{"id":1426,"date":"2019-07-03T16:00:06","date_gmt":"2019-07-03T20:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/travel.woodring.us\/?p=1426"},"modified":"2019-07-02T22:42:51","modified_gmt":"2019-07-03T02:42:51","slug":"exploring-ecuador","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/travel.woodring.us\/wordpress\/2019\/07\/03\/exploring-ecuador\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploring Ecuador!"},"content":{"rendered":"

People ask us how we decide where we’re traveling to.\u00a0 This time, it was a conversation in a laundromat in Chiang Mai<\/strong> that convinced us that we should consider a trip to Ecuador!\u00a0 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.\u00a0 <\/strong>She said, it’s vibrant with inexpensive hotels, great restaurants, lots of activities, and the possibility of day trips to nearby villages.<\/p>\n

That sounded good to us, so away we go to check it out!<\/p>\n

From Atlanta, we fly direct to Quito<\/strong>.\u00a0 As our flight arrives in Quito around 10:30 p.m. we’ll spend our first night in a Quito airport hotel.\u00a0 The next day, we have a 7:00 p.m. flight to Cuenca<\/strong> – it’s a quick 55-minute flight.\u00a0 We hope that the first day in Quito will help us acclimate to the higher altitude – Quito is at 9,350 feet.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Map<\/p>\n

Lonely Planet Map of Ecuador<\/p>\n

Ecuador straddles the equator and is situated below Columbia and above and beside Peru.\u00a0 It has a Pacific coastline, an Amazon Rainforest, 27 potentially active volcanoes, the Andes Mountain range and more!\u00a0 It’s famous for great chocolate, coffee, bananas, and flowers.\u00a0 Many travelers go to Ecuador to travel to the Galapagos Islands<\/strong> but we’re skipping the islands this trip to check out cities and villages.<\/p>\n

Our itinerary is a simple as we only plan to spend time in two cities – Quito<\/strong> and Cuenca.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>From our base cities, we hope to take day trips to learn more about the country and all that it has to offer.<\/p>\n

Here’s our plan:<\/p>\n

Quito Airport Hotel<\/strong> – 1 night<\/p>\n

Cuenca<\/strong> – 9 nights<\/p>\n

Quito<\/strong> – 5 nights<\/p>\n

We’ve found several things that make Ecuador an easy destination:<\/p>\n

1)\u00a0 Short flight time<\/strong> – from Atlanta it’s 5 hours (compared to 8 hours to Europe or 24 hours to Asia);<\/p>\n

2)\u00a0 minimal time difference <\/strong>as Ecuador is only one hour behind Atlanta, and<\/p>\n

3)\u00a0 the currency<\/strong> is U.S. dollars.<\/p>\n

However, there are a few disadvantages<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

1) The flights arrive and depart late<\/strong> in the evening and the Quito airport is far from the city;<\/p>\n

2) there is a possibility of getting altitude sickness<\/strong> (though we have medication just in case),<\/p>\n

3) we’ll be vigilant to carefully guard our cell phones and cash<\/strong> – as we would in any large city and,<\/p>\n

4) it’s recommended to drink bottled water<\/strong> and be careful about how foods are prepared.<\/p>\n

We’re looking forward to an interesting and unique travel experience with no earthquakes or volcanic eruptions.\u00a0 If the internet is good we hope to post a photo or two every few days!\u00a0 You’re welcome to follow along!<\/p>\n

Adios Amigos!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

People ask us how we decide where we’re traveling to.\u00a0 This time, it was a conversation in a laundromat in Chiang Mai that convinced us that we should consider a trip to Ecuador!\u00a0 A woman we met there had just traveled to South America – specifically Ecuador, and she had great things to say about … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Exploring Ecuador!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-south-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/travel.woodring.us\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/travel.woodring.us\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/travel.woodring.us\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travel.woodring.us\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travel.woodring.us\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/travel.woodring.us\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1426\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/travel.woodring.us\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travel.woodring.us\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travel.woodring.us\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}