From the Inca Imperial capital and Spanish colonial masterpiece Cusco you head down to the rainforest. Refugio Amazonas is a popular and well respected lodge in the Tambopata region, the most accessible area of Peru's vast Amazon territory. On this holiday, not only will you have the chance to view wildlife but you may also be able to observe the conservation-focused scientists and researchers in the jungle.

Continue by air to Guayquil, Ecuador's principal Pacific port, and fly on for an 5-day cruise around the Galápagos Islands. It was on a similar trip 200 years ago that Darwin returned to the archipelago to write the seminal book ‘On The Origin of  Species’. Step into his shoes and explore the diversity of land and marine life which inhabit the islands.

The  different ecosystems you will visit, from humid lowland jungle to the volcanic islands of the Galápagos ensure that you will observe a multitude of species. Just look at the statistics -Peru alone has over 1,800 species of birds (120 endemic to Peru), and 500 species of mammals and over 300 species of reptiles.