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Two Years Running!

For the second time in as many years, we've conducted an unprecedented survey of adventure travel companies, based on the idea that a traveler’s most important decision is not always where to go but who to go with. For the 2009 edition, we spoke to more guide services—and their clients—than ever before.

"...Oscar, one of the legions of bellmen uniformed in gray wool, flashes his million-dollar smile and signals to me. Reuben from the aptly named Adventure-Life tour is here. It’s a short ride in his van to the Wanchaq Station, a brief preamble to the journey of a lifetime...

...Adventure-Life: This U.S.-based tour company specializes in small tours (six to eight people) in Latin America and Antarctica. Guides are local experts. Hotel choices range from basic to luxury. Itineraries can be customized.

Sailing to Antarctica requires strong sea legs. The payoff: a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

...On the third day, our fall through the rabbit hole of the Drake is complete and we are in wonderland. The water calms, and our first iceberg encounter is a half-mile-long, high-walled rectangular platform whose symmetry looks too exact to be real. The sun comes out and sends a silver streak across one side of it. Color returns to people's faces, and to the world around us. Even at a distance, the brilliant blue of packed ice glimmers... Adventure Life Voyages' 11-day trip on the Antarctic Dream.

For the honeymoon of a lifetime, join eco travel company Adventure Life Voyages for an expedition to the Antarctic. You’ll be cruising in a Dutch vessel (once used in the Chilean navy!), which has been refurbished and transformed into a modern liner that holds 78 passengers.

The hands-on access to wildlife, like fur seals humpback whales and orcas, glaciers and massive icebergs while you’re cruising and during a daily 2-3 hour landing excursion, is amazing.

Pastel-colored homes, cobblestone streets, bougainvillea-covered walls and looming volcanoes offer the first glimpses of Antigua. The UNESCO World Heritage site embraces thousands of travelers wanting to experience this world-famed Catholic celebration commemorating the Passion, Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Antigua, Guatemala comes alive with its annual "Semana Santa" Holy Week, held sometime between March 22 and April 23. The entire city participates in the solemn activities during the week with a joyous celebration on Easter. Spanish missionaries from Seville initiated this religious occasion during colonial times.

...Adventure Life Journeys is one of a few tour groups for this Easter Festival. It has a nine-day trip with a local bilingual guide, small groups, and sustainable tourism practices. It includes the Easter Festival, ChiChicastenango and Solola Markets, as well as Lake Atitlan.

Adventure Life attracts those seeking to push the limit of their thrill-seeking endurance up a north or two. This 12-day adventure offers participants the chance to experience native culture via an overnight stay with local families. The Manco adventure begins with your arrival in Lima where you soak up a bit of civilization before flying off to Cusco the next morning to immerse yourself into the mysteries of the witches' market, or explore the capital city of Inca's many plazas, ancient ruins and museums...

...A well-planned itinerary for those unaccustomed to extreme heights, such as the 14,403-foot La Raya pass, gives adventurers the opportunity to become acclimated before exploring the region's many ancient temples and archeological sites...

Machu Picchu, the mystical Lost City of the Inca, which seems to hang in midair between the clouds above and a rushing river below, is the reason most travelers, myself included, head to Peru...

...Our Adventure Life tour leader, Boris Bonnett, is a Cusco native who earned a college degree more than a decade ago in tourism. He is extremely well versed in the region that is his home and its rich history...

...WHEN YOU GO: Adventure Life, based in Montana. The company specializes in small groups and eco friendly travel in Latin America and Antarctica.

Adventure Life has two featured trips -- our Hiking Galapagos and End of the World adventure -- in the upcoming book published by National Geographic Books as one of the top choices for seasoned travelers!

It's time to rediscover the fun and excitement of traveling off the beaten path. In Riding the Hulahula to the Arctic Ocean: A Guide to 50 Extraordinary Adventures for the Seasoned Travelers published by National Geographic Books, expert guides Don Mankin and Shannon Stowell offer both an inspiring collection of personal, often unique, experiences and practical how-to, detailing some of the world's best trips. In-depth narratives convey the rich allure of 26 destinations with lively anecdotes and specialized information, while concise descriptions highlight an additional 26 amazing trips, selected in a survey by the Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA) as top choices for people over 40...

