Last updated on April 30, 2022
We arrived in Quito, Ecuador around 4 PM after an epic day of traveling. We left the hotel in Zanzibar at 6 PM, drove an hour to the larger of the two Zanzibar airports and flew KLM 15 minutes to Dar Es Salam, waited on board for 1 1/2 hours while they “cleaned” (which seemed to consist of mostly walking up and down the aisle spraying something in the air) and boarded a few more people. We left around midnight for an 8 1/2 hour flight to Amsterdam. The kids slept a few hours on this leg. We had a 2 1/2 hour layover in Amsterdam and then flew KLM to Quito which is usually a 12 hour flight, but this day was 11 hours due to the generous jet stream. An hour less was nice, but the turbulence was not my friend. We watched way too many movies, ate several randomly timed meals (at least to us!) and battled off a few breakdowns from super-overtired Griffin who just couldn’t get to sleep on this leg. We did score 10 small ceramic houses from KLM, filled with some kind of alcohol that is probably too strong for us, but the houses are super cute (they couldn’t hand them directly to the kids because of the alcohol…interesting).
Ecuador literally translates as “Republic of the Equator.” It is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. Ecuador also includes the Galápagos Islands in the Pacific, about 1,000 kilometers (621 mi) west of the mainland. The capital and largest city is Quito. It has a population of over 3 million people. The territories of modern-day Ecuador were once home to a variety of Amerindian groups that were gradually incorporated into the Inca Empire during the 15th century. The territory was colonized by Spain during the 16th century, achieving independence in 1820 as part of Gran Colombia, from which it emerged as its own sovereign state in 1830. The legacy of both empires is reflected in Ecuador’s ethnically diverse population, with most of its 17.1 million people being mestizos, followed by large minorities of European, Native American, and African descendants. Spanish is the official language and is spoken by a majority of the population, though 13 Native languages are also recognized, including Quechua.
Ecuador has a total area of 109,484 sq mi including the Galápagos Islands. This makes it just slightly smaller than the state of Arizona. It has over 17 million people. The second biggest city is Guayaquil with a population of over 3 million people. It is the country’s largest port. Ecuador lies between latitudes 2°N and 5°S. It is the westernmost country that lies on the equator. Ecuador is the land with the highest elevation on the equator.
The country has four main geographic regions:
- La Costa, or “the coast”: The coastal region consists of the provinces to the west of the Andean range. It is the country’s most fertile and productive land, and is the seat of the large banana exportation plantations of the companies Dole and Chiquita. This region is also where most of Ecuador’s rice is grown. The truly coastal provinces have active fisheries. The largest coastal city is Guayaquil.
- La Sierra, or “the highlands”: The sierra consists of the Andean and Interandean highland provinces. This land contains most of Ecuador’s volcanoes and all of its snow-capped peaks. Agriculture is focused on the traditional crops of potato, maize, and quinoa and the population is predominantly Quechua. The largest Sierran city is Quito.
- La Amazonía, also known as El Oriente, or “the east”: The oriente consists of the Amazon jungle provinces. This region is primarily made up of the huge Amazon national parks and Amerindian untouchable zones, which are vast stretches of land set aside for the Amazon Amerindian tribes to continue living traditionally. It is also the area with the largest reserves of petroleum in Ecuador, and parts of the upper Amazon here have been extensively exploited by petroleum companies.
- La Región Insular is the region comprising the Galápagos Islands.
When we last saw the Mayhews we were celebrating New Years with them in Northern California. At that time, we made slightly drunken plans to meet up with them for their spring break in Ecuador…and unbelievably we were able to make it happen. To ensure that we made the most of our time and were seeing everything that we could while in Ecuador we used the tour company, Happy Gringo. We customized our trip with some suggestions from the company to hit all of the highlights around Quito, including a trip to the Amazon. You can also add the Galapagos to any of their tours, but we are going there on our own in a few weeks. Milton (our spanish speaking driver) picked us up at the airport and drove us an hour to our hotel for the next 2 nights. Griffin dragged himself, literally on the floor, across the lobby, into the elevator and up to the room shouting all the way about his cold and tired legs. He fell into bed immediately at 6 PM for 12+ hours. The rest of us followed quickly while Trey went out, ate ramen at some random restaurant and hit the grocery store so we had snacks if we woke up in the middle of the night.
