No one loves a guidebook like Ansley. Planning is half the fun, right? Ansley swears by the Lonely Planet Guidebooks - they've never led us astray!

New backpacks - because we don't want to haul our stuff around South America in plastic bags!

There's lots of walking on this trip - we need good hiking boots! We'll be hiking around the Galapagos Islands, the Andes mountains and trails of the Tambopata region of the Amazon Rainforest.

We'll be in the water constantly, so we'll need new bathing suits to keep looking good! Don't worry, we'll be sure to show your our tans when we get back (tee hee)!

Quick-zip, quick-dry, quick-everything pants that can become shorts in seconds! The perfect practical attire for our South American excursion.

New water bottles for all our hiking and trekking! We'll definitely need these to carry our own water supply - we can't drink any of the local water without getting sick!

It's a long flight! Help us make it go by quickly with some books for the plane. Mike will probably be reading a great literary classic while Ansley reads something hilarious (and she will regularly interrupt Mike's reading to share something funny)!

A new 35-200mm Nikon lens for our camera, so we can take pictures that do justice to this incredible trip! With this lens, Mike will be able to capture vast panoramic views while Ansley can get close-ups of the exotic insects she can't wait to see!

Money for internet cafes to let our friends and family know we're having fun. We'll try not to make anyone jealous...but we can't make any promises!

Our flight from Toronto to South America! It's a long one, but it's going to be totally worth it! Can't wait to get there ...

Romantic Dinner on our first night of our honeymoon in Quito, Ecuador. We hope to make it really special! There are many great restaurants in Quito to choose from - and many with fabulous city views.

Drinks during dinner for our first night in Quito, Ecuador. It's our honeymoon - it's time to celebrate! We'll be sure to enjoy one (okay, maybe two) "Pilsener" beers - the national beer of Ecuador! Cheers!

A healthy "desayuno" (breakfast) to start each day off right! We'll be sure to try a traditional ecuadorian breakfast at least once, which usually consists of chicken and lentils.

Hotel for our first night on our South American Honeymoon - ooh la la!

Flight from Quito to the Galapagos Islands, located about 1000 km (620 miles) off the Pacific coast of South America. We are so excited to visit these isolated islands, which are home to some of the strangest and most wonderful wildlife imaginable!

Welcome aboard! The small yacht, "GAP Adventurer I" will be our home base for our 4 days exploring the incredible Galapagos Islands!

A private naturalist guide for our entire time in the Galapagos Islands. Extremely isolated, the islands are home to some of the strangest and most wonderful wildlife imaginable, including the giant Galapagos tortoises for which the islands were named.

We will have many, many opportunities to interact with marine wildlife in the Galapagos Islands. Help us make the most of it with SCUBA lessons!

Visitor fee to the Galapagos National Park, located about 1000 km (620 miles) off the coast of Ecuador. The islands served as a living laboratory for Charles Darwin, the renowned evolution theorist. We will be exploring the islands for 4 days!

First day in the Galapagos: Outing to Bachas Beach on Isla Santa Cruz for some "vegging out". We'll relax, swim and take in our gorgeous surroundings!

Second day in the Galapagos: Bartolomé Island. A hike through the wild and "unearthly" looking lava landscape to the summit of the island to see a gorgeous panoramic view of the volcanic origins of the islands!

Second day in the Galapagos: Bartolome Island. An afternoon on Bartolome Beach to relax and explore! There is great snorkelling among the submerged volcanic rock. This is one of the spots where we might see the rare Galapagos penguins!

Ansley's dream experience - diving with Sharks! If the conditions are right, we will be diving with live sharks in a cove on the coast of Bartolome Island, in the Galapagos Islands!

Third day in the Galapagos: Rabida Island. We will be seeing lots of wildlife on this day - including a large sea lion colony! We will be visiting Rabida Island's red beach where we can see flamingos and pelicans.

Special scuba outing in the Galapagos to swim with sea turtles! It's the only place in the world where the Pacific green sea turtle breeds. They can reach up to 150kg in weight and 1metre in length!

Fourth day in the Galapagos: Santa Cruz Island. We will be visiting the Charles Darwin Research Station, which features displays on the evolutionary history of the Galapagos Islands. We will also see a nursery for endangered Galapagos Tortoises.

Airfare back to the Quito on the mainland - time to say goodbye to the Galapagos Islands, and hello to the mountians and rainforest!

Back on dry land! Time to celebrate surviving our trip to the Galapagos with dinner and drinks in Quito, Ecuador. Bring on the "Pilsener" Ecuadorian beer!

Hotel for our first evening back on the mainland in Quito, Ecuador. It sure will be nice to sleep on solid steady ground after 4 nights on a boat!

Tour of Old Quito, founded in 1534. We will be taking a trolley to a hill in the middle of Old Quito called El Panecillo or 'the Little Bread Loaf'. From here there are marvellous panoramic views of the entire city and surrounding volcanoes.