TheTimes

Usually independent travelers, they toured with Montana-based Adventure Life Journeys, joining seven other travelers to experience the nine-day Easter Festival and much more.

After a 45-minute ride from Guatemala City, my husband and I passed through an intricate wrought-iron door into Hotel Aurora. Its plain façade belied the lovely courtyard brimming with aromatic roses, chrysanthemums and bougainvillea circling a stone fountain.

Usually independent travelers, we decided to tour with Montana-based Adventure Life Journeys. Joining seven other travelers, we experienced the nine-day "Easter Festival," ChiChicastenango and Solola Markets, Lake Atitlan, a macademia plantation, indigenous markets, villages and Maximon (a Mayan deity). We journeyed on tuk tuks (open air taxis), a flatbed truck, lancha (motorboat), van and chicken bus...

THE NORHWEST PASSAGE

Notwithstanding last month's sinking of an Antarctic cruise ship, climate tourism is heating up. And few places are warming up faster than the Northwest Passage, the Arctic sea route over Canada. Adventure Life Voyages (www.alvoyages.com), for one, is already booking cruises for its Northwest Passage tour next August, with prices from $4,600 a person.

As the audience for adventure travel becomes more sophisticated, the call for trips that truly abandon the beaten path or explore popular destinations in new ways is growing louder. Each year, many adventure providers introduce new trips to help meet this demand. After checking in with hundreds of outfitters from around the world and getting a sneak peek at what's cooking in their trip laboratories, here are my picks for the best new adventure trips of 2008.

The forgotten kingdoms of Peru
When most travelers think of Peru, the Incan ruin of Machu Picchu is often the first—and only—destination that comes to mind. But what most never realize, even after visiting Machu Picchu and other well-known Incan ruins, is that Peru is home to countless other fascinating sites, including those built by other civilizations that pre-date the Incas by a thousand years. That's why Latin American specialists Adventure Life is launching a new trip that covers the full spectrum of Peruvian ruins, including those in the seldom-visited northern part of the country.

'The Inca were only the last in a long line of sophisticated pre-Columbian cultures in Peru,' says Adventure Life founder Brian Morgan. 'From the 1st to the 15th-century A.D., [northern Peru] was home to some of South America's most prominent cultures—the Moche, Lambayeque, Chimu, and Chachapaoyas. Like the Inca, they were exquisite craftsmen and excelled in the skills of ceramics, agriculture, architecture, metallurgy, and warfare, but their temples and arts were completely unique from the Inca...'

On top of the world: Adventure Life offers a 25-night journey through the Northeast Passage between Alaska and Russia. Clients are taken by icebreaker from Anchorage to Murmansk.

Looking for a life-changing adventure? How about a biking trip in Namibia? Or a rare voyage across the Arctic's Northeast Passage? USA TODAY looks at six of the most unusual adventure trips in the works for 2008...

...Outfitter: Adventure Life
Length: 25 nights
Details: Melting of the Arctic attributed to global warming is opening once-frozen routes to exploration, including the so-called Northeast Passage between Alaska and Russia. In this rare outing, the icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov will take clients from Anchorage across the top of the world through the Barents Sea to Murmansk. Stops include the uninhabited island of Kolyuchin and the New Siberian Islands, where, weather permitting, passengers will hike the tundra, explore old hunting camps and see the northernmost point of the European continent.

Not your typical port: Passengers aboard and Adventure Life cruise can spend the night ice-camping on the Antarctic Peninsula's Paradise Bay.

It's not secret that taking a cruise has never been the vacation for serious adrenaline addicts. Granted, it can be exhilarating to snag an unclaimed lounge chair on the pool deck after 10 a.m., but for most thrill-seekers, traditional cruises seem unbearably tame. Well, times are changing. In the past few years, ships of all sizes have launched itineraries designed to appeal to even the most adventurous travelers. Far-flung ports, challenging wilderness excursions and heart-revving life-list experiences that have replaced duty-free shopping and drive-by bus tours. The payoff? Incredible memories, a deep sense of accomplishment and -- after a full-day of calorie-burning -- guilt free returns visits to the buffet table...

