Here is a short write-up of my second trip through Ecuador. I loved the country the first time and vowed to return; this trip was me making good on my promise. I spent six weeks in Ecuador between August 15, 2023 and September 30, 2023.

Capital: Quito | Language: Spanish | Currency: U.S. Dollar | Population: 17.8 million

Despite its small size, Ecuador offers incredible geographic variety.

The Andean Mountain Range, or Sierra, runs north-south through the middle of the country. The Sierra is where you find the iconic images of South America: indigenous Kichwa women in their multi-layered skirts, pony tails and bowler hats; llamas grazing beneath craggy snow-capped peaks; colorful folk art; dozens of varieties of potatoes, squash, beans and corn for sale in the markets.

It’s a mostly conservative region, strongly Catholic, and community and family oriented. Most towns and cities are perched between 2,500 and 3,000 meters, so the climate is perennially spring-like, cool or cold in the mornings and warm and sunny during the day. The capital of Ecuador, Quito, is located in the Sierra, sitting snugly at 2,850 meters in a narrow valley between a series of mountains.

When you come down from the mountains and travel east you arrive in the Oriente, or eastern district, a hot and humid low-lying jungle region, and gateway to the Amazon. The Amazon river itself doesn’t run through Ecuador, but several major tributaries do, including the Putumayo, Pastaza, Morona, Tigre, and Napo rivers. There’s less visible indigenous presence in the towns and cities of the Oriente—or, at least, less visible to me—and more of a frontier atmosphere. The people and the buzz of daily life is hotter, too: the music is louder, the conversations in the restaurants and bars are louder, the traffic is noisier, the people are chattier and more outgoing and curious than those in the Andes mountains.

When you descend the Andes to the west you find yourself in the Costa region (coast), a vast agricultural plain dotted with Pacific Ocean ports.

Ecuador is also home to the Galapagos Islands, the country’s main tourist destination by far. I didn’t get to the Galapagos on this trip.

My Route

From Quito I traveled south through the Andes to the towns of Latacunga and Riobamba and in and out of several smaller villages in the hills above, then east over the mountains to the city of Macas in the low-lying Oriente. From there I continued south, leaving the Andean foothills to my right and the jungle to my left.

I spent a few nights exploring in and around the small town of Limón in Morona-Santiago Province, then continued south to Gualaquiza, Zamora, and Loja, then turned north to the beautiful colonial city of Cuenca where I spent a week.

Using Cuenca as a base I made several day trips to nearby villages where I enjoyed rambling in the beautiful countryside of Azuay Province. Then the road led me north through several smaller towns in Loja province before cutting east again over the mountains and back once again to Macas. From there I continued north stopping in the jungle cities of Puyo and Tena before returning to the Andes in Otavalo and Ibarra and finally back to Quito. I spent a final three days in Quito before flying to El Salvador (blog post on El Salvador to follow soon!).

I was in Guayaquil on the Pacific coast during my first visit to Ecuador, and decided this time to give the entire region a miss. Guayaquil is interesting, and it has a groovy big city vibe, but it’s also become increasingly dangerous as the dispute over territory between rival drug traffickers rages on. It’s also stiflingly hot and humid, so I decided to focus my time instead on the Sierra and Oriente.

Getting In & Out

Getting in and out of Ecuador was simplicity itself, as I came and went by airplane through Quito’s Mariscal Sucre’s international airport, arriving from Vancouver (via Toronto and Bogotá), and leaving 6 weeks later to San Salvador, El Salvador. Canadians (and most everyone else) don’t need a visa to enter Ecuador for purposes of tourism, and immigration and customs formalities were a breeze.

Getting Around

The regions of Ecuador are very well-connected by public transportation, and roads are in very good, to excellent condition. I traveled everywhere in Ecuador using long distance bus, minibus, shared pickup, and local city bus. I was surprised by the overall quality of the main roads and highways, and how good even many of the smaller provincial roads were. Off the beaten track the paved roads quickly turn to gravel or dirt, and they can be very rough, but the surfaced, maintained roads are excellent.

It’s doubtful that Ecuadorian bus companies take a diligent approach to routine bus maintenance, but in general, and aside from some quickly balding tires and cracked windshields, the buses proved to be road worthy.

The majority of larger towns have central bus stations, so getting to your next destination usually involves little more than showing up and waiting for the next bus. In smaller towns the bus just drives down the main street and stops for people who want to get on. Departures on long routes between the Andes and the Oriente were less frequent so I normally asked for information at the bus station the day before. I never had any difficulties finding a bus or getting a seat.

There are lots of sketchy mountain roads offering stomach-churning twists and turns, but for the most part bus travel in Ecuador is safe(ish) and comfortable(ish).

