Travel blog

Choquequirao | Peru

Top 10 Inca Ruins

Between 1438 and 1533, the Inca Empire thrived. It was the largest pre-Columbian empire and covered a vast area of South America. The Inca Empire’s remnants can still be found in Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia as well as Chile, Colombia, and Argentina. The Incas’ progressive mentality enabled them to prosper greatly during their expansion.

Galapagos sharks

Ecuador expands protected area around Galapagos Islands

Ecuador President Guillermo Lasso declared that Ecuador will increase the area of protection for the Galapagos Marine Reserve to 60,000 km. This announcement was made at the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland.

Chinese Ships | Galapagos Islands

Galapagos is home to hundreds of fishing boats from China that hunt for prey

Chinese fishing boats search for squid in Galapagos Islands. The Galapagos Islands were the key to Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. These islands are located hundreds of miles away from the Pacific mainland and are listed as a World Heritage Site.

Galapagos blackberry

Galapagos Islands: Invasive blackberry is almost ubiquitous

Galapagos Islands (Ecuador), EFE. – Although no one knows how or when the blackberry arrived on the Galapagos Islands it has spread widely and poses a threat the flora as well as fauna, and seems to be here to stay.

Galapagos Science Center

Galapagos Science Center continues to be a leading center for animal health research

Carolina’s Galapagos Science Center (GSC), recently opened its doors to a small number of students and researchers returning to its state-of the-art facility on San Cristobal in Galapagos. Greg Lewbart was the first to arrive. He is an adjunct professor at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and a professor of aqua animal medicine at North Carolina State University.

Plastic on Galapagos Beaches

Plastic on Galapagos beaches predicted by floating sensors

Stefanie Yapma and Erik van Sebille, physicists, are creating an app to tell park rangers in the Galapagos Islands about where they can pick up plastic each day as part of their Galapagos Plass Free project. To create a model for the complex ocean currents around the archipelago, the researchers used drifters (or “floating sensors”). 

Guayusa | Ecuador amazon

Ecuador’s Amazon Guayusa! The Superfood that offers  Cleaner, Healthier Caffeine

Guayusa is a sacred leaf that was grown in the jungle by the indigenous Kichwa. It is used in ceremonial rituals. This is a clean, healthy alternative to your daily coffee.

AMUPAKIN amazon ecuador

Amazon Rainforest Midwives Move The World

A small community in Ecuador’s Amazon called Archidona is home to a group of indigenous Kichwa midwives who fight for their traditional medicinal practices and remain faithful to them despite discrimination, misogyny, and a lack of financial support.

Papallacta

Pre-Columbian farmers had presided over supposedly pristine South American forests

Perpetual clouds cover the canopy of a tropical forest that seems pristine on the Quijo Valley in northern Ecuador. The beauty of the cloud forest conceals a tragic, violent past. New sediment analysis of the Valley’s Lake Huila has revealed centuries of indigenous agriculture, which was destroyed by fire and warfare in 1588.