...A 12-day Adventure Life voyage carries 49-passengers from the mountain-rigged city of Ushuaia in southern Argentina across the Drake Passage to the South Shetland Islands and the Antarctic Peninsula -- where summer highs top out at 50 degrees and the sun can shine for 20 hours a day. Guests board inflatable boats to see Gentoo penguins, ocras and the Wendell seals; paddle sea kayaks through a maze of ice floes; and scale glaciers using crampons and ice-axes. They can also ski the white wilderness or do the full Shackleton: and overnight ice-camping excursion.

..."Most people hike the W on their own steam, carrying 30-pound packs up vertical boulder fields, pitching tents in gale-force winds and huddling inside makeshift shelters to heat a pot of water to cook dinner. Our group was going it the easy way with Adventure Life, a Montana based outfit that specializes in global outdoor adventures. Instead of being burdened with heavy packs, we carried only light day packs holding our lunch, water and raingear while our trusty guides, Kenneth and Roberto, and two additional female porters, carried the rest..."

"Adventure Life's eight-day Pure Patagonia Base Camp Trekking adventure is an active itinerary of massive glaciers, jagged mountains, glacier hikes and wonderful wildlife. Hiking each day is moderate to strenuous, and participants should be in good shape."

"Adventure Life encourages sustainable, low-impact travel in small groups averaging 8-10 guests. Trip leaders are bilingual and hold university degrees in anthropology, biology, botany and other related disciplines. Adventure Life runs several trips in Patagonia and other countries where the wilderness is the star."

The deadly, ice-packed Northwest Passage remained unconquered until Roald Amundsen braved the trip in 1906. Today satellite images suggest that the ice is retreating so rapidly that the passage could be a viable shipping land by 2050, making the Panama Canal nearly obsolete. Following Amundesen's route today (from Anchorage, Alaska, to Resolute Bay, Canaada) aboard an icebreaker with outfitter Adventure Life is more aking to a pleasure cruise. Highlights include passage through the roaring Beaufort Sea and the Victoria Straight, where Amundsen was stranded for two winters. In addition to watching whales, seals, and polar bears, travelers get a look at icebergs that, for now at least, are the size of several city blocks.

...I'm on a nine-day, action-packed tour of Costa Rica with a fittingly named outfitter: Adventure Life. There's a lot packed into those that phrase, "Adventure Life." If we already lived an adventure life, would we need to pay a tour company to give us more of the same somewhere else? The phrase certainly sounds more interesting than our actual life: sleep, eat, work, sleep. Somehow "Treadmill Life" just doesn't have the same cachet. We sign on with Adventure Life so we can stop being softies for a while and remember what it is to get a natural rush...

...One of the newest entrants into the South Pacific cruise market is Adventure Life VOYAGES, a Missoula, Montana-based company that is among the leaders in land based tours to Central and South America. The experts at Adventure Life have selected a few choice expedition cruise vessels and paired them with enticing itineraries to some of the far-flung corners of the globe..."

Adventure Life specializes in family adventures and custom tours throughout Latin America. It adheres to small group travel not only as a benefit to travelers, but also on principle as a way to minimize its "footprint" on the places and cultures they visit. Optional homestays expand cross-cultural awareness, and partnerships with local guides and family-owned ecolodges contribute to local economies. Connected with such organizations as the International Ecotourism Society and Leave No Trace, Adventure Life is further committed to environmental protection. Indeed, guests of the Pure Patagonia Base Camp Trek stay in Torres del Paine National Park's eco-camp, equipped with composting toilets and igloo-shaped tents that are built to minimize environmental impact. Led by a Patagonian guide and crew, the 8-day hike to glaciers, lakes and rainforests starts and ends in Punta Arenas, Chile.

Smaller cruise ships can deliver an unforgettable experince.

When Steve Brown wanted to thank his employees for buying into his company, he decided to forego a standard cruise, instead choosing a ship and ports less traveled. "I wanted something unique, an incentive experience that gave us the chance to relax, celebrate, get outdoors and do some team-building," says Brown, who operates the Trout Lodge fish hatchery in Washington State. So he hit the Internet and landed at Adventure Life VOYAGES, a Montana-based company that specializes in off-the-beaten-path tours for small groups.

