About
We live here. That is most of it.
Latin Lands plans private trips across Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Colombia and Ecuador. We are based on the continent, not in an office that has read about it.
We have been running trips out of Quito since 2018 — first across Ecuador and the Galápagos, and now across the continent, which is why this site exists. Two of us founded it, one of them still guides, and the team is small enough that the person who answers your email is the person who builds your itinerary.
Latin Lands by Real Dreams. Latin Lands is the travel brand of Real Dreams Tour Operator, founded in Quito in 2018 by Pedro Toaquiza and Carolina Inlago.
The team
The people behind your trip
Pedro Toaquiza
Founder and bilingual tour guide
Pedro started the company in Quito in 2018 and still guides: Cotopaxi, the Quilotoa lagoon, Baños and the Amazon are regular days for him. He reviews the routes and the guides on this site before they are published.
Carolina Inlago
CEO and co-founder
Carolina co-founded the company with Pedro in 2018 and runs it as CEO.
Katty Lopez
Travel agent
Katty is the travel agent on the team, working on enquiries and bookings.
Tatiana Ayala
SEO and content
Tatiana looks after the website and what is published on it, including the travel guides.
Our guides in Ecuador
Some of the guides you may travel with
Diego Plazarte
Certified national tour guide
Born in Quito in 1994, Diego studied ecotourism and is a keen photographer. He once crossed most of Ecuador in 21 days, and guides with safety and peace of mind as the first rule.
Irene Minda
Licensed tour guide
A Quito native, Irene started with theatrical walking tours of the historic centre and has been a licensed guide since about 2021. Ask her about Ecuadorian food, folk dance and the city’s legends.
Andrés Collaguazo
Tour guide
Andrés grew up looking at the volcanoes around Quito and came to guiding from customer service. Travellers say he explains things simply and with humour; one of the places that marked him most is the Cuicocha lagoon.
Who actually plans it
Guides first, salespeople second
The company was started by a working tour guide, and that is still the difference you will notice. The routes on this site are ordered the way they are because somebody has driven them, watched travellers arrive at 3,400 m on their first night, and seen what it costs them the next day.
Our guides are local, licensed, and they work in the places they grew up in. In Galápagos that is not a preference but the law: every island outing has to carry a naturalist guide certified by the National Park, and not every operator says so.
It also means we will tell you when something is not worth it. That is easier to do when nobody is on commission.
How we work
Three things we do differently, and they are all boring
We plan by land where it makes sense
Crossing the Andes overland takes an extra day and saves you the first two to altitude. Most itineraries fly because it is easier to sell, not because it is better to travel.
We price land only, then add the flights
Flights sit outside the headline price so you can hold two quotes side by side and see what is genuinely different. That is a pricing decision, not a limit on what we do: we book flights, and we build the trip however you want it — flying, overland, or both.
We only build multi-day trips
Two days minimum. If you want a single day out, we will point you to someone good rather than sell you something we do not do well.
When we are worth it
Worth saying out loud
We are most useful for the trip that has not taken shape yet: the one where you know you have sixteen days and two countries in mind, and no idea which order they go in, or whether it should be sixteen days at all.
That is the part we are good at — working out the shape before anyone talks about price, then building it around what you actually have. If you already know your exact dates, hotels and route, you may not need us, and we will say so.