The next day, Sy, Marin and I woke at 4:30 AM (go 8 hour time change!), did schoolwork, and ate all the oranges and bananas that Trey bought last night. Once Trey and Griffin were up, we went to the hotel breakfast. It was quite good with great fruit, fresh blackberry juice (never had that before), the normal eggs, bacon, sausage and additional Ecuadorian foods including chicken and rice, fried plantains, churros-type sticks with chocolate sauce, and a gorgeous plate of ham among many other things. Sy has really missed ham and has not had any since December so he was super excited. Griffin and Marin are still recovering from their illness from the “coughing lady” on the tiny plane. Griffin today broke out in a rash all over his body (lovely) that Trey says is viral and should resolve on its own. He feels okay, but looks awful. It is super handy having a pediatrician on this trip! 🙂
Initial observations:
- The official currency of Ecuador is…the United States dollar. The US dollar became the legal tender of Ecuador on March 13, 2000 due to extreme inflation with the previous currency, the Sucre. Ecuador mints is own centavo coins in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 25 and 50 centavos which are identical in size and value to their US cent counterparts. Ecuador does not issue any banknotes, relying on U.S. issues. It was an odd experience to go to an Ecuadorian ATM and only be able to take out US dollars.
- Masks wearing is ubiquitous here. Almost everyone has surgical masks or N-95s on, even outside in the parks. It is the law still.
- Quito weather is quite variable, minute-to-minute. Rain, clouds, sunshine all quickly follow each other. The surrounding mountains are beautiful with lush green valleys and small towns between the peaks.
- The elevation here is no joke. We are at 9,350 feet and even walking up stairs or up a hill is noticeably harder than at sea level where we were in Zanzibar. We are drinking lots of fluids and hoping for mild symptoms.
Around 12:30 PM, we decided we couldn’t stay in the hotel ALL day so we rallied and went for a 30 minute walk to La Carolina Park. On the way, we stopped at the pharmacia to see if we could stock up on Ondansetron (for motion sickness/vomiting) since we used up much of our stash on the tiny plane rides. A halting exchange in spanglish occurred between Trey and the pharmacist. We thought we determined that it required a prescription so we shrugged and went to buy a few other things. At the checkout with the same 2 pharmacy workers, all of a sudden they produced a box of the exact oral dissolving 4 mg tablets we had requested. I said, “perfecto!” and we bought the box. Not sure why they decided we could have it without the script, but who cares!
Once we got to the park, we saw lots of families out with kids on the playground and in paddle boats on the river. Griffin got his cotton candy (it was previously promised as a bribe for him to take medication). We explored the botanical garden (inexpensive entry fee of $2 each) and found a super bonsai tree exhibit. After receiving several flyers about wedding cakes and DJs, we realized that the Bonzai tree museum is a wedding venue and they were advertising on this busy Saturday. A kid’s birthday party was being held in the yard behind with a huge tree house nearby. The rain started now and we took shelter in the venue with some super tall people in costumes on stilts…not sure what they were, but one had a sword and they looked kind of scary and more suited to Halloween. They were dancing to house music and a little strange. I’m not sure that I would hire them for my wedding! When the rain let up, we also found a place that does Covid boosters as Marin apparently needs one before our Galapogos trip. We plan to do this at the end of the month. Everyone was tired at this point so we flagged down a taxi and piled 5 people into the 4 seater for the ride back to the hotel.
We went for a swim in the heated hotel pool. Pool rules state everyone has to wear a cap…so we purchased $2 completely porous cloth black caps for everyone from the reception desk. It was quite entertaining and not very functional as they were too big and fell off the boys every time they went under water. We met a nice family from Louisville, Kentucky, who did not know my college pal Carter who lives there. They are stationed in Quito for 3 years at the embassy with the National Guard. They have 2 kids and have been living in the hotel for a few months while their housing gets sorted out. It turns out that the National Guard from each state has a relationship with a country or two and they provide assistance for a variety of projects. Apparently Kentucky works with Ecuador and Djibouti.