"He came to us about our Patagonia trip for his group – seven owners and spouses who were going to Chile on business anyway," says Johnathan Brunger, Adventure Life’s adventure coordinator. The big draw, adds Brunger, was the four-day cruise’s mix of adventure and spectacular sightseeing with posh digs and gourmet food, a combination Brown felt would prove a good fit for his group. Did it work? In his post-trip evaluation, Brown was ecstatic: "It spoiled my wife and me to an extent that we would never go on a big-ship cruise again." ...

Itching for a once-in-a-lifetime adventure? How about the first commerical trek up Tibet's Tsangpo river? Or rafting in little-visited Montenegro? Or biking in Spain's vineyard-dotted Rioja region? These are just a few of the new offerings from adventure travel companies for 2007. USA TODAY's Gene Sloan offers a guide to five new itineraries:...

...Patagonia: Adventure Life's End of the World trip combines three days on an expedition ship, sailing glacier-fed fjords and corssing the Strait of Magellan, with a land-based exploration of mountainous Chile and Argentina that includes a stay at an eco-tent lodge.

SAN CRISTOBAL ISLAND, the Galapagos, Ecuador — An hour into a grueling hike through the scrubby, arid lowlands that cover much of this island, Alfredo Meneses slows his pace.

"Keep your eyes out," says the 40-year-old tour guide, sweat glistening from his brow as he scans the nearby clumps of silvery-gray, lichen-covered palo santo trees. "We've just entered the kingdom of the giant tortoise." ...

...Meneses, an Ecuador-born guide for Missoula, Mont.-based Adventure Life Journeys, launched the first land-based tour in the Galapagos nearly five years ago, a week-long multisport trip that included hiking, kayaking and horseback riding. Soon other adventure companies followed. In the past year, several also have added land-based all-kayaking trips. Now Adventure Life is premiering the first all-hiking trip, the latest twist in the growing trend...

We are thrilled to have made Conde Nast Traveler's 2006 Green List for our role as a Tour Operator practicing responsible and sustainable travel. Read more in the September 2006 issue of Conde Nast...

"Adventure Life Journeys
ALJ operates trips in Latin America and Antarctica only and sponsors (with additional donations from travelers) the Earth Family Fund, which concentrates on three projects: a shelter for teenage mothers in Peru, a community near the Inca Trail, and an Ecuadorian orphanage. In addition to working exclusively with local guides and support staff, ALJ chooses its destinations carefully, including a private reserve in Costa Rica that has started its own nonprofit foundation and invented a wastewater-purification system using water lilies. The company also prints brochures on recycled paper with soy ink -- even though it raises costs by 20 percent..."

National Geographic Adventure recently highlighted our Peru Manu Biosphere tour in their "Great Summer Trips" issue. Check it out!

The 4.4-million-acre Manu Biosphere Reserve, in eastern Peru's Amazon territory, has the highest concentration of bird species on the planet. It is also home to tapirs, a dozen varieties of monkeys, and the playful giant otter -- an animal hunted nearly to extinction elsewhere but still thriving within the reserve. But Manu's most charismatic wildlife attraction is a garish little bird called the Andean cock-of-the-rock; males famously congregate for a bizarre mating ritual -- a sing off that may be the animal kingdom's closest approximation of American Idol. Outfitter Adventure Life has been leading guests to this spectacle for five years and doing it in a way that gives back to the surrounding human and animal communities. "We use local guides and transportation and family-run hotels so that our Peruvian hosts can share the benefits of tourism," says the company's founder, Brian Morgan.

Expect high altitude (13,000 feet) in the cloudforest portion of the reserve. Accommodations at Manu are comfortable and simple -- you'll have your own bed and bath, but the electricity is on for only eight hours a day.

Hundreds of white coolers line floor-to-ceiling shelves inside a hot, dimly lighted shed. The silence is broken only by what sounds like dozens of fingernails scraping against Styrofoam.

Veterinarian Miguel Flores Peregrina listens carefully to discern which coolers are emitting the scraping sounds, identifies three and open the lids.

