Ecuador series 1: Due diligence trip
After travelling through Central America for couple of months and reading more and more about Ecuador, I decided to give it a try. Internal Living Magazine, Tropical Daily and Viva Tropical were all praising this country. On Expat Exchange and GringosAbroad, Ecuador was listed as well as one the best places to live in the world. The cost of living was cheap, it had high speed Internet and in terms of safety it wasn't that dangerous. I had a long list of cities and places I wanted to see with my own eyes before deciding if I'd settle down in there. Thus I got the tickets and we were set for the due diligence trip to Ecuador. A few weeks later we finally made it on Ecuadorian soil! There we were, just minutes after landing to Ecuador's capital Quito, and we already immersed ourselves in the new South American experience. What better way to see half of the country and travel freely than renting a car? Just across the arrival exit of the Mariscal Sucre airport, I saw the flags and advertising boards of the rental companies. This was way before they opened the new airport in Tababela. Landing on the old airport was an adventure on its own! That's because it was one of the most challenging airports in Latin America for pilots to land on. High altitude, a cramped runaway and two huge active volcanos close by to watch for while swirling down in a corkscrew approach turned it into a nerve-wrecking experience for all those aboard. After bargaining here and there with the Alamo rental agents we opted for a small little green hornet, Chevy Spark, the cheapest model we could get: $514 for two weeks did not seem overwhelming. But every penny counts when you travel on a budget, right? We could have travelled by bus and it would have been dirt cheap comparing with what we paid for the car, but I was not ready to give up my comfort. Maybe reading so many expat blogs and their adventures in South America inspired me to take my precautions regarding my safety, comfort and open mindedness. Before leaving home I did my luggage three times. Not that I am indecisive, but I had to make sure there is nothing I really would miss or need. Like my pills or tinctures for Lyme, charger for the cellphone, rain coat, pocket Spanish-English dictionary, my army Swiss knife, Citronella oil, mosquito bed net or the water bottle. You can't go to South America and expect to have potable water everywhere! I was ready to make some exceptions when it came to food. Back then I was on a strict diet: no sugar, no gluten, no yeast. I knew it would be a challenge to stay on my diet for a whole month of being on the road. Thus I agreed not to make a fuzz about it and just go with the flow. We'll eat what we find. That being said, we started our road adventure. After almost of three hours of driving on the smoothly carpeted PanAmerican highway and gazing in awe at the Andean scenery and its mighty volcanos, we reached our first destination: Otavalo. Due to a high number of travellers and tourists in the city, attracted by biggest South American artisan market, all hotels were fully booked. Therefore we had to search for a room and the closest one we found was in Cotacachi, a city known for its leather products and clean cobblestone streets. Here are other travel related posts: OTTAWA LIGHTS SHOW ON PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS HIKING AT DANUBE’S GORGES, ORSOVA, ROMANIA DECEBALUS CARVED STATUE, ROMANIA PIRATES TREASURE PLAYGROUND, CONSTANTA, ROMANIA DOLPHINARIUM 2, CONSTANTA, ROMANIA DOLPHINARIUM 1, CONSTANTA, ROMANIA GONDOLA RIDE IN MAMAIA RESORT, ROMANIA BEACH DAY IN CONSTANTA, ROMANIA BUBBLES - INDOOR PLAYGROUND IN CONSTANTA, ROMANIA VISITING DAMARLI ESTATE IN BOQUETE, PANAMA BAHIA DE PAQUERA, NICOYA GULF, COSTA RICA EXPLORING AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS MACKINAC BRIDGE, MICHIGAN, USA CHASED BY TORNADOS IN MINNESOTA MINNEHAHA FALLS REGIONAL PARK, A GEM IN BETWEEN THE TWIN CITIES BANFF, A RESORT TOWN INSIDE THE BANFF NATIONAL PARK, ALBERTA, CANADA OLD PORT OF CONSTANTA, ROMANIA TEN FACTS OR MORE ABOUT BOQUETE, PANAMA MORAINE LAKE, A SURREAL BEAUTY IN ALEBERTA, CANADA TIPS ON HOW TO MAKE A LIVING WHILE TRAVELLING THE WORLD FEELING UNINSPIRED? VISIT A WELSH RETREAT: GLADSTONE’S RESIDENTIAL LIBRARY TURDA’S 400 FEET UNDERGROUND AMUSEMENT PARK, A HIDDEN GEM OF TRANSYLVANIA, ROMANIA CARIBBEAN PARADISE: BOCAS DEL TORO BOQUETE’S FLOWERS AND COFFEE FESTIVAL, PANAMA VISIT TO SAINT-JOSEPH’S ORATORY IN MONTREAL, CANADA Unless stated otherwise, all photos used in this posts are taken and owned by myself. If you wish to use any of my images, please contact me! Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! Please leave your feedback in the comments, I would love to hear your thoughts!
View of the Chimborazo volcano from the PanAmericana Highway
View of the Rucu Pinchincha volcano, one of the two active peaks of Pichincha Volcano
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Those mountains look amazing! Thanks for sharing your travels so far. Interested to see where you travels take you!
These are only two of the many volcanos we saw during this trip.
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That scenery is amazingly beautiful.
Ecuador is very diverse and the scenery changes gradually as you distance yourself from the North.
Oh oh oh! Love reading adventures like this! Can't wait to read the next one! I think that driving yourself is also the only way to get to know a country when you're on a limited schedule. Was this before or after moving to Panama? Ecuador just makes me think of those wool ponchos for some reason.
I will try to make a post each week on the Ecuadorian adventure. This was before Panama. Funny story, I was on my way to Ecuador when I had a long layover in Panama and discovered it was a really cool place to live. Told myself if Ecuador doesn't work out, there's always Panama!
Nice! Looking forward to your posts! :)
Congratulations for such beautiful landscapes. Wonderful views. You deserve a good qualification. Get my upvote and hope you can upvote me in return. --Thank you.
Thank you for stopping by and sharing your thoughts!
Couple of really wonderful photos, @lymepoet
Thanks for stopping by!
Just seeing those pictures with the Chimborazo volcano wakes up the inner me wanting to get to a new adventure very soon. ♥️
Enjoy your time in Ecuador! 😊
You'd love Ecuador, I'm sure! This is a trip I did years back. The post was written based on my travelling notebook which I recently discovered around the house.
Wow the volcanoe photos are breathtaking! So nice that you are able to travel. Reading this post makes me want to travel the country even more so now. So crazy that all the hotels were booked! Thanks so much for sharing!!
On Otavalo, on Saturdays there' s a huge artisanal market going on and people from whole South America attend it. Plus at the time when we got there, there was a famous festival going on, La Jora in Cotacachi which made it even more difficult to find a room. This festival was very important in their culture.
Wow I can just imagine how crowded it was!
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