We left the hotel for an early dinner and ended up eating steak, empanadas and burgers while watching 2 local futbol (soccer) teams playing on TV. We were only a few blocks from the hotel, but were approached on the way to dinner and on the way home by a crew of diligent little girls (maybe 6 years old, likely sisters) selling candy, chocolate and chips. Trey bought a bar of chocolate, somehow for $2, when the price quoted was initially $1. After that they flocked (like literally ran) towards him like the pied piper, as he walked down the sidewalk saying, “No, gracias” repeatedly until they gave up. Another early night with the boys asleep by 730 PM. Jet lag is also no joke. We have an 8 hour time change so the whining at dinner at 6 pm was reasonable since that’s really still 2 AM for us.
We met up with the Mayhews at their hotel and had a happy, but tired reunion, when they arrived back from their adventure that day. The next morning we left early for the trip to the Amazon! A 30-minute flight turned into 45 as the pilot approached the runway, went sharply back up again, circled around the airport and finally landed. Not sure what that was about, but the last time that happened to me was in San Diego and it was due to another aircraft being in the way on the runway. Eek! After landing in Coca we were greeted by a friendly guide name Guido from the Napo Wildlife Center and a driver who scooped up all the luggage and humans and drove us a short 10 minutes to the dock where we did a bit of paperwork and boarded a motorized, large canoe. It seated about 20 people, 1 on each side of the narrow aisle. The seats were comfortable and spacious and we zoomed off down the huge, wide, brown Napo River. It was quite windy and cool and we were intrigued by the zig-zagging course the driver took for the next 2 hours. I assume he was avoiding shallower areas, submerged trees, etc but who could tell as the water was cloudy and brown. We were given bag lunches and drinks on the boat to enjoy while we took in the amazing scenery. We turned down a smaller off shoot of the river and got off to use the bathrooms and stretch our legs. The 10 of us got onto a smaller canoe that was paddled by 2 men, 1 in front and 1 in the rear. Our guide Guido sat up front and switched between paddling and telling us about various wildlife and plants we were seeing. This first day was HOT, very hot in the sun. Griffin was recumbent on my lap and I held a shirt over his face to keep him a bit cooler. We saw cayman skulking around the edges of the river in the weeds, gorgeous big blue butterflies, 2 kinds of monkeys, bats that blended into the bark on the tree trunk, amazon chickens that we called “churkeys” because they looked like chickens and turkeys combined.
After about 2 hours, we came out into a large mirror like lake and on the shore ahead was an amazing collection of thatched roofed buildings and one very tall tower. After docking the boat, we were greeted with a short session in a UV light booth with a cool spray (that I think was disinfectant?), a tall glass of cool tamarind juice that tastes a little like iced tea, and a cold wet washcloth which was so refreshing after the super hot canoe trip. We met up in the main lodge to get our keys and learn about the lodge.
The lodge is located in the Yasuni National Park. The park is about 250 km from Quito and was designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1989. Many indigenous people use the riverways within the park as a main mode of travel. It is also home to two uncontacted indigenous tribes, the Tagaeri and the Taromenane. Several waterways in the area are tributaries that lead into the Amazon River.
The lodge was built over a 2 year period and it is an impressive site, situated on the banks of a pristine lake hours from the nearest population center. The main tower is over 5 floors high and you can see a great distance over the Amazon from the top. There is even a small, slow-moving elevator that will take you up and down. Downstairs on the main dining floor, there is a large wooden bar with seating under fans that you can turn on or off as needed. We all met at the bar each afternoon for drinks, a chat or a game of cards. Ecuadorians make large G & Ts, it seems. The kids got used to ordering a soda at the bar and “putting it on the room”. The bartender and cooking staff/chef were super thoughtful and friendly in making kid friendly foods each night and providing a seemingly endless supply of popcorn to the kids frequenting the bar.
Each room is its own little house with a bedroom and bathroom, porch and outdoor hammock. Trey and I and Griffin were in one right next to the lake. Marin and Sy were just up the hill behind us. There was no AC here, but the fans over the beds at night were helpful and the mosquito nets prevented any serious bites.
