Ecuador Travel Blogs, Travelogues and Travel Journals

DAY 11(THE SADDEST DAY OF THE TRIP) When we arrived in Guayaquil and some of the passenger’s vacation was not finished. About 6, was dropped off to catch a plane to Lima, Peru and some to Santiago, Chile.  We all clapped and wish them save travels.   We all arrived at 5pm, some of us happy to go home and some are melancholy …..ME :( I slept another 2hrs when we left Guayaquil.  We all collected our room keys and we all went upstairs to quickly change to g…

I've been in the town for several nights and here's my story.    I arrived to Cotacachi about 1am on Thursday morning.  The place I was staying decided not to let Dirk stay in the room, so he had to sleep outside in his kennel.  Knowing that he was outside in a new country with many barking dogs, fairly cool weather, soon to be crowing chickens and a light drizzle coming down, meant that I wouldn’t sleep very well, so I was up before 6am to check on him.&nbs…

Now we are in Quito, the last city of this trip, the final hurrah. (Sigh.) We wanted to do it up right, but we arrived kind of late in the day, 4pm, and it was a dreary day at that. After checking into the Radisson (Paul from CarpeDM Travel gave us a ride from the airport...nice!), we explored the neighborhood in hopes of finding food. Almost everything was closed due to the election, so we just went back and ordered room service. It was tasty, and cheap (for room service). And that sums up Q…

There are many ways to get ripped off in South America. Marie and I seem to have found a knack of stumbling upon them. So far, we´ve been ripped off by taxi drivers, a travel agent and a "helpful" airport official working in tandem (conniving buggers did us for about $40 on top of our flight tickets as we were in a rush to leave), and by the Peruvian government (they charge foreigners an airport departure tax of $30).It´s beginning to feel that travellers fresh to the conitnent are taxed in…

Amazing trip around the Galápagos Islands.

The GALAPAGOS ISLANDS; I didn't know much about them except  blue footed boobies and huge turtles lived there and just what I saw from the movie 'MASTER & COMMANDER'. The wildlife alone made me want to visit here. From reading brochures & researching it on the internet, we had no idea what to expect. When we booked this with GENERAL TOURS, it said you walked on lava rocks & always had to be with a guide on the islands. There was a checklist of many things to br…

It's been about five days since I entered Ecuador, and so far I like it.  To be honest, I find the people here are friendlier and the overland transport is way cheaper than Colombia.  My first stop after crossing the border was the town of Otavalo.  It has a very large market where one can spend lots of money on lots of things, and that's just what I did.  I got all my Ecuador shopping done in one go.  I have five sisters and a niece, so buying gifts can be complicate…

after a great & relaxed ecuadorian evening yesterday, which was exactly what i needed after my overheating / altitude overkill during the day, i enjoyed my last night at the hostel and as usual woke up early in the middle of the night!today we strolled through the quito old town and climbed the beautiful basilica, a great church near the secret garden. the ecuadorians really try to make a safe impression by having tons of police / paramilitary guards everywhere... there are at least 5 dif…

First off the Quito airport is located right in the city...so the landing of planes is a regularly performed miracle. There is no room for error on the single runway. Yes I was a bit nervous! This city is surrounded by Mountains and Volcanoes. I took a ride on the Teleferico (cable car) which last about 10 mins but takes you to an altitude of 4050m. At the top you have an amazing view of the city and of the active Pichincha volcano. They have some great hiking trails, but being 4000 meters ab…

My travel  to Quito was by themes of work and therefore I travel in the company of coworkers, was nevertheless an opportunity to recognize a city that already visit at an earlier opportunity. He was pleased the visit a city that has advanced greatly and it is a city that has grown over by its topography and in moments like very much to my hometown La Paz.   Unfortunately the time we juice tricks, as for much of my free time I had was rainy, so on several occasions we had to take ref…

We´ve finally made our way to Quito, Ecuador after a fab three and a half months in Central America. We love this city! It has gorgeous colonial buildings and cobblestone streets, AND all the comforts of a capital city. We made our way to Mitad  del Mundo (centre of the world) to get all the obligatory cheesy photos at the equator... what is hilarious though, is that the huge monument, and  kinda lame 'theme park´that marks the spot is 200+ metres off the actual equator! In…

Kerry - After a good nights sleep in our hostel - Posada Del Maple, we re-packed our bags, went to pay fr our flights to the Galapagos Islands, and then in the afternoon headed out to investigate the old part of the city of Quito. Quito is a busy and noisy city, but also has some lovely old colonial buildings. The main square - La Plaza Grande is pretty impressive with a Catherdral and some shops around the edge of the sqaure. Lots of people were passing the day here by sitting and…

Hola mini liebe,quito hat mich wieder, wie schoen und laermig! bi am samschtig morge acho und ha sit dem duregfiiret...hihihi...( bi scho fascht fro wenn ich wider weg chume, de chani wider chli usruhe). momentan isch au no de schwager vom marco us duetschland uf bsuech, oeper meh zum fiire, aber tanze wot er bis ez nid (typisch europaeer!)an dsischtig hemmer grossi verabschidig vo dr tara gha, die isch am mittwoch morge uf venezuela glfoge...heul...tara! i miss you allready! mier sind zersch…

It's been a fantastic couple of days staying at the Secret Garden Hostel. Overlooking a panoramic view of the old city, we've met some really cool people and became facebook 'friends', shared travel stories, laughed, ate good food, drunk wine, played poker - it's been awesome.Quito itself is quite a sight to behold, both from ground level and from above - we've wandered old colonial streets and plaza's, hopped a lot of taxi's (Quito is huuuge) gone up the cable car and looked down on the sp…

Hello All,I slept in a bit today. I woke up just in time to get my free breakfast at the hotel. I had to kick myself into spanish mode for breakfast. So far, in my short time in Guayaquil I have yet to find an english speaker. I guess that is to be expected, as this is not really a tourist town. Most foreign tourists are just stopping for a night, either here or in Quito, on the way to the Galapagos Islands.My hotel is near the main university, and it is a pretty good neighborhood. The …