Your guide will welcome you to his country and will accompany you to your hotel near the airport.

Guide: Included for the day

Accommodation:

• Standard: San Jose de Puembo Quito Airport, an Ascend Hotel Collection

You will start the day with the Otavalo market, one of the most important in South America. You can haggle for fabrics, ponchos, leather goods, handmade jewelry... The perfect place to buy souvenirs! A stop at the fruit and vegetable place will allow you to sample some unfamiliar flavors. Then you will arrive at the town of Peguche and learn more about the artisan manufacture of musical instruments and discover the beautiful waterfall of the town, in the middle of the forest. After your walk, you will have lunch in a charming family restaurant, which offers typical dishes of Andean cuisine, with organic food grown in its garden. In the afternoon, you will discover another treasure of the country: roses. Ecuador enjoys an ideal climate for planting roses and is one of the world's leading exporters. You will tour the plantation to admire the different varieties and hear the secrets of the professionals to keep the flowers resplendent. Then you will continue the road south to reach the capital, Quito.

Guide: Included for the day

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

Accommodation:

• Standard: Hotel Rio Amazonas Quito

This morning, you will arrive at the “Mitad del Mundo”, the Middle of the World, on the equinoctial line, and you will be able to verify the veracity of the various properties loaned to the equator. Try balancing an egg on a nail and take a photo with one foot in each hemisphere. You can see the preparation of the typical "Helado de paila" (and taste it!). Then you will return to Quito for lunch in the heart of the historic center. To fully appreciate the beauty of the historic center of Quito, the largest and best preserved in Latin America, there is nothing like walking it! During your walk through the pedestrian streets, you will admire the wonders of this UNESCO World Heritage Site, starting with the lively Plaza de la Independencia and then the impressive Church of La Compañía de Jesús, before reaching the picturesque street of La Ronda, it houses many small shops of local artisans. Finally, you will contemplate the exceptional setting in which the capital is located while you go up to the Panecillo viewpoint.

Guide: Included for the day

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

Accommodation:

• Standard: Hotel Rio Amazonas Quito

This day presenting a total change of landscape is the perfect example to show the great diversity of the country. Before leaving the Andes, you will take a break to benefit from the many virtues of the thermal waters of the town of Papallacta. Then you will leave the Sierra mountains to reach the exuberant vegetation and the wide rivers of the East, on the edge of the Amazon. In the afternoon you will arrive at the town of Ahuano and take a motorized canoe to reach the lodge. This first trip will be an opportunity to enjoy the panorama and observe the gold searchers in the distance. You will have the rest of the afternoon to rest from the trip, spend some time by the river, take a dip in the pool or even have a cocktail on the terrace overlooking the forest. In the afternoon, aboard a safe boat, you will go out in search of alligators. Your guide will attract you with some meat so that you can observe up to fifteen individuals; huge adults and babies of a few weeks.

Guide: Included for the day

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Accommodation:

• Standard: La Casa del Suizo

Your local guide, an expert in jungle and medicinal plants, will suggest activities adapted to your group and the climate so that you can feel the jungle, bathe in its rivers, walk the trails and reserves of the primary forest, discover the animals, meet the locals, their way of life, gastronomy, crafts, and customs... You will be able to see how the women of the Amazon manage to create delicate containers from the clay found on the riversides. You will discover how local communities, using materials from the forest, create their dishes and decorate them. Of course, you can buy handicrafts that will have caught your attention.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Accommodation:

• Standard: La Casa del Suizo

During the morning you will stop near the town of Puyo to visit a balsa wood craft workshop and discover the uses of tagua, also known as "vegetable ivory". You can try your luck in the sugar cane mill to squeeze the sugar cane and extract the necessary juice to make a local alcohol. Then you will take the "Route of the waterfalls", lined with magnificent landscapes, which leads to the town of Baños, at the foot of the Tungurahua volcano. After lunch, you will take a path that leads to the impressive waterfall "Pailón del Diablo", then you will pass through the town of Baños and stop there to taste the traditional sweets that Ecuadorians love. You will spend the night in the province of Chimborazo, in a charming hacienda.