We spent 5 days and 6 nights in the Amazon. We saw caiman, giant river otters, anaconda. monkeys, numerous birds and insects. On one of our days we paddled down the canal to a local community where we visited with the women and children of the tribe. They showed us their local dances, traditions like making poisonous blow darts tipped with curare to paralyze the target, making clothes from the soft underbark of trees and how to harvest, cook and eat the larvae of the South American palm weevil, Rhynchophorus palmarum. Indigenous people in the area make a dish from it called chontacuro. The weevil lays its eggs inside a specific palm tree called the Chota Palm and the larvae grow in the soft interior. The people chop the whole tree down to cut it open to harvest the larvae. The off-white larvae measure between 5 and 6 centimeters long and 2 cm in diameter. This dish is part of their daily consumption and can be eaten raw or cooked. Chontacuro has healing properties that relieve cough and asthma and is also an excellent source of protein , vitamins A , C and E , and minerals.
A large bowl of live, wiggling weevils was evident and the women skewered the larvae and put them over the open fire to roast them. These are known as jungle bacon per our guide Guido. Trey ate one with a little difficulty and said the outside did taste like bacon, but the inside was a bit squishy. Someone bet Marin and Reece $20 each to eat a weevil so they cooked 2 more and the videos on Instagram show Marin eating the weevil successfully. She gagged a few times and said it was not good, but she kept it down and fortunately did not get ill. Guido ate a live one which I videotaped, but couldn’t even watch. We saw them put a baby down for a nap in a hammock right near the “kitchen” area. They also showed us instruments made from turtle shells and snail shells (these were frighteningly big).
On the way back, Guido directed our canoe into the shallow waters along the side of the sunny lake. We plowed through the shallow grassy areas looking for anacondas who bask in the sun in the afternoons. It was pretty scary sitting in the canoe with the grass over our heads and the guides standing up in the canoe to look for the snakes. We did find a big anaconda curled up, sleeping in the sun and quietly took some photos before it woke up. Gently, we backed away in the canoe until we were in open waters.
The next morning, Trey woke Marin and Sy for breakfast. Marin hopped out of bed with bare feet and immediately screamed out in pain. I wasn’t there to witness this, but she and Trey found the culprit scuttling across the floor. Trey stomped on it and killed it. He examined Marin’s foot and ran the dead body up to the lodge for advice. Meanwhile, Sy comes to my room and casually delivers part of the truth, “Daddy says Marin stepped on a scorpion and she is crying and he left.” What??? So I go running up to their room and Marin is hopping around on one foot and Trey is no where in sight. She told me he went up to the lodge with the scorpion so I ran up there to see what he had found out. Apparently, it was a juvenile scorpion and given Marin’s small adult human size it was likely to only cause foot pain and possibly numbness in the limb and groin pain. (huh??) If a smaller child had stepped on it, more side effects would be expected…so we watched her closely for a few days and all was well. Another phew! I also love that Trey used the lodge’s feedback/review sheet to carry the scorpion.
Guido offered to take us all on a night walk around the Amazon. Griffin was super tired and I took him back to bed. Guido took Kelly, Phil, Marin, Sy and Trey via flashlight into the trail around the lodge. I was kind of bummed to miss the experience, but I was told by everyone that I would not have liked it. They saw ALL the bugs, ALL the spiders and creepy crawlies. I saw a few photos and was glad I was stuck home with Griffin! The night hike was a big topic of conversation though with Marin and Sy. They saw leaf-cutter ants, millipedes, crickets, stick bugs, spiders, and bullet ants.
The bullet ant’s sting is currently the highest on Schmidt’s sting pain index, at 4.0+. Apparently, the pain is like ”Walking over flaming charcoal with a three inch nail embedded in your heel”. Some victims compared the pain to that of being shot, hence the name of the insect. It is described as causing “waves of burning, throbbing, all-consuming pain that continues unabated for up to 24 hours”. Lymphadenopathy, edema, tachycardia and fresh blood appearing in human victim feces are common symptoms. Poneratoxin, a paralyzing neurotoxicpeptide isolated from the venom, affects voltage-dependent sodium ion channels and blocks the synaptic transmission in the central nervous system. It is being investigated for possible medical applications.
