People ask us how we decide where we’re traveling to. This time, it was a conversation in a laundromat in Chiang Mai that convinced us that we should consider a trip to Ecuador! A woman we met there had just traveled to South America – specifically Ecuador, and she had great things to say about the city of Cuenca. She said, it’s vibrant with inexpensive hotels, great restaurants, lots of activities, and the possibility of day trips to nearby villages.
That sounded good to us, so away we go to check it out!
From Atlanta, we fly direct to Quito. As our flight arrives in Quito around 10:30 p.m. we’ll spend our first night in a Quito airport hotel. The next day, we have a 7:00 p.m. flight to Cuenca – it’s a quick 55-minute flight. We hope that the first day in Quito will help us acclimate to the higher altitude – Quito is at 9,350 feet.
Lonely Planet Map of Ecuador
Ecuador straddles the equator and is situated below Columbia and above and beside Peru. It has a Pacific coastline, an Amazon Rainforest, 27 potentially active volcanoes, the Andes Mountain range and more! It’s famous for great chocolate, coffee, bananas, and flowers. Many travelers go to Ecuador to travel to the Galapagos Islands but we’re skipping the islands this trip to check out cities and villages.
Our itinerary is a simple as we only plan to spend time in two cities – Quito and Cuenca. From our base cities, we hope to take day trips to learn more about the country and all that it has to offer.
Here’s our plan:
Quito Airport Hotel – 1 night
Cuenca – 9 nights
Quito – 5 nights
We’ve found several things that make Ecuador an easy destination:
1) Short flight time – from Atlanta it’s 5 hours (compared to 8 hours to Europe or 24 hours to Asia);
2) minimal time difference as Ecuador is only one hour behind Atlanta, and
3) the currency is U.S. dollars.
However, there are a few disadvantages:
1) The flights arrive and depart late in the evening and the Quito airport is far from the city;
2) there is a possibility of getting altitude sickness (though we have medication just in case),
3) we’ll be vigilant to carefully guard our cell phones and cash – as we would in any large city and,
4) it’s recommended to drink bottled water and be careful about how foods are prepared.
We’re looking forward to an interesting and unique travel experience with no earthquakes or volcanic eruptions. If the internet is good we hope to post a photo or two every few days! You’re welcome to follow along!
Adios Amigos!
