Ecuador: A Travel Blog

I’m continuing my series that catalogs tips I learned during my travels so you can have all the insider information. I’m currently writing this from a terrace at the base of 4 volcanoes – overlooking a lake. I had no expectations before coming to Ecuador, but I can now say that the nature views are absolutely breathtaking.

Flight
Flights from North to South America are the most expensive of flights between the US and anywhere else it seems (outside Antartica of course). I learned that this is because of the lack of time difference between the US and South America. Flights can’t run continuously like they do to Europe or Asia and as a result sit on the tarmac for most of the day losing money. My flight to Ecuador was originally about $1300, which I understandably didn’t want to pay. So instead I found that Delta flies there daily and could get me there for 70,000 miles. To get these points I got the Delta Platinum Card while they were having a promotion. Since I got the Platinum version (I’d already recently had the Gold card and couldn’t re-apply yet) I paid $195 in an annual fee so overall with travel hacking I still saved $1,005. Nice.

Money
Ecuador experienced a financial crisis in the 90s and as a result changed their national currency to the USD, which makes it super easy for US tourists. The only difference is that they have $1 and $0.50 coins they use regularly. They also only seem to use small bills – anything larger than a $10 or $20 is seen as suspicious. I just took a lot of cash out before I left and had small bills lying around.

Transit
Taxis
Taxis are very reasonable. We took a few to the next city over, Otavalo for $6 and used one to get to Quito airport 2 hours away for $50.
Public Transit
Outside Quito there isn’t really a public transit system. Everything outside that city and one other is run by private companies and drivers. There are lots of buses between cities and towns. Even in our tiny town of San Pablo buses to Otavalo come every 7 minutes and cost I believe $0.45. Impressive!

Food
In an atypical fashion we actually hired a chef for our time in Ecuador. There were 5 of us and my Mom didn’t want us to cook while on vacation. This ended up being reasonably priced. The chef cost $15/hour plus food costs. The food for meals usually cost $15-20 total for the 5 of us (so cheap!) so overall we ended up paying about $3/person/meal, which is amazing.

Alcohol
Local alcohol was reasonably priced! I found a vodka that was made in Quito at the local tiny grocery store for $10 and a liter of wine in Quito for $6. Our VRBO host also mentioned that the locals actually drink Puntas, which is an illegally brewed liquor that you can get a full cup of for $0.25. I wasn’t interested in doing anything illegal in Ecuador, but it’s interesting to know that there are even cheaper options out there.

Noise
One travel blog I read before going to Ecuador mentioned to bring earplugs because it’s not a quiet country. I wasn’t sure what to make of that, but I always bring my big noise cancelling headphones and earplugs when I travel so I thought I would be ok. It turns out I couldn’t have imagined what awaited us 🙂 . Ecuador, even small town Ecuador, seems to always have some sound happening. Noise seems to be an expected constant there and the rules are different – blasting your music so everyone can hear it isn’t considered rude. How people interact seems to often involve noise.

For example, everyone uses gas tanks in their houses so about every 30 minutes a gas truck came through our small town and continuously plays music to let people know it’s here. For a few days we had no idea why the same music was playing outside so many times a day until we asked our host. He said that gas truck is actually pleasant and in Quito the truck goes around with a bullhorn yelling “GAS!!!!” constantly. Oh my.

Another example is the small town ‘radio’ instead of having a radio station a truck goes around town yelling announcements. Our host says it’s usually about finding a lost or stolen cow (this was a farming town). Further, Ecuador has a large amount of stray dogs so barking in the middle of the night was common. There was also a police academy nearby that marches and chants starting at 6am. We learned quickly to just go to bed early and get up at 6am. Basically while I enjoyed my time in Ecuador it made me appreciate how quiet Seattle is in comparison – and recognize how much of a princess I am to expect absolutely silence from my fellow humans all the time 🙂 .

So that’s what I learned in Ecuador. My next international trip is to Costa Rica – let’s see how my Spanish improves!