Guide: Included for the day

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Accommodation:

• Standard: Hostería La Andaluza

The morning will be dedicated to the discovery of the Chimborazo Reserve, where the highest volcano in Ecuador is located and the summit furthest from the center of the Earth: Chimborazo (6,268 m). During the walk along one of its slopes, you will be able to appreciate the mountainous landscape and see vicuñas and perhaps even various types of birds of prey such as condors, caracaras, or falcons. You can take a short walk from the Carrel refuge parking at an altitude of 4,850 m to the Whymper refuge at 5,000 m. For the fittest, you will have the possibility of reaching the Condor Cocha lagoon 100 m higher. After your walk, you will enjoy a delicious lunch in the heart of the reserve. In the afternoon, you will participate in an Andean cooking class at your hacienda and thus have the opportunity to take your friends on a trip, or at least their taste buds, upon your return.

Guide: Included for the day

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Accommodation:

• Standard: Hostería La Andaluza

After passing through the Church of Balbanera, the first Catholic church built in the country during colonization, you will discover the best-preserved archaeological site in Ecuador: Ingapirca. This place, originally used as an observatory by the Cañaris, later conquered by the Incas in the 15th century, still preserves, among other things, the ruins of a temple and the residence of virgins dedicated to ritual sacrifice. You will also discover a hut, the traditional houses of the time. Then you will continue your trip to Cuenca and visit a factory of the famous toquilla straw hats, the panamas. You will learn about the process of making the straw hat and have the opportunity to buy one as a souvenir!

Guide: Included for the day

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

Accommodation:

• Standard: Hotel Victoria

This day will be dedicated to the magnificent colonial city of Cuenca. Its historic center, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, is full of magnificent churches and monuments that the Spanish built incorporating the remains of the Cañari and Inca cultures. The inhabitants of the city keep the craft tradition alive by continuing to work with ceramics, silver and of course, the weaving of the straw hat, known worldwide as Panama. After lunch, you will discover the Pumapungo Archaeological Park and Museum. The museum is one of the most interesting and complete in the country with an exhibition of relics from different cultures of the country. Right behind the museum is the park where you will see the ruins of the ancient city of Tomebamba, which were part of one of the most beautiful urbanizations of the Inca Empire.

Guide: Included for the day

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

Accommodation:

• Standard: Hotel Victoria

Leaving the Andean region, you will have a breathtaking view of El Cajas National Park and its unique landscapes, which you will traverse to reach the coastal plain where banana plantations and rice fields abound. You will make several photo stops at different viewpoints to fully enjoy one of the most beautiful panoramas in the country, especially in the wide expanses of the Andean paramo. You will have lunch at a cocoa farm and explore the surrounding plantations. They will show you how to make delicious chocolate from the cocoa harvest. Finally, you will arrive in Guayaquil, the largest city in the country, nicknamed "the Pearl of the Pacific", and end the day with the discovery of the Guayaquil historical park dedicated to the colonial history, architecture, and fauna of the region.

Guide: Included for the day

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

Accommodation:

• Standard: Grand Hotel Guayaquil, an Ascend Hotel Collection Member

If you are leaving on a flight in the morning, your guide will accompany you to the airport. If you depart on an afternoon flight, the airport transfer will be shared with other hotel guests, without a guide (+ 60 USD for a private transfer with a guide). Excursion with supplements if the schedule of your return flight allows it: Guided tour of Guayaquil (half day) – without transportation – (+ 60 USD) Take advantage of your last morning in Ecuador to discover the city of Guayaquil. With your guide, you will start the day sunbathing with the iguanas in the Seminario Park, then walk along the Malecon 2000 until you reach the colorful Cerro Las Peñas. Pamper yourself with a delicious meal at a seafood restaurant (+ 35 USD / person).

Meals: Breakfast