A tropical getaway! After tying the knot late last year, Will Jardell and James Wallington continued celebrating their love with a special trip to Ecuador for their honeymoon.
“The most exciting part about our honeymoon was right as we boarded the dingy to be transported to the cruise ship, we saw a sea lion blue-footed booby, and tons of Galapagos iguanas — and we hadn’t even started the actual cruise yet,” Jardell, 31, exclusively told Us Weekly of the romantic getaway. “It made for an exciting seven days as we were able to see so many incredible landscapes and wildlife through the islands.”
Wallington, 32, went on to gush about how the Hurtigruten Expeditions cruise allowed the couple to experience the most beautiful parts of the country.
“The most exciting part of our honeymoon for me was kickstarting married life together by doing what we love, which is traveling,” he told Us about the adventurous trip. “Over the course of 10 days, we visited Mashpi, a rainforest hotel in the clouds, Ecuador’s capital city of Quito, Cotopaxi National Park in the Andean Highlands and flew 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador to the beautiful islands of the Galapagos on our cruise.”
The New York native added: “Everything we’ve been able to do has been spectacular and has felt very much like our time on The Amazing Race because of how active and on-the-go we’ve been.”
The couple met in 2014 during auditions for America’s Next Top Model. Four years later, Wallington and Jardell competed on season 32 of The Amazing Race, coming in first place and winning $1 million. After having to postpone their nuptials several times due to the coronavirus pandemic, the pair got married in December 2021 in New Orleans.
Following the major milestone in their relationship, the reality TV couple opened up about getting to enjoy their time as newlyweds.
“This trip was the perfect bookend to a fabulous wedding journey,” the Texas native told Us. “We’re still on such a high from our wedding and we were able to disconnect and spend quality time together as a married couple.”
Wallington, for his part, revealed that the “hardest part” of married life so far has been “introducing Will as my ‘husband’ to people” because the twosome were in the fiancé stage for “so long” leading up to their wedding.
Scroll down for a special look at Jardell and Wallington’s romantic honeymoon: