Getting In

After my couple of relaxing days at the hot springs in Papallacta and doing the amazing laguna hike, it was time for big city living. I had breakfast at my hotel then took a taxi down to the entrance of Papallacta by the main highway. Since Ecuador doesn’t have a good way to check bus schedules, I just showed up at the bus stop hoping I wouldn’t have to wait too long for one to show up heading toward Quito. After a short 15-minute wait, a bus arrived. It was about an hour ride and I ended up getting off before the main bus terminal because the bus stopped at a stop closer to my hostel. I was immediately swept by the city energy with the heavy traffic on the highway and all the people walking around. I’m not in the mountains anymore. It quickly reminded me how much I prefer nature to cities, but you have to see the big cities when visiting a country for the cultural perspective. I actually ended up really liking Quito. Not sure why it gets a bad rep. It turned out to be my favorite of the capital cities so far (compared to Bogota and Lima).

My second time getting in to Quito was quite an interesting welcome back. After spending three nights in Quito, I went to Secret Garden Cotopaxi (beautiful hostel in Cotopaxi National Park that will be the subject of next blog post) before returning to Quito for a few more nights. This guy Spencer I made friends with at Secret Garden Cotopaxi had a rental car so I rode back with him to save $10 on the shuttle. Spencer had a tiny car that struggled on the pot holed filled dirt roads but we made it back slowly, but surely. We were almost at my hostel in Quito when a motorcycle cop came out of nowhere and signaled for us to pull over. Uh oh. We hadn’t seemingly done anything wrong. Even though my Spanish was pretty good at this point, I couldn’t understand a word he said. I couldn’t put it together why we got pulled over. He asked to borrow one of our phones to translate into but I was kind of worried he would just take it and leave…you never know who to trust. Finally, he used his own phone and told us that we couldn’t be driving because our license plate ended in a number that wasn’t allowed to drive on that date. 

Another backpacker had actually told me about this law. Due to the level of pollution created in Quito, there are strict driving rules whereby cars with certain license plate numbers can be on the road each day (Mondays: ending in 0, 1, 2, 3; Tuesdays: ending in 1, 2, 3, 4, etc). The funny thing about this rule is the buses in Quito produced more black smoke than any I’d seen throughout my trip. 

Anyways back to the cop. Once he had translated why he pulled us over, we understood (apparently the rental car agency had also told Spencer about this rule), and he told us to drive to the nearest parking garage. We were able to drive away with no ticket and no more questions asked. Got lucky on that one. Spencer drove me the 5 more minutes to the hostel and all was well.

The City

Quito is the highest constitutional capital of the world sitting at over 9,000 feet (La Paz is higher but Bolivia has multiple capitals – La Paz is the seat of government and Sucre is the constitutional capital). It’s a very interesting city because it has a very gritty and slightly dangerous feel to it; yet there’s also lots of beautiful neighborhoods, an incredible historic center, an awe inspiring Notre Dame-like cathedral that has a bar inside, and a volcano hike over 15,000 feet high just outside the city. You definitely don’t want to walk around at night because the streets are empty and have a very eerie feeling. One night I walked a few minutes home from the bar and there were people just having a bonfire on the sidewalk. You had to be a little more on edge here than other places that I had been recently. But all that being said, I actually really loved Quito.

The city is rich in culture and architectural beauty and the historic center (considered the best preserved and least altered in South America) was the first World Cultural Heritage City to be named by UNESCO. Quito is known as the Mitad del Mundo (Middle of the World) and one can visit a monument that sits at the equator line. While I didn’t do this activity because it was a bit of a trek from my hostel and felt tourist-y, I could see the appeal to doing it. I guess 5 days just wasn’t enough time? Because of its proximity to the equator, Quito has 12 hours of sunlight all year round with a consistent schedule of sunrise from 6-6:30am and sunset from 6-6:30pm.

