Ecuador Round Up: A Beautiful Country

Ecuador. Where do we even start with this country. We spent 30 days exploring as much as we could but there is still left so much on the table for a future trip. This country is one that will take your breath away, both figuratively and literally. The people were amazing, the scenery was stellar, and the activities were a lot of fun. Here are some hits and misses we had in Ecuador, and where we still need to go.

Hits
The following are people, places and things that we really enjoyed in Ecuador.

Edwin
Edwin was our tour guide for both our food tour and bike tour in Quito. We couldn’t have asked for anything better. He’s super personable and friendly, and does not white-wash or sugarcoat anything on his tours (or he’s really good at it.) He gave us many laughs and an honest look into life in Quito and Ecuador. We hung out with him as much as we could and whenever we come back to Ecuador, we will make sure we come see him again.

Cotopaxi
Arguably Ecuador’s most famous volcano. This erupting beast, and the valley to its north, provided us with spectacular adventure and friendships. We stayed at “adult summer camp,” (Secret Garden Cotopaxi), and met many wonderful people that we swapped travel tales with and met up with down the road. The adventure was really exciting too. We summited a volcano (Pasachoa) and went to a glacier (Cotopaxi). The scenery in the valley was iconic, the weather was great, it was a really enjoyable three days.

Almuerzos
Ecuador has their lunch game figured out. The markets that are dotted around each city all boast a similar lineup of food, a soup, a seco (dry), and juice. All generally for under $3USD. The soups were all seasoned really well, whether it was potato of chicken (generally), and the drys were pretty classic and standard. Rice, potatoes, salad and a protein, usually grilled or charred. The chicken always ended up being good. Sometimes you could get a fried plantain in there too!

Mindo
Our adventure day in Mindo was fantastic. We started with some ziplines and an adrenalin filled swing. After, we had a waterfall extravaganza. The cloud forest was the greenest and lushes place we have ever seen. The waterfalls were beautiful, the hike was fun, and the weather was great. We also went to the chocolate factory and had the most delicious brownie ever so that was also a plus.

Canyoning
In Baños, the thing to do (or one of them at least), is to rappel down waterfalls. So that’s what we did, and it was too much fun. The 45m Casacada de Silencio drop at the end was way too much adrenaline. The basin of the waterfall was really pretty too. It’s a shame we didn’t get any pictures from there.

Quilatoa
The Quilatoa crater is unlike anything we’ve ever seen. The entire top of the volcano is essentially inverted, with polished blue water 500m below us. The valleys and hillcrests that extend out from the volcano are magnificent view as well when you turn your head the other way. The hike up to it was great, sleeping in the tent was fun, and the second last valley on day two was just pristine.

The Bus System
For no coordinated national bus company, the system is fantastic. Independent daily buses that go wherever you need them too. Easy payment system. Bus attendants that help you take care of any transfers that you may need. Easy pick-up from any location you need to start from. We always felt comfortable on the buses, and if there was a sketchy section, the attendant’s would let us know ahead of time so nothing would get stolen. Vendors would also come on if you ever got hungry, we had quite a few bags of plantain chips.

We did meet a few people who were robbed on the bus. They put their bags on the overhead bin and then after the bus ride, their stuff was gone. We kept our stuff on our laps or below the chairs after an attendant got mad at us for putting our bag on top.

Misses:
We did pretty good in Ecuador. But we’re not perfect. Here’s what went wrong.

Diez de Agosto Taxi Disaster
Our main man, Edwin, invited us to celebrate Diez de Agosto, a Quito holiday, with his neighborhood. But our cabbie took us to the other side of the city in a communication mix up. So we blew a bunch of time on that, and by the time we were ready to head out, our headaches from the stress incapacitated us. Oh well.

Sickness
Nothing sucks more than being in the town of waterfalls, and being too sick to do anything about it. We lost a week in Baños due to some sort of stomach bug. Not only does the lost time mean we will lose some future activities, it just sucked being in a state of constant hunger cause you can’t keep anything down. We also became the pickiest eaters, so the food budget went way up due to that.

Ponchos
We love our ponchos. We do. But they don’t fit in our bag. And it cost so much money to send them home (we spent the same amount of money on our ponchos and shipping as we did all our nights and excursions in Cotopaxi). Oh well, lesson learned.

Conclusions
Ecuador is great. We met many wonderful travelers here, many with similar game plans to us. The landscapes are wonderful to explore. The hiking we did, while exhausting, was very rewarding when you finally complete the mission. We’re very eager to see what Peru has in store for us.

With so much more to do here, I guess we will have to come back! Who knows when that will be. Hopefully soon. Please enjoy a bunch of our favorite photo’s from this wonderful country.

We missed a lot of places in Ecuador. Here is our plan for the next adventure back!

Galapagos Islands
Everyone we met who went said it was worth the money.
Amazon Rainforest
Again, not a single bad review. Also very easy to do from Quito
Cuicocha Lagoon
We had a visit here, but there’s a hike around the whole thing
Chimborazo
Another iconic volcano.
Different Towns
Aluasi, Riobamba, Vilcabamba are all mountain towns that we heard good things about
The Coast
Montanita is the main tourist town, but there’s many beach towns that look like a lazy surfers paradise.
Ingapirca
These Inca ruins are easily accessible by bus, but there’s a offbeat multiday hike that would be cool too