Inside, dozens of squirming newborn turtles, each smaller than the palm of my hand, are clawing their way to the top of the sand-filled coolers and trying to bash through the sides of the Styrofoam to freedom. Like all sea turtles, these are born with a natural burst of energy and an ancient instinct telling them to rush headlong into the sea...

...Volunteers at Mexico's Playa Las Tortugas can hold baby turles, help measure females after they've come ashore at night to lay eggs, and see new hatchings scramble in the corrals...

...Adventure Life has trips to Costa Rica's Pacuare Nature Reserve or Tortuguero National Park in spring and summer. From San Jose, Costa Rica, eight-day trips begin at $1,345 and include working with turtles, white-water rafting and visiting a rainforest...

Every year Outside Magazine lists the top trips from around the world. This year we are happy to announce our Northwest Argentina Trek made the honored list.

Amid the deep red gorges of Argentina's rugged northwest, aboriginal adobe huts stand as reminders that this country's rich history far predates the tango. This nine-day trip covers both past and present, fromt the pre-Spanish Calchaquis relics in Quilmes to the up-and-coming wineries of Cafayate. After a stay at ta comfortable bodega lodge, you'll embark on a three-day trek through the Cachi Mountains, where you and your packhorses will hoof it 29 miles up the Belgrando River Gorge to the multicolored sandstone formations of the Pukamayu Vally.

Travelers who want to hike the Inca Trail to the stunning ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru this summer should get a move on. To help protect the ancient trail, the Peruvian government is enforcing the limit of 500 trekkers starting the hike each day by requiring that tour operators submit the names and passport numbers of their clients to purchase necessary permits...

Adventure Life, in Missoula, Mont., offers the Cachiccata Trek, a 10-day backcountry experience that inludes four days of hiking that bypasses the traditional Inca Trail on the way to Machu Picchu ($1,625).

"What has become known as the Inca Trail is what people refer to as that four-day hike to Machu Picchu," said DarAnne Dunning, a trip coordinator for Adventure Life. "But that isn't the only Inca trail that there was. There were thousands and thousands of miles of these trails in Peru."

For those who prefer to experience the flora and fauna of the Galapagos without getting sore forearms or sand in their bedding, yacht tours are the way to go. Listed below are package tours available for 2006. All are 10-day trips, unless specified otherwise. The growing popularity of these cruises, plus temperate weather, means that high season is practically year-round. Cost-conscious travelers may want to take advantage of the two brief low seasons, May 1 to mid-June, or mid-September through October. Prices are per person. Air fare to Quito, the starting point for most packages, is not included; meals are.

Itching for a once-in-a-lifetime adventure? Travel companies are rolling out a wave of unusual itineraries for next year. USA TODAY's Gene Sloan offers a guide to seven of the most exciting new adventure trips for 2006 (all prices per person, based on double occupancy):

Just about every major adventure travel company offers a tour of the Galapagos islands — by boat. Adventure Life's new twist? Participants stay on shore — in small hotels on three islands (a rarity, since 97% of the islands are national park).

...Spurred by recent Peruvian government efforts to enforce visitation limits on the classic trail to Machu Picchu (no more than 500 people, including porters, can enter the trail per day; on high-volume days, nearly twice that many previously entered the trail) Adventure Life and other adventure companies have been adding new treks across the region. They follow lesser-used but no less spectacular Inca routes and visit little-known Inca ruins...

...While thousands of miles of Incan trails crisscross the mountains of Peru, most major U.S. adventure tour companies only have offered treks on the so-called "classic" Inca Trail that leads directly to the famous ruins of Machu Picchu. Now that's beginning to change. With the Peruvian government enforcing limits on visitors to the classic trail, which has been plagued by overcrowding, firms are adding more treks on "alternative" Incan trails connecting lesser-known ruins. ....The Missoula, Mont.-based company this summer launched "Cachiccata Trek: The Inca Trail Less Traveled," a 10-day trip that includes three days of trekking on the Cachiccata Trail, a route that passes the ruins of Chokekillka. The trip includes a stop at the ruins of Ollantaytambo and a train trip to Machu Picchu....

