Ecuador Highlights and Tips

Now that we´ve officially departed Ecuador and are on our way through Peru, we wanted to share some of our advice from our 5 weeks there for any of you who are planning or hoping to visit Ecuador in the future…

Highlights in and around Quito:

• Simon Bolivar language school – Learning some Spanish will give you at least a clue about what´s going on around you. This school is well established, has great teachers and was just a ton of fun. We highly recommend it.
• Homestays – We loved our family and it was great for our Spanish. Everyone else we know also loved it. If you have the chance, its a great experience. Even if only for one week, its still worth it.
• Restaurants – Marabel and La Naranjilla Mechanica (just go, you´ll love them). We also tryed a restaurant named Sake for sushi and thought it wasn´t really worth it.
• Salsa! – They love it and it´s a huge part of the culture, so you have to go at least once or twice. Our favorite salsa club is Seserìbo, it´s cozy, friendly, and there are always some excellent Salsa dancers there for you to watch.
• Around the city – walk around the old town and visit La Compañia church and take a ride up the Telferiqo cable car for a great view of the city. The museums aren´t much to rave about, but Casa de Cultura has some interesting stuff on the development of Ecuador and you should definitely check out some Guayasamin paintings, they are great. At the end of the day there isn´t tons of stuff to do in Quito, so if you aren´t doing schooling then 2-3 days is sufficient.
• Around Quito – The mitad del mundo is fun if you´ve never been before, but skip the monument and just check out the museum. More importantly, if you have time, take trips to Mindo and Otavalo.
• Food and Drink – Canelaso, llapingachos and all the fruit juices (especially mora and guanabana). Yum!
• Thermal Baths – These are a real treat if you can make it to one. We did it in Baños, but its also possible in a town called Papallata closer to Quito.

Elsewhere in Ecuador:

• Cuenca – Frankly, we would send you here before Quito and for longer. This is really a beautiful town for strolling and admiring architecture. National Park Cajas is a great spot to get out there and see some unique mountain scenery while gasping for air in the freezing cold! There is an excellent bar/hostel called El Cafecito which is a good place to stay if you don´t mind a bit more noise and excitement, otherwise just come by for a drink and a snack one night. In the middle of the block next to El Cafecito there is a great Columbian restaurant called Moliendo Cafe. Great food and very cheap.
• Vilcabamba – If you make your way to Vilcabamba then Izcayluma is a very relaxing and accomodating place to stay. It´s probably the most full featured hostel we´ve been too and includes nice rooms, a good restaurant, bar with games such as pool and ping pong, a pool open 24hrs a day, and even some spa services.

Good things to know before you go…

• They say its a third-world country, but don´t be surprised that everywhere you go will have toilets and modern accomodations (hot running water is another story!)
• Eventhough its on the equator much of the sites are in the mountains and thus have a relatively cool climate so bring layers and plan to hit the coast “on season”
• Although tourism is growing here, they still don´t speak a lot of English, so learn some Spanish
• The shopping is not very good here. They mostly sell knock-offs and out-of-date American brand clothing, so if possible wait to buy clothes or bring what you need (If needed, Cuenca has the best selection, although the same prices as in the US). Electronics are another story. The cameras and other goods are pretty cheap here, so if you need one it´ll probably be cheaper.
• Bring a money checking pen and leave the $100 bills at home. They have a substantial counterfeit money business here, so everyone checks their bills (even the $5s). Unless you know the tricks for deciphering the difference, then coming prepared could be handy.
• The bus system is relatively convenient here, but the only catch is that they are often overcrowded. You can get a ticket with an assigned seat for most buses, but arrive to the station early and try to sit in a window seat. Locals board the bus for shorter rides throughout the journey and often crowd the aisles. Good public transportation for them, but can be uncomfortable for you.
• Expect to meet lots of Germans!!

That´s our topline summary of recommendations, but of course I am diligently tracking our travels, so if you´re planning a trip and want more details, just ask. You know we love to blab about this stuff. We have tons more info on places to stay and eat and things to do that we´d recommend. We also have friends here that would love to show you around if you´re up for it.

We hope you all make it to Ecuador one day and better yet if you return with us the next time we go!

Last days in Ecuador

k … time to catch you guys up.

After leaving Quito we headed directly south to Baños, a small and quiet town known mostly for its nice valley of waterfalls and its natural geothermal baths. We didn´t spend a whole lot of time here, just a night, but that was enough to enjoy some time in the baths and take a trip to visit all the neighboring waterfalls.

