropped out to the Galapagos for a liveaboard among hammerheads and whale sharks, and finished wandering islands where the wildlife has never learned to fear people.
Day by day
Days 1-4
The high Andes around Quito
We acclimatized in the highlands above Quito, venturing into the misty cloud forests of Mindo, alive with hummingbirds and orchids, and out to the snow-capped cone of the Cotopaxi volcano, one of the highest active volcanoes on Earth. A spectacular, lung-stretching overture to the islands.
Days 5-11
A Galapagos liveaboard
We flew out to the Galapagos and joined our liveaboard, working the remote dive sites of the archipelago. This is bucket-list diving: hammerheads streaming past in the current, whale sharks gliding by, sea lions spinning around the group, and marine iguanas grazing the rocks like tiny dinosaurs.
Days 12-16
Island time on Santa Cruz and Isabela
Back on land we explored Santa Cruz and Isabela at a slower pace, walking among giant tortoises, spotting penguins at the equator, and soaking up the surreal, fearless wildlife that made these islands famous. A perfect, peaceful close to an epic trip.
From the trip
From a snow-capped Andean volcano to hammerheads in the current to giant tortoises ambling across the trail, this was Ecuador and the Galapagos at their most astonishing, a trip that rearranges your sense of the natural world.
Want to do this one yourself?
We run trips like this every year. See where we're headed next and grab a spot before the group fills up.