New year, new start. And I am trying to finally keep up and to write about every single country I visited, because they all deserve it. But I am being a little occupied by traveling and enjoying myself. Trying to do better. So. Ecuador. God, I loved this country so much. And that is why I thought I would give you a short overview on our itinerary during our time in Ecuador to show how much you can see of this beautiful and incredible country in two and a half weeks. Obviously, you can fill months there and we didn’t even go to Galapagos, but this should give you a good idea. Here we go.

Guayaquil

We really struggled to find affordable flights from Chile to Ecuador, it’s really quite expensive. So we finally flew from Calama to Santiago, from there to Lima and then to Guayaquil. The city is the economical center of Ecuador (always fighting with Quito, as its the official and political capital) and is a good starting point when you want to do both – visit the coast and inland. We spent two nights here and stayed at Nucapacha hostel. The location is ok, the hostel itself is alright, they have a pool and yoga sessions, but the dorms were hideous in my opinion. For the amount of time we spent there it fulfilled the purpose, let’s just say that. We had the luck to arrive during a long holiday and the city was fairly empty, because most people are driving to the coast during that time. We did a free walking tour with Free Walking Tour Guayaquil, which only we attended and got showed around the city and had some typical food and gave some really cool insights about Ecuador and the city itself. Just ask at reception, I think the tour leaves daily at 10 and Javeth picks you up from the hostel.

Out initial plan was to go to Cuenca from Guayaquil, but because we heard good things about montanita, we decided to go there first (and after all to skip Cuenca, cause we extended two nights in Montañita). So, we booked a bus for Sunday morning and drove over there, which took approximately 1,5 to 2 hours (bus ticket costs approximately 6 – 7$ and busses leave multiple times a day).

Montañita

We stayed at Iguana Backpackers in Montañita, which is, as any hostel, close to the beach, but not directly on the beach. You can pick to sleep in an open (no walls) or a regular dorm. Everything is made out of wood and looks pretty cool and it’s right next to an Iguana tree. It’s hard for me to judge this hostel, because we had the coolest volunteers there and they were the main reason why our time there was pretty fun. But we also had some situations in the hostel that were not handled very well, so I can’t really give any recommendations here. Let’s just say that if you go to the city, there are for sure also better hostels in this town to pick from, but Iguana is also not the worst. Good parties for sure (if there are other guests that is).

Anyways, we arrived on the last day of a long weekend, so the tiny surf town was still fairly crowded, so we strolled through tiny streets, had some cocktails and walked along the beach. And to be honest, that’s almost everything we did for five days haha. Except for 5he fact that almost all people went back to their cities and it was fairly dead everywhere. Main season here is in December and January, so this is probably the best time to hang around there. Because of that, we mainly hung out at the hostel with the volunteers, went out, chilled on the beach, met some puppies and ate. The weather was unexpectedly pretty cloudy, a little rainy but around 25 degrees throughout our stay. It’s a good spot to go surfing, if you are into it. The city is, as i said, tiny but has a nice hippie vibe to it and you can find lots of restaurants, shops and bars over there. You can also all up to a little church there, take some Spanish lessons or do yoga. In general, we didn’t do too much, but I at least had a good time with the boys. Special greetings to all the Montañita boys, who made this stay fun!

Baños

I think this was my favorite stop we made on this trip in Ecuador and also the one where we should have spent more time. We spent two nights at Papachos hostel, but I am recommending to stay there at least a week, because Baños is awesome. When you end up going to Papachos, say hi to Sebastian, the volunteer there, and ask him about the Ride or die Crew haha. The hostel is fairly good. The beds all have curtains, wifi could be stronger and more bathrooms would be nice, but besides that it was a chill stay for us there. And Sebastian is making sure that you are having a good time.

On our first day, he took us on our ride or die crew tour, where we first watched people jump off the bridge and then went to rent dirt bikes, squats and a Jeep to drive up the mountains to the swings. First time I really saw the richness of Ecuador’s nature and directly fell in love with it. Also, he knows the best sushi place in town, seriously, it’s so good there, and can tell you the best bars or clubs where to go out at night.

On our second day, we went on a bike ride to the waterfalls. Riding along the streets, taking in nature, passing people that do zip lining and then ending at the waterfalls was incredible. The ride is not too hard, as it’s mostly downhill and takes you approximately an hour to get to the parking space of the waterfall and than maybe another 45 minutes to hike up there. It’s so worth it though.

Amazon Rainforest tour

As I already wrote in my Amazon Rainforest blog post, we booked this tour in Baños and left after our waterfall adventure in the evening. You can read the entire itinerary of our jungle tour here, but we spent a total of 4 days there.

Quito

Our last stop in Ecuador was Quito. We arrived really late at night and didn’t book any hostel beforehand, but heard good things about Minka hostel and ended up staying there for four nights. The hostel itself looks amazing, probably one of the more stylish ones I stayed in and their breakfast that you can purchase there was really good. It was, however, not super social when we were there, which might be because not a lot of people were around. But if you need a hostel in a good location to just spend some nights, Minka is the place to go.

During our first day, we spent our time exploring the city and reorganizing ourselves – the jungle does that with you haha. I am not a huge fan of big cities and heard mixed things about Quito before. I must say, I actually enjoyed the city and the vibe it had to it. Lots of colorful houses (I love how they are all arranged along the mountains), nice architecture, interesting little side streets and lovely people. Also, the hostel is not far from the main sights, so you can easily walk around and explore while doing so.

On our second day, we took a bus over to Mindo fog forest and did our own little day trip there. I know there are also organized tours, I think, however that’s unnecessary, as it’s easier to just walk around by yourself and you can ask any of the people in Mindo where the paths for the hikes are. The first bus leaves right around the corner from the hostel and brings you to the bus terminal, where they have special Mindo busses, that take you there. You can do a nice little hike through the fog forest, take a cable car over it and see some waterfalls if you are up to hiking a little further. We only went to the first two, because we were hungry and weak, but I am sure it’s worth seeing them all. Also, the city celebrated its anniversary that day, so it was cool to see all children dress up in their traditional clothes, dancing and playing music in a parade.

On our third day, we signed up for the Cotopaxi bike tour. We booked it via the hostel but I am sure you can find it cheaper online or just do it by yourself. Both of us didn’t feel to climb the entire volcano (especially because we both were not very healthy the past couple days), so this tour was a good way to see the volcano and surroundings, climb up a little bit and ride the way down to the lagoon by bike. The bus is picking you up at either of two meeting points (check with the hostel before, which one, usually they also send you an email beforehand). Our tour guide was awesome, he was super active, shared a lot of information and made an effort to connect with all of us. We had a really good breakfast at a cute little farm house and finally made our way towards the National Park. We had the nicest weather which made Cotopaxi stand out even more. The bus drives you half way up and makes you walk the last 1,5 hours by yourself. You can feel the height for sure, but it’s definitely manageable and the view at the lodge is incredible.

From Quito, it’s super easy to catch an early but to the Colombian border, which we did on our final day in Ecuador and I was super sad to leave. I know this is just a short overview of where to go and what to do on the mainland if you have a limited amount of time. But i can tell you- no matter how much or little time you have, just go. It’s an incredible country, I feel it doesn’t get enough attention due to the popularity of its neighboring countries and it is really one to explore and fall in love with!