We have all survived 2025! In hopes that 2026 will be better, Cornelia and I are kicking off the New Year with a month of travel in Peru and Ecuador. Arriving in Peru’s seacoast capital Lima, we will fly to Iquita and head into the Peruvian Amazon for several days. Returning to Lima, we will head for the Andes Mountains – flying into Cusco with its 11,000 foot altitude and making our way to the Sacred Valley and the 15th century Incan settlement of Machu Picchu, at 8,000 feet. Returning to Cusco, we will then fly to Quito, Ecuador (elevation 9,000 feet) and from there to sea level and the Galápagos Islands 600 miles west of Ecuador’s Pacific coast, where we will cruise around by small ship to experience life undersea and on the Islands.

Join us as we move through a variety of physical settings, climates, ecosystems, ancient civilizations, and contemporary cultures. We will appreciate the interdependence and fragility of life in the rain forest along the mighty Amazon and the amazing diversity of life in the sea and on land in the Galapagos. We will sample the sophisticated chic and fine cuisine of the Miraflores District in Lima. We will ponder the reach and magnificence of the Inca Empire, stretching at its peak from Colombia and Ecuador along the Andes to Argentina and Chile, with its capital in Cusco. Bound by a culture and language (Quechua) that survive in the Andes today, the Empire continued for over 300 years until it met its demise at the hands of the Spanish invaders in 1572.

Join us for our travel through the heart of western South America as we make new friends among our southern neighbors over the next few weeks.

Larry and Cornelia Atkins