I hitchhiked once, on a quiet road between two small towns near Guamote, in Chimborazo Province (see photo above). I was offered a ride very quickly in that case because it was a very small, rural road, but hitchhiking doesn’t appear to be common in Ecuador, mainly because busses and minibuses are so abundant. I tried another time in a busier region, standing at the side of the road with my thumb stuck out for about 15 minutes until a bus trundled along.

On The Road

Traveling independently through Ecuador is easy and fun. I had high expectations because my first brief jaunt through the country had been so adventure-filled and satisfying (see the first blog post here). I’d set the bar impossibly high, and any follow-on visit would have its work cut out for it. And sure enough, I enjoyed my six weeks in Ecuador this time very much, but it never quite lived up to its promise. The cultural interest and spectacular beauty was easy to find, but the swashbuckling adventure and meaningful interaction with the locals wasn’t.

Several of the journeys on my first visit to Ecuador were dramatic and hair raising, particularly between Cuenca and the Peruvian border where a dozen of us were crammed into a minivan and hurled at ludicrous speeds over nothing more than a rough dirt track cut out of the side of a steep mountain. I was terrified at the time, but now consider it a highlight of all my years of bus travel.

The Ecuadorian people were more chatty and warm the first time, I thought. The people in general are unfailingly courteous and patient, but this time around they seemed a little more subdued, or preoccupied and less jolly. It may have been because of recent election violence, or the state of the economy after Covid; but I wasn’t able to recreate the vibrant interaction I had with the people on my first visit, particularly in the highlands.

The walking and hiking on my initial trip was much better. I’m not sure why, maybe it was just accidental, but I recall wonderfully long days of endless roaming and exploring. I remember one day in particular in the hills above Vilcabamba. My poor sense of direction ensured that I wandered aimlessly, lost for hours until a helpful Kichwa teenager led me to a trailhead back to town (his mom made him take me, I think, not wanting to have to look after a dehydrated, starving foreigner). I was exhausted and cold and hungry when I finally stumbled into my hotel, but exhilarated. It was scary at the time, but plays on now in glorious Technicolor when I think about it. The walking expeditions this time were very good, but more subdued and less dramatic. I tried to get lost, but couldn’t, and I couldn’t recreate those magical ten days, and that’s just the way it goes: the perfect meal, a special holiday, your team’s playoff game—they’re impossible to recapture. This latest trip was eminently successful, absolutely nothing bad happened and I was happy and healthy the entire time, it just wasn’t the first trip.

As was the case during my first visit I saw very few international tourists in Ecuador. There is a sizable expat community in Cuenca, mostly Americans, so you see “gringos” about town doing their shopping and taking care of appointments. There were a lot of camera-toting visitors in the historic center of Quito, and I saw the odd organized group of mountain climbers, but overall I saw hardly anyone. I got the idea that most foreign faces I saw belonged to people in town for a few days on their way to or from the Galapagos Islands, the country’s main tourist draw. Most tourists travel to see specific sites and undertake specific activities, not to see the towns and villages and experience the everyday rhythm of life; Ecuador is no exception.

A Few of My Favorite Things

Choosing a favorite place or thing in Ecuador is challenging because the regions are all so different in character and the country is so likeable. I loved Cuenca, the UNESCO World Heritage colonial city in the south. Cuenca is sometimes called the “Athens of Ecuador” for its architecture, its cultural diversity, its contribution to Ecuadorian arts, sciences and literature, and for being the birthplace of illustrious figures of Ecuadorian society (though I’d never heard of any of them).

Cuenca offers just the right balance between a smallish big city and largish small town. The central historic area is impossibly charming and atmospheric, there are a lot of parks and green spaces, the nearby mountains offer easy access for walking and rambling, and the large student population ensures a healthy and varied supply of places to eat and drink. I prefer it to Quito. Quito is likely the better place to live for people who work or study or who want as much city action as possible, but it’s also very spread-out, and many of the outer districts are uninteresting and possibly unsafe. Cuenca is far more accessible.

Loja is another favorite. Like Cuenca it has an attractive colonial center, but it’s a little more scruffy and cobbled together than Cuenca, as though it was built by different people at different stages. I like the slightly unbuttoned vibe in Loja. It’s still elegant and regal, but like an elegant and regal basement, rather than an elegant and regal living room.

I also really liked the north Oriente jungle city of Macas, Tena, and Puyo. There’s an edge-of-civilization feel to the region. Macas and Tena are rough around the edges, but at the same time quite tidy and well organized, and filled with extremely friendly and chatty people. There are plenty of small cafes and restaurants and markets where you can escape the heat and humidity, and when the sun goes down the locals empty into the streets and parks in search of a cool breeze and the chance to chat over a bottle of beer. I was through Macas twice, once on my way south, and once again on my way back north.