The Lodging

My first three nights in Quito I stayed in the Community Hostel which tried to create a vibe to live up to its namesake. Every night there was dinner cooked in the hostel for a small fee at a set time to create a family style dinner experience. I only joined for the first night but it was a good idea to bring people together. On my first night, they also did a bar crawl where we paid a set fee and had a mini bus transport us to 4 different bars (we had to find our own way home). More on this later. The hostel was located nearby the heart of the historic center and had a rooftop with a nice view of the Basilica del Voto Nacional. The downfall of this hostel was the poor structure of the building. On my last day staying here, it rained super hard and water started seeping through the walls and ceilings. They had to evacuate entire rooms of people because there was so much water dripping onto the floor and the beds. I got lucky and my room wasn’t impacted.

When I returned from my 2-day trip to Secret Garden Cotopaxi, I spent my last few nights in Quito at Vibes Aurik in a cheap private room. There was nothing too special about this hostel but I just wanted my own quiet space before heading to Santiago. My final night in Ecuador, I stayed at a little hotel nearby the airport since my flight was at 7 in the morning and the airport was over 45 minutes away from the center of town. I ate some pretty delicious wings that night at a restaurant right next to the hotel.

The People

Quito turned out to be a social place for me. I felt like a seasoned vet in Ecuador after already having spent 6 weeks here and my spirits were high throughout my days in Quito. I think the fact that I spent so many solo days in Ecuador helped recharge my energy and put me in a good headspace socially. I met a lot of people during the night of the bar crawl through Community Hostel but only a few of them became my core crew for the next few days: Amelia (England), Jordan (England), and Asad (US). We spent a lot of time together over the next few days chatting at the hostel and going out for meals. It was a good crew to hang out with and we had a lot of really good conversations; especially Amelia and I. We spent one night just drinking beers and chatting at the hostel for hours on end. I also met a British girl Meg on my second to last night at the Community Hostel who Yen and I ended up spending a lot of time together with her on the W Trek in Chile but more on her with that future blog.

When I got back from Secret Garden Cotopaxi, I spent the next few days hanging out with two guys that I made good friends with there – Spencer (US) and Stefan (Germany).

I also had lots of good interactions with locals in Quito and I think that really helped improve my impression of the city. My Spanish was at the best point it had ever been and I was especially used to the Ecuadorian accent (which is actually quite easy compared to other countries in South America). I ended up having a bunch of good Spanish conversations over the course of my time in Quito. Almost every Uber or taxi that I took ended up with us conversing for the entire ride. I was feeling confident in my Spanish abilities and it was really showing. I had my canned speech down about my travels so that was always a good conversation starter but then we would start going into new topics and I was able to hold my own. It was so nice being able to communicate people and learn more about their culture just from having a basic conversation.

The Food

My favorite part of my food experience in Quito was my daily trip to El Mercado Central for a local breakfast and fresh fruit juice. I had heard the fruits weren’t as good in the southern half of South America so I really made the most of my last few days with fresh Ecuadorian fruits. Every morning I would get a massive fruit juice for $1-1.50 and accompany it with some cheap traditional Ecuadorian dishes for $2-3 like encebollado (explained in earlier blog) or papas con cuero – hard-boiled egg, avocado, pork skin with potatoes. It was only a few minute walk from my hostel and a great way to start my day.

I also had some really good sushi one night in La Floresta neighborhood with Amelia, Jordan, Asad and this older Dutch dude. I was shocked at the quality of the fish in landlocked Quito, but then again it is the capital and has lots of different culinary options. Most the other meals I ate were just the cheap menu del dia lunches that I had been enjoying throughout my time in Ecuador.

The Experience

Historic Center Free Walking Tour

I showed up at Community Hostel and a free walking tour of the Historic Center was starting from the hostel in 30 minutes. That’s always a great way to learn about a city and I really didn’t know much about Quito. At this point in my trip I was just showing up at places with minimal plans and would just figure things out as I went. I was a seasoned enough traveler to know that you just show up places and fun/cool things start to present themselves.

