A few years ago, my family and I spent a month traveling around Ecuador. We visited many different areas but never got the chance to explore the famous volcano called Cotopaxi. So we decided to start our trip in the highlands near Quito. Our guide, Daniel, picked us up shortly after breakfast and we headed to the mountains. The drive itself is …

Instead of immediately returning to Quito, we decided to spend the night at a hacienda up in the mountains. If you have a day or two to spare around Quito, I highly recommend El Porvenir. Set in the middle of farmlands and mountains, this lodge is an oasis for all things.

When we arrived, we were greeted with warm cheese empanadas and a warm …

The days in the Galapagos are action-packed! I don’t know what I was expecting but we got to do so much more each day than I could’ve imagined. Each morning, we were woken up by a good morning announcement over the loudspeaker at 7:30am. We would quickly dress in our outfit for the morning before heading to coffee and breakfast at 8:00 …

When I have been snorkeling before, I generally see a few schools of fish, generally some clownfish and parrotfish and just once I swam with a sea turtle after hours of searching. All of my previous snorkeling experiences pale in comparison to any of the snorkels we did in the Galapagos. On our first shallow snorkel, we hopped in the water and …