A Few of My Less Favorite Things

There’s really very little not to like about Ecuador. I suppose if I had to pick something I’d point to the lack of vibrancy and near complete lack of nocturnal activity in the smaller Kichwa towns and villages in the mountains. Largely Catholic and family oriented, and because many families live in the nearby hills and not in the actual towns, locals go to bed early and get up early and keep somewhat to themselves. It’s a generalization, of course, but I found the Kichwa people to be friendly and easy to talk to, particularly the older people, but that they stick to themselves and don’t seem to be very curious about me, or outsiders in general, which is in stark contrast to Ecuadorians of European descent, or mestizo, mixed-race people, particularly in the other regions.

The Kichwa of Ecuador are a part of a much larger population known as the Quechua people of South America, primarily found in Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia and northern Argentina. The Kichwa of Ecuador live in both the highlands and lowlands, though the way of life of the lowland Kichwa has been significantly altered in the past few decades. As a visible minority they’re much more difficult to identify in the lowlands compared with the Kichwa in the highland areas who easily stand out due to their dress and hairstyle. It’s estimated there are about 80,000 Kichwa people currently in Ecuador.

There’s essentially no cafe or pub culture in the mountains in rural Ecuador, and people tend to eat very early, so once the sun goes down the streets and squares of the towns retreat into the night and close-up shop quickly. It can be very cold, so my evenings were usually exceedingly quiet and found me watching Netflix or YouTube documentaries in my room. One of the reasons I liked Macas and the Oriente region so much was because of the livelier, busier atmosphere and crowded bars and cafes—and the warmer evenings spent outside.

People

Ecuadorians are very relaxed and calm, and quite polite and formal. I heard a lot of “please” and “thank you” in daily life, and people spent time with greetings and asking after each other when they met. Local Kichwa normally converse in the Quechua language, the main language of the Inca Empire still alive today (I never did learn any, regrettably), and many of the older people spoke very poor Spanish as a second language.

I received a lot of stares and surreptitious looks from locals, especially in the mountains, but people rarely approached me. They were almost always happy to chat when I initiated a conversation, asking me where I was from and how I liked Ecuador. Older people were friendliest. People were in general far more animated and less inhibited in the Oriente region, and much more likely to instigate a conversation. Daily life was busier in Quito and Cuenca, of course, but in smaller towns and rural areas people lingered and talked.

Ecuador has long been a relatively safe and calm country in a sea of Latin American trouble and mischief, though sadly the situation is changing. Violence and killing between rival cartels for control of illicit drug export has increased in recent years, particularly in the regions along the Pacific coast. Just a few weeks before I arrived the leading opposition political candidate was assassinated at a campaign rally in a suburb of Quito, which was a first for Ecuador.

Doomsayers predicted more violence leading up to the election, but luckily things remained calm. I was in the city of Latacunga on election day. Most businesses closed, and entire families came out to vote. Street vendors set-up shop near polling stations, and there was an atmosphere of fun and celebration in the air as people stood patiently in lines waiting to vote, then trolled the streets eating snacks and ice cream. Voting in Ecuador is mandatory for all citizens between the ages of 18 and 65, and optional for people between 16-18, and those over 65.

Accommodation

Accommodation is mostly very good value in Ecuador, and I had no problem finding places to stay anywhere. I normally paid between US$10 and $15 per night for a basic private single room with attached bathroom, except in Quito and Cuenca where private rooms were around 25% more expensive. On a couple of occasions I paid $20 or $25 when that was what the only hotel in town was charging, but otherwise $15 was my “target” budget for a room. Cuenca has some lovely colonial boutique hotels and oh-so-charming B&Bs, but they’re generally out of my price range.

Outside of the larger cities you won’t find any hotels that you could even begin to call fancy or luxurious. Rural Ecuador isn’t a dressing gown and turn-down service sort of place. But I never stayed anywhere that was dirty, bug infested, or just downright gross (the cooler climate in the mountains keeps away many of the creepy bugs and flying insects you find in more tropical regions).

I mostly found lodging by searching for hotels on Google Maps, then contacting the properties directly through WhatsApp messaging to ask about availability and cost. On a few occasions I booked in advance using Booking.com (in Quito and Cuenca, for instance).

Food

Eating in Ecuador is easy and satisfying, and offers extremely good value. There’s not an enormous variety of dishes like you find in East Asia, for example, and outside of the main cities you won’t find anything other than local Ecuadorian food, but without exception meals were healthy and freshly prepared and cheap.

The big meal of the day is lunch, called almuerzo, which people eat close to 12:00 p.m. Almuerzo almost always starts with a bowl of soup, usually beef or chicken broth with potatoes, corn, squash, and beans, and often with a grisled chunk of chewy boiled meat or a skinny chicken leg bobbing in the middle. The main course is a piece of chicken, fish or beef in a sauce or gravy, served with rice, potatoes, beans and a small salad of sorts (often a piece or two of lettuce and a few slices of tomato and onion) and comes with fresh juice.