From Baños we continued on to Riobamba where we were *supposed* to take the devil´s nose train ride down to Alausí then continue on to Cuenca in the same day, however for no easily explicable reason the train didn´t run Wednesday morning and we didn´t want to wait until Friday to try again, so we ended up on a bus straight to Cuenca. This is a keen example of why the moto in Ecuador is “todo es posible, nada es seguro” which means everything is possible but nothing is for sure =)

Cuenca is referred to by many as Ecuador´s prettiest city and while we certainly haven´t been everywhere in Ecuador, so far we´d have to agree. The city is on the small side, only around 200k people, but it´s clean, reasonbly lively, and has a beautiful main area of town which features old colonial architecture, cobblestone streets, you know, the works. Not to mention some lovely churches and a nice river side area just below the main part of town …

Cuenca also has some nice attractions within distance of a day trip, such as the National Park Cajas which has some amazing scenery and a very unique ecosystem for it´s altitude of just over 13k feet in some places. It was amazing how much some of the scenery reminded me of the highlands in Scotland. Very rugged, very unique. Sorry dad, wish you could have been here to see it, you would have loved it.

After Cuenca we made one more short stop off in Vilcabamba, a sleeply little town even smaller than Baños but well known as a beautiful and relaxing valley which at one point was thought to have brought it´s inhabitants unusually long life. After a peaceful day and a half in Vilcabamba it was time to try our luck in another country.

Not a whole lot to say about Peru so far. We were on an overnight (a.k.a 8 hr) bus ride from Loja, Ecuador to Piura, Peru last night which we kindly followed up with two more 3 hr bus rides to get us to Trujillo where we´ll be hanging out for another day or so before heading toward Cusco, the Sacred Valley, and Machu Picchu.

Well, that´s the news up until now. One country down, seven more to go =)

Saquisili

Ack, already getting a bit behind on this thing. Anyways, lots of photos were just added to the photo group, so feel free to check them out.

So, last Thursday we actually had a nice little field trip and a total of 6 students and 4 teachers took a full day excursion out of Quito to a small town called Saquisili which is really only known for it´s large and very active market. They trade live animals in the morning until around 9 or 10 and the rest of the day it´s just about everything else including all other manner of food, clothing, furniture, etc, etc. everything.

It´s pretty interesting to see how people use these markets to buy so many things because the reality is that we really don´t have much of an equivalent in the US, kinda sad really. Anyways, what trip to the market would be complete without buying a couple of chickens right? Yep, one of the students on the trip actually had the somewhat silly idea to buy some live chickens and try and cook them somehow, so the teachers helped out and we bought all the proper ingredients to make “caldo de gallinas” for dinner that night.

I wish I had the pics from the night we made the soup because there are some pretty funny/amusing pics of me killing one of the chickens and all of us de-feathering them. It was my first time =) In any case the soup turned out great and it was a lot of fun because we had a big dinner with about 12 or 14 people. food, friends, music, ahhh.

Anyways, before we had actually returned to Quito and done all the work killing chickens for our soup we stopped off for a rather traditional yet unconventional Ecuadorian lunch of Cuy (guinea pig). The pic below shows how it looks and that´s only ordering a half plate! The interesting thing about eating Cuy is the curious combination of really fatty taste with the crispy texture of the skin, a truly unique experience. It wasn´t my favorite meal so far, but it was definitely worth the taste.

So that was our field trip to Saquisili =)

Otavalo

Well, week 2 is now over. I´m not sure there´s a whole lot of interest to say about the week itself, more of the same stuff with Chels and I in school most of the day. We did get out of the house a bit more in the evenings this week now that we´ve got our bearings. The most interesting night was Wednesday when we went out to a soccer match between the national teams of Ecuador and Bolivia. Not the most exciting game ever but definitely worth the $5 we payed and the $1.50 750ml beers. Later that night we made it out to Bungaloo, a sort of Wednesday night hot spot here in Quito.

I´m not sure why I haven´t heard of other places doing this, it´s quite ingenious really, but at Bungaloo on Wednesday nights the bar is open only to women from 8 to 10 and during that time all the drinks are free. Yes, free as in beer. Then at 10 the doors open for general admission and of course starting well before 10 the men start lining up around the building to get in. I´m not sure exactly what the costs are like during the couple hours of free drinks, but it must be worth it for them since it seems to be quite a draw here in Quito. Anyways, suffice to say that Chels and some of our other fellow students hit up Bungaloo before 10 for the free drinks and the rest of us joined after 10 for dancing and fun.