We canoed down to a landing dock off a tributary of the lake and hiked about 30 minutes to an observation tower. We climbed over a hundred feet to the deck in a giant tree. There was a railing around the edge and a table and some benches. Guido set up a telescope and we were able to watch the canopy dwellers including monkeys, toucans. parrots, and macaws. The friendly guides handed out candy before the hike back to the canoe, made the kids palm crowns and gave the girls string necklaces.
A big thunderstorm rolled through that afternoon while we were at happy hour at the bar. It was a cool experience with the wind blowing through the open area and the sounds of the rain in the trees next to the bar. Fortunately, the lightening was far away and it passed by before dinner ended.
The day we left we had to be on the canoe by 5 AM to make it to our flight out at 10:30AM…2 hours in the canoe, 2 hours in the motor canoe and a short drive to the airport. It was a spooky and unforgettable experience to be in the pitch dark in a small canoe, being rowed by 3 guides. At this point we were well aware of what animals were out there…caiman, anacondas, giant insects. When the river became narrow Reece held up a small flashlight so we could see a bit more where we were going. We said good bye to Guido at the airport and headed off back to Quito.
We flew out of Coca and back to Quito in a slightly bumpy, but uneventful ride. We set off in a larger van to higher elevations and visited Cotapaxi. Cotapaxi is an active stratovolcano in the Andes Mountains about 30 miles south of Quito. It is the second highest summit in Ecuador, reaching a height of 19,347 ft. Cotopaxi is among the highest active volcanoes in the world and its most recent eruption ended in 2016. Since 1738, Cotopaxi has erupted more than 50 times, resulting in the creation of numerous valleys formed by mudflows around the volcano.
The plan was to take the van up as far as we could drive and hike about an hour to the Cotapaxi base camp. Our van was pretty tall and seated about 20 people. We passed a few smaller cars and vans coming down as we bumped and lurched our way up the dirt road. We were a little concerned that the van was lurching from side to side a lot and it crossed our minds that it didn’t seem like a super safe situation as we went up the switchbacks. Eventually, Kelli said, “Hey, Ivan, is this really safe?”. He said, “Probably not. We were just discussing that!”. Yikes! So we had a discussion and all decided to turn the bus around and go back down. Most of us elected to walk back down while Marin. Reece and Trey rode the lurching rollercoaster back down the hill. It was certainly easier to walk down at 14K feet rather than hike up an hour so we were fine with the decision. The jumping photo took a few tries…the one of everyone getting ready to jump and Phil way up in the air makes me laugh!
Instead of the hike up to base camp, we walked a mostly flat route of about 3 miles around a lake. This was plenty of exercise (at altitude) and afforded great views of the water, birds, and wild horses that are found around Cotapaxi. Griffin needed to be plied with gummies to complete the trek and ended up on Trey’s shoulders for the last stretch.
We stayed up near Cotapaxi that night a really neat hotel with lots of horses outside that they use for guests who want to ride. The hotel has a lovely sitting room with a big fireplace, hot drinks and a more sophisticated menu than we have seen here before. We had a great dinner and went to bed early as we were all feeing tired from hiking at elevation in the cold mountain air. Each room has a big wood burning stove and hot water bottles in the beds at night. That night I could not sleep as every time I layed down I felt very short of breath. I think some of it was anxiety as I was not used to being so hypoxic (low oxygen). I was up most of the night until I remembered our travel medicine doctor had given us all Acetazolamide to take for high altitudes. I took some around 4 AM and felt better by 530 AM and feel asleep for a few hours before breakfast. Trey didn’t feel great either, but was able to sleep. Good thing I googled “side effects of Acetazolamide” before I took it because finger and hand tingling and numbness were common side effects and often mistaken for a stroke! The next day, I definitely had the side effects, but my breathing was much improved.