Our tour guide Caro was born and raised in Quito and currently lived up in the hills with her husband and newborn. She had a great sense of humor. I’m always impressed when people can do that in their second language. She had me cracking up throughout the tour. She also had an incredible wealth of knowledge about Quito and Ecuadorian culture. Incredible guide! It was a small group: just me, an American girl that had just arrived traveling for only a week, and an Irish couple that lived in Vancouver.

Caro was super informative and I learned a lot of cool information within the first 30 minutes. I already knew they said chuchaqui for a hangover in Ecuador but Caro explained that it’s a Kichwa word whose direct translation is chu which means shakey and chaqui is the nausea a person feels after chewing too many coca leaves. She also told us about the Ecuadorian currency collapse in the early 2000s that led them to use the US Dollar and why they use more coins than dollars (both of which I explained in the first blog about Ecuador).

The tour started in the central market and we tried a variety of fruits. Then we went to a fancy hotel where Caro explained why Ecuadorians stopped using the Sucre and starting using Dollars. Then we did a chocolate tasting in the hotel where they explained the production process while we tried chocolate with different percentages of cocoa including one that was 100%. I actually didn’t like the 100% pure chocolate; it was too damn bitter. Ecuador produces some of the finest chocolates in the world and these were as good as it gets.

After the delicious chocolate tasting, we walked through the Plaza Grande and Plaza de San Francisco which were filled with city energy – noise, people, trash, street performers, beggers, all the action. We even saw these 2 guys get in a fight where the cops came to break it up and the dude starting swinging at the cops.

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We could see the Virgen del Panecillo from Plaza de San Francisco which is a giant winged Virgin Mary statue that is visible from almost everywhere in the city. Caro told us that the road leading up to the statue goes through a very dangerous neighborhood where you have a 50% chance of getting mugged after dark. Me and the Irish guy looked at each other and I said “if we go it’s either me or you.”

Then we went inside Iglesia Católica San Francisco, which had a beautiful ornate ceiling but also these creepy statues with real human hair and baby faces that look like they’re staring at you. The tour ended in Plaza de La Victoria with a few last good facts and jokes from Caro. The guide can make all the difference with these free walking tours and she crushed it.

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Me and the Irish Canadian couple went out for drinks after on Calle La Ronda, which is a colorful street with lots of bars. They were a fun pair of people and we had a good time chatting and cracking jokes. I immediately vibed with them on the walking tour and the energy was even better over some beers. They had a flight out that night otherwise I would have spent more time with them. It was dark at this point and I had a 10-minute walk home. I know Quito is not the best place to walk around at night, but I was a little buzzed and it was a short walk, so I put on my New Orleans face and power walked home.

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I went back to Community Hostel for the nightly family dinner. It was a good way to meet people. There were quite a few British people I was chatting with (Jordan and Amelia of note), an America guy Asad, and another Irish couple. The drinks were flowing as we all prepared for the pub crawl organized by the hostel. Around 10:15 we hopped in a mini-van for the first of the four bars we were going to. It wasn’t very crowded, mostly our crew from the hostel, but I kicked back a few beers and they gave us a free shot. The second bar we went to had karaoke and an Ecuadorian girl wanted me to sing with her so of course I abided. But she chose a Bruno Mars song that I had never heard so it was a struggle. She knew the words better in her broken English than I did trying to read them directly off the screen.

Then we went to the 3rd bar which was more of a club and much higher energy. This is when the party really got going as the volunteers from the hostel were passing around fish bowl drinks. I was quite drunk by the 4th bar which was another packed out club with high energy and lots of dancing. Memory of this is hazy but I know I was having fun. I got back to the hostel around 3 and Jordan and I shot the shit for another hour. It was a much-needed fun drunken party night with lots of socialization.

