After completing a nine day trip in Ecuador, I know I have only scratched the surface of what this country has to offer. From what I have experienced, here are a few thoughts… Driving in Ecuador can be challenging. It is the land of unmarked road splits, unannounced speed bumps, unfilled potholes, uncleared landslides, and unexplained road closures. The scenery makes up for the frustration; Ecuador is also a beautiful […]
Ecuador, March 4, 2012: The Coast to Guayaquil The final day of our trip began with an outing to Salinas, a resort beach community about 20 minutes down the coast from La Libertad. Our time lounging was short-lived, however, as we had to get back for a lovely homemade lunch of shrimp ceviche, fried plantains and rice, prepared by Carlos’ family. Very tasty! Not only was his family very hospitable, […]
Ecuador, March 3, 2012: The Coast The big plan for today was a boat trip to La Isla de la Plata, since we had missed out the day before due to construction on the island, or so we were told. Unfortunately, today we were doomed to a similar fate. Despite early hope we were forced to quickly accept the fact that we would not be visiting La Isla de la […]
Ecuador, March 2, 2012: Puerto López and the Coast We chose Puerto López as a stop because it is a launching point for boat tours to La Isla de la Plata, an island off the coast billed as “the poor man’s Galápagos” in our guidebook and known for its wildlife and natural beauty. It was a site we’d factored into our itinerary when planning the trip, and we were up […]
Ecuador, March 1, 2012: Quito to Puerto López Today’s travel goal: get to the beach. Seems simple enough, but it ended up being more trying than expected, particularly for the boys who shared a total of 12 hours behind the wheel on the challenging Ecuadorian roads. We left Quito around 9:30am. All was going well until we ran into a road block at a toll point around 11:15am and were […]
Ecuador, February 29, 2012: Quito Morning in Quito, and for the first time on the trip, we didn’t have to think about when we would be leaving town or how much driving lay ahead. Instead, the car was parked in a garage and we were staying in the city for the day. Mode of transportation: feet. We had rented a lovely little apartment that we’d found on airbnb, so we […]
Ecuador, February 28, 2012: Baños to Quito Morning in Baños began with something I’d never encountered in a hostel before: a made to order breakfast. Yes, the staff at the lovely Hostal Transilvania (the name remains a mystery to me) greeted us with the choice of eggs any way or pancakes. I went with eggs, scrambled (as that was the only egg prep word I knew in Spanish), and the […]
Ecuador, February 27, 2012: Macas to Baños Today was a great day. It started off a bit rocky, as we encountered some difficulty finding our way out of Macas – apparently it is the Bermuda triangle of Ecuador. After two attempts that lead us down the wrong roads and at least three stops to ask strangers (two of whom has no idea how to leave town), we finally managed to […]
Ecuador, February 26: Cuenca to Macas Our second day on the road was a long one. After a quick morning walk around town, we set out from Cuenca early, knowing we had a big drive ahead of us. The goal was to get to Macas by evening, not because there was anything spectacular to be seen there, but because it offered a good midway point between Cuenca and Baños, our […]
Ecuador, February 25: Guayaquil to Cuenca My first thought after touching down in Guayaquil, Ecuador in February 2012: South America is is closer than I thought. I had flown there with my friend Chris, and the two of us were meeting up with a third friend, Carlos, who was Ecuadorian by decent and had arrived a week earlier to spend time with his family. The flight from Boston had been […]