...Based in Missoula, Mont., Adventure Life Journeys, (800) 344-6118 or www.adventure -life.com, organizes trips ranging from 10 days to 23 days; the longer trips include visits to the Falkland Islands and South Georgia Island. A 10-night voyage aboard the 110-passenger Akademik Ioffe visits the South Shetland Islands and the waterways of the Antarctic Peninsula, focusing on areas with the best possibilities of viewing wildlife. Including an optional overnight camping excursion, fares start at $5,390 a person...

...Photographer Pauline Lubens booked her trip through Adventure Life -- a fine choice, she says, for travelers who want their entire vacation booked ahead of time and don't want to fend for themselves in Quito, Ecuador. Her trip was on the Seaman, a small "tourist"-class yacht with eight cabins and bund beds, for a maximum of 16 passengers...

Have you ever thought about taking the Inca Trail less traveled in Peru? My friend, Mary and I were excited to take the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, but then we found an alternative trail that would take us around to modern Incan communities and magnificent views of the snow-capped Andes.

Adventure Life put together a wonderful tour that took us to Cusco and the Sacred Valley and then on a four-day trek along the Cachiccata Trail. Our vacation concluded with our visit to Machu Picchu for two days...

GALAPAGOS ISLANDS, Ecuador — The dark shape darted straight at our masks, veering away at the last possible moment. Here it came again. And again — turning, swerving and passing us just out of reach. A sleek young sea lion was playing with us! When we finally returned to the beach, he followed us to the water's edge, looking wistful over losing his playmates. To our utter delight, 500 years of human contact haven't been long enough for the creatures of the Galapagos Islands to evolve a fear of humans...

*The Roses have traveled all over the world and have an excellent website with excellent travel tales, advice and adventures to share. Visit: The Rambling Roses to learn more.

Even though born and raised in Havre, Brian Morgan knows what it is like to feel trapped by the urban environment. People want to get out of it, he says – which is exactly why he thinks his business, Adventure Life Journeys, is taking off.

The Costa Rica Pacuare Nature Reserve recently began accepting visitors, and the US-headquartered Adventure Life is booking guests into the lodge. Founded 13 years ago to protect and study leatherback turtles and green turtles, the reserve accepts only six guests at a time, who work side-by-side with reserve's biologists tagging and measuring adult turtles and finding and moving nests to protect eggs from poachers...

...type "adventure" and "Chile" into your favorite Web search engine and you'll come up with spots such as Adventure Life - http://www.adventure-life.com/chile/chile.php - which touts treks through the wilds of Patagonia, coastal cruises and camping trips in the Atacama Desert...

The next Costa Rica, some call Guatemala. And for good reason. Like its long-popular Central American sibling to the south, Guatemala is home to soaring volcanoes, idyllic lakes and steamy rain forests full of monkeys, crocodiles and toucans. Unlike Costa Rica, it also harbors some of the world's most spectacular ruins, remnants of the ancient Mayan civilization, as well as a vibrant modern-day Mayan culture. With the country stablizing, U.S. adventure companies such as Adventure Life that have long offered trips to Costa Rica are beginning to add Guatemala to their mix.

Adventure Life. The Montana-based company is offering easy-rated trips this year to Belize, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Guatemala. Example: Ecuadorian Amazon, a seven-night trip that includes a rain forest lodge stay with jungle explorations.

"Central America is still a new destination for many Americans, however, and even in Costa Rica independent vacations can be difficult, particularly if you're driving, because of the poor roads. So tours make sense. ....various smaller tour companies have sprung up to meet the demand for more specialized trips..."

..."Itineraries in Costa Rica, Belize and Guatemala are offered by Adventure Life Journeys, based in Missoula, Mont., which specializes in trips to Latin America. A 12-day tour departing April 2 visits Guatemala during Semana Santa, the holy week before Easter, when processions and huge puppets parade along streets decorated with dyed sawdust and flowers. Visits to Chichicastenango's colorful market, Lake Atitlán and Tikal are included, along with several days in the colonial city of Antigua, where much of the pageantry is centered. The trip includes stays in comfortable hotels and lodges (with breakfasts), along with in-country transportation except the flight between Guatemala City and Flores, near Tikal. A nine-day trip in Belize (with a side trip to Tikal), includes two nights at Glover's Reef, a coral atoll, or Ambergris Caye, with snorkeling, sea kayaking or windsurfing available, then three nights at a jungle lodge inland, with excursions along the river and to a Maya ruin. Information: (800) 344-6118 or www.adventure-life.com."