Basilica del Voto Nacional

I woke up the morning after the bar crawl around 9 feeling pretty rough but I forced myself to have a productive day. After breakfast in the market, I went to the Basilica del Voto Nacional or the “Ecuadorian Notre Dame” as Caro liked to call it. It was designed by a French architect who was inspired by the Notre Dame, so she really isn’t wrong. It has two large clock towers toward the front that perfectly align with the Virgen del Panecillo and another smaller tower toward the back.

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This beautiful church looms over the city and it currently stands as the largest neo-Gothic church in South America. The outside façade is lined with gargoyles and animals that are endemic to Ecuador, including iguanas, tortoises, armadillos. and condors. Construction on the church began in 1884 and it is said to still not be completed – local superstition stays that the day the basilica is completed is the day the world will end.

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I had no clue what I was doing when I first arrived so I paid $2 to get into the main downstairs church area. I walked around for a short bit and there was even a sermon going on. But I really just wanted to go up top and get the views. I found out that I needed to go to a different ticketing office for that. So, for another $2, I started walking up the staircase (they do also have an elevator). It was about 16-20 floors to the top of the two towers but worth it for the amazing panoramic view of Quito, a city that just never seems to end with red roofed houses as far as the eye could. This city is already sitting at over 9,000 feet and yet it is still surrounded by huge mountains and volcanoes. It truly was a magnificent view.

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When I was heading down, I noticed that they have a bar on the 12th floor. I was still nursing my hangover, but having a beer in a church seemed like a novel idea. I mean how often do I really get to drink a beer in the house of God? And it was just the medicine I needed. I ended up chatting up the Venezuelan girl (Pao) who was working behind the bar. I must have still been feeling drunk from the night before, because after one sip of beer, my Spanish was flowing and we started having some really good conversations. She and I were jabbering about who knows what when these two Mexican guys sat at the bar and I starting chatting it up with them as well. They were in a band touring around South America and had played in Quito the night before. We had some good convos talking about music and traveling. All of the sudden I was really in my zone sitting at the bar chatting with strangers in Spanish. I ended up ordering a second beer and continuing to shoot the shit with all of them. It was a really proud moment in my Spanish speaking career. Then the Mexican guys left and I also continued along my way after my second beer. But not before Pao asked me if I had seen the views from the other side of the church. I said no and she told me to go up a few floors then walk across.

I am so glad to have gotten this tip from Pao because the other side of the church had even more spectacular views. You got the perspective of viewing the city between the two towers as well as more 360 views of Quito and the gorgeous surrounding backdrop. There was one part that was not for those afraid of heights. There was this steep, ladder-like staircase that you had to climb while gripping metal rungs. I wouldn’t want to do that one a rainy day.

La Floresta

After my fun morning/early afternoon in Basilica del Voto Nacional, I decided to keep exploring Quito by doing what I do best in big cities…power walking. I looked up a few parks on the map and started walking in their direction (I always like to find good green spaces in big cities to walk around or rest in). I walked through Parque La Alameda up to Parque El Ejido, where I found a nice place to lie on the ground and relax. The day was still young and I didn’t have a plan. While I was lying there and thinking, I remembered reading a few days before on a “Quito things to do” blog that there was a cool off the beaten path neighborhood with a movie theater. I was feeling really confident about my Spanish after the interactions that I had at the basilica so I figured fuck it, why not go to see a movie in Spanish? I found the blog post about the neighborhood, La Floresta, and the indie movie theater, Ocho y Medio. I looked up how far it would be to walk and it was about 30 minutes. Perfect!

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The center of La Floresta had a totally different feel than the other neighborhoods that I had been to in Quito. It was a much more artsy and hipster feel: there was colorful buildings, walls covered in murals, art galleries, cafes, clothing stores, restaurants. It’s become a popular area for communities of artists and writers to move into. I was liking my decision to come check out this different part of town.