The food is mostly very good, hot and fresh and tasty, though not fancy or fussy. You can find slightly more complicated and expensive lunches, but your basic economy almuerzo meal costs between $2 and $2.50, rarely more than $3. Quito and Cuenca have burger and pizza and sushi joints, and Mexican food is popular (though not authentic nor very tasty in my opinion).

Breakfast, or desayuno is easily found anywhere and can be completo (complete) which includes eggs, a meat like ham or bacon, beans, juice, coffee, and bread; or continental which usually just doesn’t include the meat and arrives as a slightly smaller portion. Other solid breakfast options include humita (similar to a Mexican tamal, meat or vegetable steamed inside a corn husk), a bolon (mashed green plantain dumplings stuffed with cheese and pork rinds), or a bread roll and coffee. Ecuadorians seem to like a good breakfast, and like eating it early. Most places were busy and full by 7:30 in the morning.

There’s no real traditional coffee culture in Ecuador, and with a few notable exceptions the coffee was extremely disappointing. I learned on my first trip through South America that despite being able to buy excellent beans from Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia in our supermarkets back home, most of the really yummy beans grown in those countries are earmarked for export. Cuenca and Quito and other larger towns have coffee shops that serve latte and cappuccino and the like, but they’re thin on the ground, and in smaller places completely absent. Once in the countryside, particularly in the mountains, finding coffee—any coffee—after the breakfast crowd has dispersed is very difficult. Instant coffee is very popular, alas.

Locals seem to prefer hot chocolate and juices and smoothies, or morocho, a delicious thick sweet drink made with cracked corn, milk, cinnamon, sugar and raisins. I like juice and smoothies and morocho, too, but I like my coffee more, and it was challenging finding a good cup.

Beer, on the other hand, is fairly easy to find, mostly the fizzy lager variety. I found a few cerveza artesanal places in Quito and Cuenca, but out in the boonies, “Club” and “Pilsener” brand lagers have a stranglehold on the market. There isn’t a strong drinking culture in Ecuador. Most people seemed to drink beer at home, or in restaurants. There were few to no pubs or bars anywhere outside of Quito or Cuenca or larger cities; believe me, I looked.

There are pizza restaurants everywhere, and snacks like sandwiches, empanadas and corn on the cob are easy to find outside of regular meal times. Markets sell an excellent selection of fruits and vegetables at rock-bottom prices. Street food is nowhere near as common as in countries like Mexico or Peru, but it’s available on corners in some of the busier towns and cities, and usually appears as something deep-fried or grilled, such as pinchos, grilled skewers of chicken or chorizo and vegetables or plantains.

Costs

Ecuador is a cheap destination for the independent traveler. Nearby Colombia and Peru are slightly cheaper, particularly for accommodation, but not by much. Because Ecuador uses the U.S. dollar as its official currency it was easy to keep track of costs, and foreign currency conversion was mercifully easy. I spent an average of $30-$35 per day, which included lodging, food, transportation, snacks, and sundries. On the occasions I stayed put in one town for 3 or 4 days, the costs dropped to $20 or $25 per day. I didn’t pay for any special activities, like mountaineering, white water rafting or zip lining, which are expensive.

Occasionally I got stuck in a more expensive hotel for a night, but even then I never paid more than $25 for a room, and food and other costs were always the same no matter where I was in the country. I did notice that restaurant food, and fruits and vegetables were more expensive than they were on my first trip, due to inflation, I was told. Commodities like eggs and cooking oil were reportedly much more expensive than a year earlier (luckily my style of travel doesn’t call much for eggs or cooking oil).

The Verdict

I would definitely visit Ecuador again. In many ways it showcases the best of South America in one easy-to-access package, with its variety of climate and geography and interesting mix of cultures and society. If you don’t speak Spanish independent travel would be more challenging, particularly in the countryside. In Mexico and Colombia you meet a lot of people who live part-time, or who have lived full-time in the U.S. and Canada, and continue to come and go, and who speak English. I met far fewer of those people in Ecuador. You get the feeling the country is more isolated and inward looking than its larger neighbors.

I’m not done with South America. The siren call of Brazil, that Great Beast, still wails loudly for me, and I’d like to see more of Peru and Bolivia, particularly the Amazon regions of those countries. I love Colombia, and it’s usually the cheapest place to fly to from Vancouver, so I’m sure I’ll be there again. When the violence and economic turmoil in Venezuela settles down and is once again stable for independent backpacking I’ll be one of the first in line.

I’ll get busy with my post on my three weeks in El Salvador, so in the meantime…

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“You should travel to learn about countries and the way normal people live in them, not to see the spectacular things. Buy vegetables, get a haircut, explore a suburb, walk out of town. Don’t look for the special, look for the banal.”