Ecuador🇪🇨

Ecuador is a truly underrated country, that you must add into your South America trip. Known mainly for the Galápagos, it is a much more exciting country, than just that! We ended up spending over three weeks exploring Ecuador, and we definitely could have stayed for longer.

Before going we had heard a few stories about how dangerous it can be. Apart from a recovered stolen phone on our first day (mostly Ned’s fault), we didn’t necessarily see the dangerous side of the country. We just took precautions and made sure to not walk late at night or through dodgy areas. In the main touristy areas of Quito (the capital), there are police and security roaming through the streets. They want to make sure tourists feel safe and not targeted. In our opinion, everyone was very friendly, always said hello, and were amazed at seeing us. Some locals even wanted photos with Ned!

For most accommodation, we realised that booking a room in person is a lot cheaper than booking online on Agoda or Booking.com, as those prices include booking fees. We have turned up and booked accommodation on the spot a few times in Ecuador and it has saved us a bit of money. I would recommend not doing this at popular places like The Secret Garden Hostel, but for three places we visited in Ecuador (Baños, Quilotoa and Riobamba) we turned up on the day. You can also check on all booking sites, including Hostelworld to see how many beds are still available before doing this.

Quito

Spend a couple days in Quito to explore the vibrant city, full of coloured houses sprawling across the mountain valleys. On a clear day, the view of the city is just incredible! Even though we had an eventful first day here, we both absolutely love it.

🏨Stay: Secret Garden Hostel
One of the most highly recommended hostels is The Secret Garden Hostels. They have one in Quito and one in Cotopaxi. The one in Quito is very sociable, with family dinners every night and party buses every Thursday and Saturday. The dorms give you everything you need, with comfortable beds and lots of locker space. The hostel has a rooftop restaurant and bar, which you get 50% off if you stay there. They have a laundry service, cafe and offer various different tours all around the country! Highly recommend staying here, it is more expensive than other hostels, but completely worth the price and a great place to meet fellow travellers.

Walking Tour
With The Secret Garden, they offer a free walking tour every morning at 9am. We sadly arrived too late so we did it ourselves, but the tour takes you around the city through all the touristy places! We stopped at the Plaza, Basílica del Voto Nacional Church, El Panecillo Statue and Calle la Ronda.

For the El Panecillo Statue you can see gorgeous views over Quito. To get there, you MUST get a taxi! Do not walk there. There is one road that takes you up and if you walk you will 100% get robbed, even in the daylight! The safest option is to take a taxi there and it will only cost between $4-6 USD.

Cotopaxi

You must go to Cotopaxi, and definitely go with The Secret Garden Hostel. From Quito they offer shuttle buses, which take you there if you book with them. The hostel offers a two night, three day package, which is the most popular one. If you book the package, it comes with all accommodation and meals included. This means three meals a day plus snacks and drinks (coffee and tea), as well as some activities (depending on the package you get), are all included in the price! It can be seen as expensive but when you look at adding up all the costs, it actually works out pretty well. Make sure to book ahead of time as they are normally always fully booked.

Sadly we couldn’t fit in the three day package but I would highly recommend doing this if you have the time. For our two day package, we got the shuttle bus from Quito at 10am and arrived for lunch in Cotopaxi. After getting an introduction to the hostel, and the different activities they provide, we had lunch all together. This was a really nice way to meet other travellers as the hostel is very sociable. There are only four hours of WiFi during the day, 10am-12pm and 5pm-7pm making it really nice to switch off for the day and get to know everyone.

After settling into our dorms and having lunch, we then went on a small hike to Cascada Escondida. This hike is free with the packages and can take between 45 minutes to an hour, depending on how quickly the group goes. It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon after being on the bus for a couple hours and we got to have a refreshing cold dip in the waterfall at the top.

After the waterfall, we got to relax at the hostel for a few hours before dinner. The hostel is pretty big, with loads of places to socialise, whether it’s the hammocks outside overlooking Cotopaxi Volcano or the jacuzzi. You get the opportunity to socialise with everyone, play some games, feed the llamas and have snacks and hot drinks. If you want to sit outside to see the famous Cotopaxi Volcano view, the hostel provides these Ecuadorean ponchos to keep you warm. Dinner is at 7pm every day and the food was pretty insane for a hostel. We got a decent portion of food and dessert as well as unlimited homemade banana bread. The food comes out like a restaurant with the volunteers giving us the meals and desserts. If you are into volunteering on your trip, this hostel has been highly recommended by many, so definitely check out Workaway or reach out to the hostel directly as they are always looking for eager volunteers!

