Luxury Adventure Travel to Machu Picchu and the Galapagos Islands

Nothing sounds more exotic or exciting than luxury adventure travel to Machu Picchu and the Galapagos Islands. Let's take these one at a time and see what you would be getting if you indulged yourself with luxury adventure travel of this kind.

First the Galapagos Islands. Luxury adventure travel to the Galapagos Islands is following the footsteps of Charles Darwin and the Beagle, as he formulated his theory of evolution by studying the life forms on these islands, untainted by human hand for thousands of years. You can try to spot the blue-footed boobies waddling among the hundred year old 600 pound tortoises, or seek out the Amblyrhynchus, a three-foot long, iguana resembling a dinosaur that lives only on these islands.

You could make your initial stop to tour Quito, and have a look around one of the Indian markets nearby, such as the Saquisili Indian market, and buy a hand-made Panama hat - these are made in Ecuador, not Panama! Quito itself offers a great deal to the adventurer, and you will be able to straddle the equator - one foot in the northern and another in the southern hemisphere. Quito was destroyed by the Indians to prevent it being taken by Pissarro, and rebuilt by the Spanish colonialists.

Then take a business class flight on your first stage to tour the Galapagos Islands, and transfer to a luxury cruiser to visit Espanol Island, the first of the Galapagos Islands you will visit. Don't forget that this is luxury adventure travel to the Galapagos Islands, and that you should want for nothing: the best accommodations and personal attention.

After admiring the iguanas, which swim only at this island, cruise over to Santa Cruz, and visit the Charles Darwin Research Station at Academy Bay, where you will check out the captive tortoise and iguana breeding centers. After crossing the equator, Genovesa Island can be very deceiving. The quietness of this volcanic area lulls you into a false sense of security, because you will shortly enter Darwin Bay and be assaulted by the sound of thousands of birds of many different types: boobies (both blue and red footed), Audubon's shearwaters, noddies and red billed tropicbirds among many others. This is an ornithologist's heaven.

Wreck Bay (I wonder how it got that name) on San Cristobal is the administrative capital of the Galapagos and you can fly from there back to Ecuador, connecting in Guayaquil for your flight to Lima. This is the start on the second part of your vacation: Luxury Adventure Travel to Machu Picchu. However, why rush it? Why not first have a look around some of the other places that Peru has to offer?

Take a trip to Cuzco: at three miles high, one of the highest cities in the world. Imagine your 100 meters time here! When you get this high, you have to take it easy or you could become ill, so let yourself acclimatize after your sea-level trip to the Galapagos Islands. Give it a day and then head off for a tour to Chincero in the Urubamba Sacred Valley, to learn something about the old ways of the Incas. Keep in mind that is a luxury vacation, and in keeping with that you should also visit La Cicciolina, which one of the best restaurants in this part of the world. Now you are ready for your luxury adventure travel to Machu Picchu!

What better than a luxury train ride on the Hiram Bingham train to the lost city, enjoying champagne and a top class brunch on the way. It was Yale historian, Hiram Bingham, who brought Machu Picchu to the attention of the civilized world in 1911, and wrote his first book on his finding under the title "The Lost City of the Incas". In fact the city had been constructed around 1460, when the Inca Empire was at its peak, and it is believed that it was abandoned less than 100 years later due to an outbreak of smallpox killing most of the inhabitants.

Although many think it had ceremonial origins, current belief is that it was an estate of the Incan emperor, Pachacuti, and it is certainly not mentioned in any of the writings of the Spanish conquistadores. Whatever its purpose, this is an extraordinary city, totally invisible from below, and completely self-contained with its own springs and terraces devised to produce enough food to feed a large population. It also possesses baths, storage rooms, temples and around 150 houses.

It is not enough to travel this far and simply walk around the ruins, or those of them that you are permitted to visit. The ecosystem around the area is fascinating, and luxury adventure travel to Machu Picchu would be incomplete without learning more about this cloud forest. For the botanist there are more than 372 species of orchid to enjoy, from the lady's slipper to tiny specimens needing a magnifying glass to appreciate.

Finally, when you return to Lima why not complete your luxury vacation and visit the Larco Herrera Museum, then take a private tour of the city, visiting both the modern and the old colonial areas of Lima.

You don't get to enjoy luxury adventure travel to Machu Picchu and the Galapagos Island very often, and you want it to be a wonderful experience, so find a tour company that can offer you personal attention, and with planners that can offer you a personal vacation just for you and a partner. That is far better than joining 48 others, and enables you to enjoy true luxury vacation with luxury travel, accommodation and cuisine that you will remember forever.