Ecuador

A town at the foot of the active Tungurahua volcano in the Pastaza River valley, famous for the Basilica of Our Lady of the Holy Water, thermal springs, and as the gateway to Ecuador's Amazon basin lowlands.

Home to Cotopaxi, one of the world's highest active volcanoes at 5,911 m, with a near-perfect snow-capped cone visible from Quito on clear days and a páramo ecosystem of extraordinary ecological sensitivity above the treeline.

A UNESCO World Heritage Site in southern Ecuador built on Inca and pre-Inca foundations, famous for its Spanish colonial grid, four colonial churches on four corners of the central plaza, and the Tomebamba riverside walkways.

A volcanic archipelago 1,000 km off Ecuador's coast, famous for endemic wildlife, Darwin's theory of evolution, and strict visitor controls that preserve one of the world's most intact ecosystems.

One of the largest, best-preserved colonial centers in the Americas, sitting at 2,850 m on the slopes of Pichincha volcano, with over 30 churches and an unbroken street grid laid out in the 16th century.

A UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in the Ecuadorian Amazon covering over 1 million hectares of lowland tropical rainforest, with the highest biodiversity per square kilometre of any place on earth and home to significant uncontacted indigenous peoples.