Yes, the Galapagos are extraordinary—we’ll get there. But travelers who make a beeline straight to the islands and skip the mainland are leaving some of the most interesting real estate on the planet unseen. Ecuador is the size of Arizona, yet it packs in more topographic drama, climate variation, and indigenous cultures than countries ten times its size.

After decades of globe-trotting, NextTribe founder Jeannie Ralston has landed on exactly two countries she calls favorites. Ecuador is one of them. Her reasoning: nowhere else does one small map-sliver deliver so many completely different worlds—each one more absorbing than the last.

The Andes—where an eternal spring climate keeps things blessedly mild, and indigenous women still dress in the same vibrant textiles their grandmothers’ grandmothers wore, not as a performance for tourists but as a living expression of who they are. The Amazon—where leaf-cutter ants cross the trail in front of you like they own it, blue morpho butterflies flash past in impossible iridescent blue, and toucans perch in the trees above like opinionated neighbors who have no intention of leaving. All of this from the comfort of a beautiful lodge. And Quito, the capital, which once held the second-most-important spot in the Inca Empire and still holds the title of best-preserved Spanish colonial historic center in all of Latin America.

And then, yes—the Galapagos. Add the extension and spend four days island-hopping aboard our own private 115-foot yacht with our own naturalist, in a place where the animals are genuinely not bothered that you’re oohing and ahhing over them.