I walked into Ocho y Medio with no knowledge of the movie schedule and asked at the ticket counter what I could see. They told me there was a showing at 3:30. It was currently 2:45. Great! I’ll take one. I didn’t even ask any questions. I was in for whatever it was. I ordered a glass of wine at the movie theater bar, found a comfy sofa, and just people watched. Then right before the showing I got another glass of wine and found a seat in the theater. I had no clue what to expect.

It turned out to be 3 short films for a film festival. I didn’t exactly love any of them. At least they were short? Each film was 10-15 minutes long. I was able to understand most of the dialogue because it was just passive Spanish listening, but even if the movies were in English, I don’t think I would have fully understood the artists’ visions. They were just too indie and abstract for me. The first and third were super weird; the second one was decent. I honestly don’t even have notes from them, nor would it be worth sharing. All I do remember is that one of them was about a girl getting pregnant and then they pretty overtly showed some scenes from the pregnancy. So yeah that type of vibe.

My favorite part was afterwards when the directors talked about their work and answered questions from the crowd. It was a cool interactive experience to be a part of and gave me a further glimpse into Ecuadorian culture. I didn’t understand everything the directors said nor all the questions asked but I got the general gist. And it did make me respect their films more afterwards. Overall, going to Ocho y Medio was a cool and different experience. I came out in a bit of a daze and walked about 10 minutes to a tasty Chinese place. It was night time at this point so I ubered home rather than walking and ended up having beers at the hostel with Amelia and chatting with her for hours.

Casa Museo Guayasamin

Okay this is kind of a stupid story, but also kind of funny. At least for me. On day 3 of Quito I woke up wanting to hike Pichincha (volcano right nearby Quito, more below when I actually do hike it) but the weather was too cloudy and ominous looking. One of the volunteers at the hostel highly recommended against it and showed me a video of him getting caught in some heavy rain and hail while hiking it a few weeks back. Okay that’s a no for today then. So instead, I went and got a haircut to at least feel productive with my morning. Afterwards I was chatting with Amelia and she recommended going to the Guayasamin Museum. It’s the former home of Oswaldo Guayasamín, who was a famous Ecuadorian painter, and it has a number of his works as well his collection of other pieces. I figured sure, why the heck not? I don’t have any plans and sounds cultured. So, I typed in Guayasamin in Uber and had a lovely ride with a driver that I was chatting with the whole way.

When I arrived at the building things seemed a little off but it matched what I had told him. I go inside and now it really doesn’t look like I’m in the right place. I asked for a tour at the front desk and immediately knew it was wrong. The lady gave me this expression like what do you mean? Another lady who was teaching a classroom saw how out of place I was and asked what I was doing here. I said I thought it was the Guayasamin Museum and she said no it’s the Guayasamin Institute; which is a school that teaches kids English. Wow classic mix up! But then she proceeded talking to me and asked if I wanted to join them on Sunday for a field trip up to Mindo. They love having English speakers come and talk with the kids. Honestly if I weren’t flying out to Santiago before then I would have considered. It would have been a fun, random experience and I could have also practiced my Spanish. Alas it didn’t work out. But what a funny scenario that all was. I looked into my mistake and I should have put Casa Museo Guayasamin to go to the correct place. It would be another 25 minute Uber there plus having to get home later. I felt defeated and just went back to Community Hostel. At least I had another nice convo with my Uber driver. So even though I didn’t get to go to the museum, I got a good laugh and some solid Spanish practice in with my Ubers.

And it was also a good thing I didn’t try to hike Pichincha. That afternoon when I was chilling in the hostel with Amelia and Jordan, it started dumping rain and even hail. So much so that the hostel started flooding and that poor Jordan had to switch hostels because his room was fucked.