Even though we only had the one day package. The shuttle bus from Cotopaxi to Quito leaves at 3pm everyday. This meant we had the whole morning to do whatever we wanted. We decided to do the Cotopaxi Volcano, which is one of the popular hikes and costs $50 USD for the one day package. The hostel suggests doing this hike on your first day, especially if you are on the three day package. This is because the altitude on the volcano hike is a lot less than the other hikes, meaning if you do this hike first, it will help you acclimatise easier. They recommend not doing any other hikes if you have come straight from a flight in Quito as you might get altitude sickness, which can be very horrible. Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia have a lot of popular places above two thousand metres. Anything higher than this can cause altitude sickness, so make sure to try to acclimatise first as it can take a few days to recover!

Cotopaxi Volcano Hike
For the Cotopaxi hike, you will leave the hostel at 8am and drive to the starting point. If you decide you want to cycle from base camp to the bottom you can, you just need to let the guide know as they have to pick up the bikes on the way.

From the starting point, it can take around forty minutes to an hour to get to base camp depending on how fast you go and how hard it is for you to acclimatise. Don’t overdo it and go too quickly as the altitude is no joke. We did it pretty quickly, but annoyingly the weather was very cloudy so we didn‘t get a view of the Volcano or Glacier. Once we got to base camp we sheltered from the bad weather. Make sure to bring some cash with you to use the bathrooms or get a snack or hot drink at base. We spent around thirty minutes at base camp before attempting to go up to the Glacier, but sadly the weather and wind was too dangerous for us to go any further. Typically, the weather got better during the day and the skies were blue, however, it was a really fun morning with the group.

Once back at the hostel, we got one more delicious meal with everyone before catching the shuttle back to Quito for the night where we met Ned’s parents.

Galápagos

The Galápagos Islands are one of the most popular trips to do in Ecuador. If you are an avid wildlife lover or love diving and snorkelling, exploring the islands will be a huge bucket list for you. We did an eight day cruise around the islands, which is the more expensive way to see Galápagos. Our eight day cruise will have its own blog here.

Amazon Rainforest

Another bucket list moment was checked off for us. Visiting the Amazon, was high on our list and we decided to go from Ecuador as we heard it was pretty cheap to do, as well as you got to see the most wildlife. This four day tour will also have its own blog here.

Baños

Our next stop after the Amazon Rainforest, was to Baños, the adventure capital of Ecuador. From the Amazon, we had to take two buses, first one was from Cuyabeno (the collection and drop off point from the Amazon) to Lago Agrio. From Lago Agrio, we then had to take a night bus to Baños, which got us in at 1am. We then spent two full days exploring Baños.

🏨 D’Mattius Hostel
This hostel has thousands of good reviews, is in the heart of Baños and the dorms are really nice. We stayed here for two nights and it was a lovely change from the dorms in the rainforest.

Cycle Waterfall Road
Hire bikes from the hostel for $5 USD each and spend the day cycling along Waterfall Road. Stop off at different waterfalls along the way as there are quite a few to see. The main waterfall to visit is Cascada El Pailon del Diablo, which is this gorgeous, natural waterfall in the heart of the Ecuadorean cloud forest. You have to walk ten minutes down into the forest and over walkway bridges, which offer amazing views of the surrounding greenery and forest. Once at the base of the waterfall, you can see the incredible eighty meters cascade.

There are two entrances to the waterfall, one takes you through the cloud forest and underneath the cascade, where you can feel the true force of the waterfall whilst also seeing the surrounding forest. This is the route we took (middle picture below), the entrance to this is by the Kono Express Rio Verde food stall.

However, the other route takes you down the steps in the middle picture so you can see the waterfall at a further distance. This entrance is only a five minute bicycle around the corner by Rio Verde Church. We didn’t do this other route as it started raining, but if you have the time you should definitely go. We did hear that it involved going through tight spaces in between the steps, so take that into account too. Both entrances, you have to pay for, but it is very cheap so worth the price to see both views. To get back to your hostel and avoid having to cycle up the multiple hills on the way back, you can take a truck back. These trucks hang around the main waterfall and will take you and your bikes back for $3 USD each.

Canyoneering and White Water Rafting
Baños is known as the water sport adventure capital of South America, so definitely check out what is on offer here. We decided on canyoneering and spent the morning abseiling down different waterfalls in Baños. It costs $18 USD each and all the equipment and transport is included. The tour lasts a couple hours, and you will abseil down three different sized waterfalls before being dropped down the biggest waterfall by your guide. I made Ned go down first on the last waterfall, and the guide didn’t tell him that he was going to be dropped down. Ned definitely got a massive scare and squealed but said it was really exhilarating once the scare wore off.