This weekend was our first weekend travelling away from Quito. We started out first thing Saturday morning by heading up to Otavalo, about a 2 hour bus ride to the north. Otavalo is known for it´s large artisanal market where you can buy all kinds of nice little nik naks, bags, clothes, etc. It wasn´t nearly as big as some of the markets we saw in Thailand, but still quite fun and colorful. The town is very small and charming, but in total it doesn´t take more than a half day or so to wander the town and the market a bit, so after a late lunch we left Otavalo for Ibarra.

We got to Ibarra, which is a moderate sized city a bit farther north than Otavalo and after about an hour of walking around we thought to ourselves, “hmmm, this isn´t all that nice. why did we come here?” Well, sadly, as it turns out we didn´t have all the right info about Ibarra and didn´t realize that the city of Ibarra is lame and the small town of San Antonio de Ibarra which is near by is supposed to be the real attraction. We´ll go ahead and call this latin america travel lesson number 1, make sure you have adequate info about your destinations before arriving. If there is one thing that we noticed everywhere we went througout the weekend it´s that the signage and travel help is generally quite lacking here in latin america and so it´s very easy to say, arrive at a bus terminal 6 or 7 blocks away from where you want to be and not know where to go. (yes, that happened everywhere we went this weekend)

Anyways, lesson learned, but sadly we ended up missing San Antonio de Ibarra. whoops. So after our hour in the city of Ibarra we decided to split and head to Cotacachi which is another small town near Otavalo which is known for its leather products. At the time we arrived it was pretty ugly outside and had gotten a bit cold and rainy so after finding a place to stay and grabbing some dinner we basically just layed low for the night. In the morning we picked our way through Cotacachi which is actually even smaller than Otavalo but has that nice small town charm and has some very nice mountain scenary as a backdrop. After we were done in Cotacachi it was time to make the journey back to Quito.

The rest of the weekend is well, lame, because Chels and I both got some kind of virus or something and had a pretty crappy night last night. Tough to say where we picked up the bug, but many hours on crowded buses probably didn´t help. Luckily we seem to be recovering fairly quickly so we are hopeful this will turn out to be a 24hr bug. (fingers still crossed)

The Food

So of course, besides checking out the city, people, and daily culture, we couldn´t go long without trying the local food. Everyone here tells us not to eat the food or drink the juices on the street or in many cheap restaurants. Basically, like everything else, you are supposed to be really careful because the food can be dangerous. It´s a little strange to us because we´re thinking it can´t be any worse than the street food in Asia or Mexico or anywhere else in the world, but the people insist it´s not safe.

Despite the warnings, we couldn´t resist. While wandering through the park this weekend we had to try the ceviche de chochos. The stand was packed with people so we knew there was something good coming from that little cart. We were right! And the vendor gave us a sly smile…

I´m still not exactly sure what it was, but for only $1 we got a huge plate full of what I think was a mixture of lima beans, something like popcorn kernals but bigger and a little softer, and thinly fried plaintains, covered in a salsa of red onions, tomatoes and herbs that was delightful. The crispy beans and chips slightly melted in the tomato salsas and it was surprisingly tasty.

Overall, the food here is pretty good. They have a ton of fresh fruits and juices. We pretty much get a different one everyday at breakfast, lunch and dinner, which is a real treat. The cooks in our house prepare a good variety of dishes for us everyday that are simple, but good to us because they are different. Breakfast is usually pretty small with just some toast or an egg and fruit juice. Sometimes they throw in the occasional crepe with stawberries and bananas, which is really good. Lunch is the biggest meal. We always start with a bowl of soup that is usually simple, but really flavorful and then have a plate of meat, rice, and vegetables. Dinner is usually similar without the soup.

The good thing is the cooks are really creative so we haven´t repeated any dishes yet and we get a good variety of chicken, fish, meat and usually always a fresh vegatable salad. They use a lot of yuca and make all kinds of fried mixtures using bananas, cheese, corn, etc. that are my favorite. I need to find out what´s in them so I can recreate.

Don´t want to bore you with too much food talk, but there are a few funny things they do here that are worth a try, my favorite of which is putting popcorn in their broccoli soup! Sounds strange, but its actually good! You can also try another good one – putting crispy potato slices in your tomato soup. That is the favorite dish of our Ecuadorian sisters, in addition to french fries and hamburgers – just like all little kids.

¡Buen Provecho!