Galapagos Explorer (8 day cruise) + The Jungle - A 19 day holiday in Ecuador from Llama Travel - Excursions

19 days / 17 nights
from £3329 £3229

Excursions

The Galapagos Explorer (8 day cruise) + The Jungle holiday allows you to take the following optional excursions:

Colonial Quito | Otavalo | Bellavista Cloud Forest | Colonial Quito, Otavalo & Bellavista (1 day)

Colonial Quito

£25

This half-day guided tour takes you to the colonial heart of Quito, starting in the main square. You enter the church of La Compañia, with its spectacular gold leaf interior. You then visit the Alberto Mena Museum, where Ecuador’s fight for independence is represented in waxworks, and San Francisco church. A tour to the Quito School of Colonial Art shows how children are being taught to restore the city’s colonial heritage. Before returning to your hotel, you visit the hill of Panecillo, from where there are wonderful views of Quito and the surrounding volcanoes.

Panecillo in Quito

Otavalo

£60

This full day excursion leaves Quito in the morning, passing the beautiful Cayambe volcano. You stop at a rose farm and see the many varieties of roses which are grown in this near-perfect climate, and then packaged for export. After an early lunch at an old mill, continue to Otavalo town, where you have time to explore and shop in the famous crafts market. In the late afternoon you visit the wonderful ‘Cuicocha’, a turquoise green lake in an extinct volcanic crater, before returning to Quito in the evening.

Otavalo market

Bellavista Cloud Forest

£70

You are collected early from your hotel in Quito, and driven through spectacular scenery as the road drops from the Andes towards the cloud forest. After two hours, you arrive at the Bellavista Lodge, high in the cloud forest at 2,200 metres, from where there are amazing views. After breakfast, you take a guided walk on one of the trails to explore the forest. You then have the rest of the day in Bellavista to explore the cloud forest at your own pace.

Enjoy the area around the lodge, where the feeders attract 16 varieties of hummingbirds, which can be seen at close range. You can also follow the self-guided trails from the lodge, offering the chance to get to know the ecology and birds of the cloud forest. There are over 330 species of birds in the Tandayapa Valley, where Bellavista is located. You leave the Bellavista Lodge in the afternoon, getting back to Quito at around 6pm - 7pm. This excursion includes breakfast and lunch at the lodge.