We stopped at a family’s home where they had a small farm with a lot of animals including pigs and piglets, dogs, geese, chickens, chicks and about 75 guinea pigs in varying stages of maturity. It was very interesting to see the guinea pigs living in the home on the floor with small tunnels and caves in the dirt walls to hide in. We got to hold 1 day old guinea pig babies that were totally adorable. I don’t think at this point the kids realized that they EAT the guinea pigs. (See restaurant advertisement below with graphic grilled guinea pig photo).
Later that day we drove to Quilotoa, a water-filled crater lake and the most western volcano in the Ecuadorian Andes. The caldera is 2 miles wide and was formed by the collapse of the volcano following a catastrophic eruption about 800 years ago, which produced pyroclastic flows and lahars that reached the Pacific Ocean. The caldera has since accumulated a 250-meter-deep (820 ft) crater lake which has a greenish color as a result of dissolved minerals. Fumaroles are found on the lake floor and hot springs occur on the eastern flank of the volcano.
Quilotoa is a tourist site of growing popularity. You can travel to the small town of Quilotoa and pay two US dollars each to enter. It is a cute if touristy town with a number of simple hostels and restaurants. Activities include a four to five-hour hike around the caldera, the Quilotoa Loop (a remote, bumpy, mountainous hike linking several high Andean villages and towns) and a half-hour hike down from the viewpoint (with a 1- to 2-hour hike back up the 919 foot vertical ascent).
When we arrived at the crater we looked down and all we saw was fog…a lot of thick fog. We happily walked the 2 mile trail down into the caldera to the beautiful lake. The kids tossed small pebbles into a gutter and raced and jumped their way down the mountain. At the bottom, you can rent a small boat to take out on the lake or picnic or just take a walk around to enjoy the views. You can stay at the bottom of the crater in some very basic lodging and camping is permitted.
The way out is straight up the way you came down. Many locals were walking out, but it can be very tough for tourists given the high altitude. We all opted for the mule/horse option which came with its own drama! After walking about 200 feet up from the lake’s edge to the mule area, everyone was short of breath and tired, especially Griffin. The first group went up with Marin, Reece, Kelli and Aiden/Brynn sharing a mule. The next group was me and Sy/Griffin sharing. Griffin wanted no part of the mule and started screaming, “Get me off this thing RIGHT now!” We tried to explain to him that he couldn’t walk up as it was way too difficult and the only way out was the mule. He was not consoled and we rode up with him shouting at us the whole way. Sy was a champ and tried to comfort him. It devolved into “I’m going to jump off this thing if you don’t stop” and “I will punch you Sy if you don’t stop leaning on me” and “Now I am going to throw up!” We all felt badly for him but there was really no way out. The mules could only carry 2 kids or 1 adult so we had no option to have him ride with an adult. The Ecuadorians we passed were a little shell shocked at the constant shouting so I added mostly unhelpful commentary like, “Lo siento, el no esta felis.” We all felt a little badly for the heaving mules and horses who were hauling our butts up the steep mountain paths. We tried to get the guides to stop to rest by saying things like. “Caballo cansado?”. My guide said, “No, no!” We finally made it up and were greeted by the rest of the crew who had heard Griffin shouting the entire way up!
We drove back to Quito for our last night with the Mayhews who made it just in time for their Covid tests at the hotel. It has been a fantastic trip made only better by having them along with us. It was so great that our semi-drunken New Year’s conversation of “Meet us somewhere on the trip for spring break!” turned into a successful tour around Ecuador. They are some of the few people that would make that happen and we were so thrilled when it all came together. We were sad to see them go! They left early in the AM for the airport and their flight home to California.
One of the common themes that we have been seeing during our trip from Egypt to Sri Lanka to Tanzania and now Ecuador is the community and family feel of all of these cultures. We have been given many examples of people helping each other…coming over to help plow a field or clean out a home after a natural disaster or watching over each other’s children or giving money to someone who needs an expensive surgery overseas or building another floor on the top of your house for your son and his new wife to move in. It has been an eye opening experience to see how a simpler life can foster a stronger community feeling and happier people. Wealth is definitely not measured by money in much of the world and it is quite refreshing.
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