Travel Alert — Our South American Trip is Planned, People!

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So after much, much, much planning, research, debate, blood, sweat and tears on our part, Chris and I have finally locked down a South America itinerary that we’re — well let’s just say it — absolutely ecstatic with! Here’s how it goes:

We’ll arrive in Cusco, Peru a couple days ahead of our 5-day tour of the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu with Cusi Travel. That tour looks a little something like this:

Day 1 – Cusco City Tour
Day 2 – Sacred Valley Tour
Day 3-4- Inca Trail/Machu Picchu 2D/1N
Day 5 – flight to Quito

In Quito we’ll connect with our second tour group, Southern Explorations, for our 12-day tour of the Galapagos Islands (I can’t breathe when I type that I’m so excited) and the Amazon Rainforest. That tour includes jungle walks, butterfly sanctuaries, canoe rides, bird watching, canopy walks and zip lines in the Amazon, as well as walks along Darwin’s Way, snorkeling with Galapagos penguins, sea lion, giant tortoise and Blue-footed Booby meetings, and so much more, in the Galapagos.

We’ll end the trip with a little over a week at an all-inclusive beach resort in Tamarindo, Costa Rica.

I don’t think I really need to tell you guys just how excited we are for this trip. It’s the trip of a lifetime, and we feel more than a little lucky to be able to go on it.

Oh, and in other news … we leave Thursday for our trip to Iceland. That snuck up on us! Can’t wait to share all that info and the photos here with you guys when we’re back. As a heads up, we’ll be taking a Northern Lights tour, as well as a Gulfoss and Geysir Express Afternoon tour and a trip to the Blue Lagoon.

Bis bald, friends! Here’s to really livin’ it up in 2014!

Photo courtesy of Cusi Travel

 

 

 

More Philanthropic Travel

The gorgeous Galapagos waters

I know I talk an awful lot about Projects Abroad, but I was really excited to read this story in Worth today about ten other ideas for philanthropic travel. There are Antarctic adventures and Vietnamese adventures….

And my absolute personal favorite—conservation in the Galapagos. Visiting the Galapagos is definitely on my bucket list, but for anyone who’s been listening knows, I’m having trouble with the whole idea of actually traveling there. As it turns out, tourists visiting the Galapagos have actually caused quite a bit of harm over the years. At least visitors traveling with this suggested group, expeditions.com, have been able to raise money—to the tune of $4.5 million to date—for tons of projects to help save the Galapagos. Now that’s a trip I could really get on board with.

Bis bald, friends!

Photo via