A quick jaunt the the centre of the world! The equator passes through Ecuador only a 30 minute drive north of Quito - and we want to stand on it! In Spanish it is called "Mitad del Mundo".

Entrance fee for the Museo del Banco Central in Quito, Ecuador. It has a vast display of archeology discovered in the area, including pottery, gold ornaments, skulls showing deformities and early surgical methods, and a mummy!

An evening partying in Quito's world famous salsa clubs and "penas" (authentic casual bars where locals hang out). Can't you imagine us discovering our latin heat?!?

Flight from Quito, Ecuador to Lima, Peru. Known as the City of Kings, Peru's capital city Lima was founded in 1535. Now it is the 5th largest city in South America with a population of over 3 million people!

Guided tour of Lima, Peru to visit many of the city's highlights! This will allow us to see great examples of Spanish-colonial architecture. We hope to see the changing of the Palace Guard at the Archbishop's Palace in the Plaza de Armas.

"When in Rome..." No wait! I mean "When in LIMA!" We have to try a few of the popular local drink called "Pisco Sour". It's a drink containing regional brandy called Pisco, lemon juice, egg whites, simple syrup, and regiona

Hotel for our single night in Lima, Peru. We sure will need a good rest after the flight from Quito - and we have another flight to Cuzco tomorrow! Nighty night!

Flight from Lima to Cuzco, Peru. Cuzco is the continent's oldest continuously inhabited city, and the hub of the South American travel network - Inca-built stone walls line most of the central streets.

Guided tour of Cuzco's incredible Cathedral, begun in 1559 and completed over 100 years later!

Cuzco is world famous for an incredible market. Help us decorate our apartment with memories of our trip with local art and handicrafts!

A once-in-a-lifetime whitewater rafting trip down the Urubamba River through the Sacred Valley of the Incas! Depending on the water levels, we will most likely be running the Ollantaytambo Class III rapids.

Hotel for a night in Cuzco, Peru. This town city has a fascinating mix of old and new architecture - it even has some remaining Incan ruins in the downtown area! I'm pretty sure that our hotel will be a little more modern...

A train trip to the village of Aguas Calientes, the closest habitation to Machu Picchu. Our trip winds through the spectacular Urubamba Valley and we begin our ascent through the Andes!

Time to relax! A treatment in the natural hot springs spa for which the village of "Aguas Calientes" was named.

Hotel for a night in the frontier town of Aguas Calientes, nestled in the hills beneath Machu Picchu. We need some good sleep tonight - tomorrow we go up to see Machu Picchu itself!

Entrance fee to Machu Picchu, the most sacred Inca site in the world! (We've really wanted to see this place ever since we saw it featured on an episode of The Amazing Race.)

A sunrise tour of Machu Picchu, the most sacred Incan site in the world! Discovered by Bingham in 1911, Machu Picchu is located deep in the heart of the Andes Mountains, 8,000 feet above sea level, and is a dream destination for Ansley & Mike.

Train tickets from Aguas Calientes back to Cuzco through the Urubamba Valley. As we descend down from the Andes, the views are sure to be spectacular!

Hotel for a night of rest in Cuzco, Peru. Tomorrow it's off to the rainforest and more adventure!

We fly from Cuzco, Peru to Puerto Maldonado, deep in the lowlands of the Amazon jungle. Oh man, our ears are going to be popping a lot due to the dramatic altitude change!

Motorized canoe ride down the Tambopata River to our treetop lodge in the Tambopata Rainforest Area. Along the ride, we will see bird species typical of the river edge like Black Skimmers, Pied Lapwings, Capped Herons, and Jabiru Storks.

A donation (no entrance fee is charged, but donations are encouraged) to the Tambopata Rainforest Area, one of the most ecologically bio-diverse areas in the entire world! It holds the world record for the most bird sightings in one area!

Porter welfare is a big issue in Peru, help us contribute to our porters' tips!

An unforgettable experience - our first night at our lodge in the Tambopata Region of the Amazon Rainforest! The lodge itself combines native architectural style and materials with low-impact eco-friendly technology. It will be a rustic adventure!

Tour of the Tambopata region of the Amazon Rainforest! Our guides include local community members and a multilingual Naturalist Guide. We will learn all about the rich flora and fauna, and also about how people live deep in the heart of the jungle!

Our second and final night at lodge in the rainforest. Local community members make up the majority the lodge staff, so we will try to learn as much as we can from them before we leave!

Time to fly out of the jungle back to Lima, Peru. Wow, this trip has a lot of flights! This is the last short flight in our adventure - the next one is the looooong flight home!

Our final night in Lima before heading home! A romantic cap to our incredible honeymoon is dinner on one of the acclaimed restaurants along the Lurin River.

Our last night out in South America with our new friends we met on the trip! Our last Pisco Sours in the City of Kings (Lima). Cheers!

Although this trip is going to be incredible, it's also going to be pretty tiring! A couple's RMT massage when we get back to Toronto will truly relax us before we go back to work.

We want to preserve the amazing memories - so we'd like to make a detailed photo album so we can always remember this amazing journey!