With its startling biodiversity, sweeping highland terrain, and boasting more species of Orchid than any other country on earth, It’s easy to forget that Ecuador is the smallest nation within the An dean States, and goes to show that size most certainly isn't everything. Ecuador’s greatest draw has to be its proximity to the captivating Galápagos Islands, where visitors leave humbled and inawe, having encountered species of animals and plants found nowhere else on the planet. And, if you are in search of life’s ultimate social media check-in point, then head to the monument locally known as La mite del Mundo which quite literally translates to The middle of the world, and marks out the general location at which the equator passes through.
Explore the Galapagos by private yacht, accompanied by a top marine biologist, and spend your days
diving among schooling hammerheads or walking with giant tortoises in a volcanic crater
•Stay at a luxury private hacienda in Ecuador's cacao growing region and immerse yourself in a bean to bar chocolate making experience
•Kayak through giant Amazonian water lilies on an oxbow lake looking for prehistoric hoatzins
•Ride from historic hacienda to historic hacienda in the Cotopaxi highlands
•Snorkel with sea turtles in a submerged lava tube
•Meet Ecuador's last traditional Panama hatmakers and get your hands on the world's best superfine
•Cycle through the canopy on a sky bike at Mashpi Lodge
•Learn about daily life and share women's wisdom at a Kichwaco operative
•Cruise one of the Amazon's most pristine black water rivers on a luxury expedition boat, searching for pink river dolphins and giant river otters
•Watch master textile weaver Miguel Andrango at work and buy a beautiful handmade blanket
•Surf some of the Pacific's most reliable swells in the Galapagos Islands Helicopter into magical Tandayapa Cloud forest Reserve to see orchids, mountain toucans, and up to thirty species of hummingbird