Stay up late with biologists and half-ton leatherbacks. For a few nights at a private reserve, go to www.adventure-life.com.

Costa Rica Turtles and Rainforest:
http://www.adventure-life.com/costa_rica/costa_rica_tours/tour/TR-T8.php

"We set out from our lodge in the early morning and, after a two-hour trek through the jungle, we arrived at the entrance to a beautiful, hourglass-shaped cave with a small stream flowing from its mouth. Locals referred to this cavern as Actun Tunichil Muknal, which means the Cave of the Stone Sepulchre, and we had come to probe some of the mysteries and secrets of the Mayan civilization. …"

Belize Rainforest and Ruins:
http://www.adventure-life.com/belize/belize_tours/tour/RR5.php

"...What's special? Six hundreds miles from the shores of Ecuador lie the storybook islands of the Galapagos, where Darwin first chronicled the evolutionary origins of the species. These volcanic islands at first appear barren and uninhabited until a 180-kilogram giant tortoise lumbers past and blue-footed boobies ponder their human visitors. In nearby bays, playful sea lions are said to nibble on snorkelers' flippers.

In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the Galapagos are a stage on which the Earth's evolutionary forces play out unencumbered by the hectic pace of life in the world's more inhabited climes. But travelers on the "Adventure Life" Galapagos 10-day luxury yacht tour can enjoy the mystical islands in relaxed style aboard the double-sailed schooner Diamante..."

Galapagos Islands tours:
http://www.adventure-life.com/galapagos/galapagos.php

"…A travel agency with experience in adventure trips can steer you to good boats. I found mine, the Sulidae, on line at http://www.adventure-life.com/galapagos/yachts/index.php, which also lists plusher boats. My seven-day, nine-island trip cost about $1,950 in a shared cabin last spring.…"

Turtles and Rainforest tour:
http://www.adventure-life.com/costa_rica/costa_rica_tours/tour/TR-T8.php

Vigorous hikes are highlighted by bright-red frogs, armies of leaf-cutter ants and flame-colored heliconias dripping from the trees. We drink sweet water from streams and splash through rivers amid mahogany tree so tall we can't see the tops and so wide we hide behind the roots. Our guides toss ropes over a roaring waterfall; I'm too afraid to rappel down on my own, but I make it with the help of new friends! Over the next few days we gallop horses across banana plantations, and Francisco climbs trees while I admire from below. We laze on hammocks, drink wine, watch wildlife, wake to birdsong and live by candlelight. We get all the adventure and romancy we dreamed of! "

Beaches and Rainforest tour:
http://www.adventure-life.com/costa_rica/costa_rica_tours/tour/BR8.php

The nextfigures proved much more impressive. A monkey with a vast spiral tail was followed in short order by a hummingbird, a whale, a fox, and a waving man with an oddly shaped head, referred to as the owl man!"

Peru Panorama tour:
http://www.adventure-life.com/peru/peru_tours/tour/PP16.php

"Only in the Galapagos Islands can you snorkel with a penguin on the equator as schools of spotted eagle rays glide beneath you and playful sea lions perform an underwater ballet. And the most amazing thing about this aquatic experience is that you're not an observer- you're an actor in the performance. Equipped with a mask and fins, you can dive and swirl effortlessly as you play with your new marine friends in the cool, clear water! IF YOU GO [contact] Adventure Life, 1-800-344-6118"

Galapagos Islands tours:
http://www.adventure-life.com/galapagos/galapagos.php

"Morgan (Adventure Life Founder) uses a network of handpicked guides from the villages and tries to give his customers a trip immersed in the culture! Instead of joining a throng of Americans being bused from one tourist hot spot to the next before retiring for evenings at Western hotels, Schall (past client) described her tour as a busy schedule, but one with time for exploration and discovery away from the groups."