Quilotoa

🏨Runa Wasi Hostel
We just turned up at this hostel after finding it online. It’s in the main town and very close to the Quilotoa Crater viewpoint. We got a private double room as it was cheaper than a dorm, but if you go for the more expensive version, breakfast and sometimes dinner can be included in the price.

We took two buses from Baños to get to Quilotoa and only spent one night here. The main attraction, is the Quilotoa Crater. You can spend three to four days hiking to the summit of the crater or a do day trip and walk along the rim of the crater, which is what we did. It is recommended to do it early, leave between 8-9am as towards the afternoon, the weather changes and you might not be able to see the crater. It can take between 3-5 hours to walk along the rim of the crater depending on how fast you walk and if you have acclimatised to the altitude.

Riobamba

🏨Villa Bonita
This hostel in Riobamba is gorgeous, right in the middle of town and its host is lovely! It’s a very sociable hostel, has an eating patio where everyone has breakfast, has lounge hammocks and reclining seats for you to relax in and the rooms are very spacious and comfy. We decided to get another private room for one night as it was only $5 USD more than a dorm room and included breakfast for the both of us.

After a quick turn around, we got another five hour bus to Riobamba from Quilotoa. The main attraction is to hike up Chimborazo Volcano. You can do a tour through the hostel or through a third party company for around $130 USD (for two people), which includes transport, hiking gear and lunch.

However, you can also organise it yourself for a much cheaper price. We decided to do this and it cost us $25 USD all together. Go to Chimborazo as early as you can, we had left the hostel by 7:30am. Either walk thirty minutes or get an uber to the bus terminal and get a public bus to Guaranda. This bus will take you to the park entrance of Chimborazo and will take an hour to get there. Once at the park, you will need to check in with your Passports, so remember to bring them. Other than that the entrance to the park is free.

Once you have checked in, you can either walk up to the first refugio, which is an 8km walk. However, we would recommend taking a 4x4 taxi car as the altitude is very high and very tough on your chest! This costs around $30 USD for a return trip, which is expensive but if you split the cost with other hikers it’s cheap, we split between 6 of us so it only cost us $5 each. At the first refugio, you can then hike to Laguna Condor, which will take roughly forty minutes depending on how fast you go.

Bear in mind, that the altitude to the second Refugio and Laguna Condor is 5000-5100m above sea level. This hike honestly nearly killed us, that mixed with the snow and sun made it extremely hot. As soon as we arrived at the park entrance, it was windy, cloudy and very cold. However, whilst we were in the taxi driving up and had passed the first set of clouds, the weather completely cleared up. It was practically blue skies the entire time we were there, which was extremely lucky for us, as it gave us a beautiful view of the volcano.

However, please be aware that this can also be quite dangerous. This particular hike is the closest point to the sun on earth, meaning you must wear polarised sunglasses and a lot of suncream, especially as it had snowed recently. This is because the sun also reflects off of the snow, so it can easily cause you to burn everywhere that is not protected. We put suncream on, but not enough or throughout the hike, as we still both burnt terribly (Ned more than me). It can also cause temporary damage and sometimes blindness to your eyes if you don’t protect them!

Cuenca

🏨Check in Bed & Breakfast Hotel
We booked this hotel as it was one of the cheapest options. It is in the heart of the city, very close to the Plaza and Cathedral la Immaculada. It is quite basic for the price, but the location is great in the heart of the old town and it has a fantastic view of the city from the rooftop and comes with free breakfast.

Cajas National Park
Apart from exploring the town, which can be done in a few hours, spend a couple days exploring the different hiking routes around Cajas National Park. We spent two days in Cuenca, but you can definitely spend more if you have the time. We did the most popular day hike following the Laguna Toreadora route, but you can spend a few days either going to the Summit, or doing the same route that we did, but stopping and camping in different parts of the National Park.

This hike took us three and a half hours to do. We got the public bus from Cuenca to the Cajas National Park Visitor Centre, which took an hour. You must check into the National Park with your passports first and then you can start the hike. Once at the starting point, we chose to go down the right path and followed Route 1. This route joins up with the other path if you were to choose going left instead. As we were on a time constraint, we decided not to do this, we then continued following AllTrails the rest of the way.

This hike was honestly incredible and so unexpected, it gave us Lake District vibes from home. From the surrounding cloud forests, to the stunning glacial valleys, the trail takes you around hundreds of different lakes and ponds. There are so many spots for a gorgeous picnic, so make sure to bring some food to stop and have a break. I would class it as an easy to moderate hike, with only a couple parts that were steep and involved climbing over large rocks. Once you have finished the hike, you can catch the same bus back to Cuenca with the bus stop being opposite the entrance. Another favourite place of ours and the best way to end our time in Ecuador.