New Voyages and Departures for 2026–2027

Cultural expert and photojournalist Massimo Bassano has worked for National Geographic since 1990, as well as for numerous worldwide publications. He brings with him all the warmth, curiosity, culture, and history that you find in Southern Italy, more specifically from Calabria, where he was born.

Archaeologist and storyteller Bill Saturno is best known for his 2001 discovery of a 2000-year-old Mayan mural at San Bartolo in northern Guatemala. A National Geographic Explorer and a former NASA research scientist, he has conducted fieldwork around the globe, both on the ground and from space, to understand the ideological and environmental foundations of how the great Czars, Khans, Emperors, and Ajaws of the past ruled over their societies.

Chris Rainier is a documentary photographer whose life's mission is to put on film both the remaining natural wilderness and Indigenous cultures around the globe, and to use images to create social change. He is a Fellow at the Royal Geographic Society in the UK and won the prestigious Lowell Thomas award given by The Explorers Club. He has served as a contributing editor for National Geographic Traveler magazine, a contributing photographer for National Geographic Adventure magazine, and a correspondent on photography for NPR.

Dr. Ashli Akins is a cultural ecologist, writer, and photographer who is passionate about cultural revitalization and sustainable development. She has experience as a tour guide, a teacher, and Park Naturalist in British Columbia and is currently working with UNESCO on Ecotrust Canada's Indigenous Home-Lands Initiative.