Parque Carolina

The day after I got back from Secret Garden Cotopaxi, I met up with Spencer in Parque Carolina to hang out. Known as the Central Park of Quito, this gigantic green space makes you forget your in the center of the bustling capital of Ecuador. There is a plethora of activities one can do: a huge skate park, a small lake with water fountains and row boats, botanical gardens, soccer fields, volleyball courts, tennis courts, and a circular track. I chilled by myself for a bit before Spencer showed up and then we threw the frisbee around like some good ole American boys. Afterwards we went bar hopping in the area grabbing a few beers at each place. Then we said our goodbyes and I met up with Stefan for some beers at Bandido Brewery. We decided to have beer for dinner and I unintentionally ended up getting really drunk that night.

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Rucu Pichincha Hike (6.2 miles, 2700 feet elevation gain, in and out)

After 7 full weeks of being in Ecuador, it was my last day and I was lucky enough to have a sunny one. I didn’t have the best weather during my stay in Ecuador and wouldn’t necessarily recommend going in September and October. I woke up feeling pretty hung over from the long day of drinking before but had to take advantage of this nice weather. It was the perfect day to get some good city views. Stefan and I had discussed hiking Rucu Pichincha the night before. Pichincha is an active volcano next to Quito with three summits.

After I had my morningly breakfast and fruit juice at the market, Stefan and I met up in the center of town between our two hostels. He was surprised I was able to make it after how drunk I was the night before. We got a 15-minute Uber to the teleférico (cable car) that takes you 13,000 feet high to some incredible views of Quito as well as the start of the trailhead to Rucu Pichincha.

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At the top of the teleférico is a coffee shop with an amazing panoramic view of Quito. Supposedly on good day you can see Cotopaxi and a bunch of the other volcanoes but unfortunately it was too grey and cloudy. We started the hike and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that high altitude hiking while hungover is miserable. I felt like shit for first 30 minutes. I had a slight headache and while I normally get in great mindset while hiking, I was strugglin to find my happy place. I was just trying to push past this crappy feeling.

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The trail was a nonstop slight uphill along a wide dirt path with a few steep sections. Finally, after about 30-40 minutes I kicked the hangover and was starting to feel much better and enjoy myself. I was able to pick up my hiking pace to my normal hyper speed. After about an hour we reached the base of the real climb up the volcano.

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It was a flat path to get to the backside of the volcano with a few narrow edges before the steep uphill began. There wasn’t a clear-cut path to follow through the volcanic sand although some ways made more sense than others. I slowly worked my way up the steep, sandy switchbacks. We were over 14K feet high at this point so breathing was getting harder. The last couple hundred feet up was a scramble through the rocks and required a bit of rock climbing using all four limbs at certain parts.

I made it up to the top of the jagged summit a good bit before Steven (we both went at our own pace at the end) and felt super accomplished after how shitty I felt at the beginning of the hike. At 15,413 feet high, it’s pretty incredible that such a high altitude hike exists right next to Quito. I would do this all the time if I lived in the city. The view of the city was spectacular even with the clouds, although unfortunately couldn’t see any of the other volcanoes. The clouds were moving so fast that the views of the city came and went. At least we had something. We enjoyed the view at the top for about 20 minutes before it started getting cold. After scrambling down the rocks at the top, we had to side step our way down the steep sandy downhill then cruised the rest of the way. The sky was less grey now so we had great city views all the way down.

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Afterwards I had a nice donut and coffee at the café enjoying looking at Quito from above one last time before taking the teleférico down. Stefan and I had lunch in the center than parted ways. I took an Uber out to my hotel by the airport where I had a nice conversation with the Venezuelan driver the entire 45-minute ride. It was an amazing last day in Ecuador. I’m so glad to have ended my stay in the country on a good note: with a high altitude hike on a beautiful day. I really turned it around from the terrible hangover I started the day with. I ended Ecuador with a bang doing a 14er, 15er, and 16er on 3 of my last 4 days (stories about 14er and 16er in next blog post).

 

Yen (my former roommate) was coming to visit me in the beginning of November so I had to be in Santiago by November 2^nd. For the second time of trip, I had a friend visiting, which meant I had a deadline to be somewhere. While I was excited to see Yen, I hated having to be so planned with my schedule. If I had more time/didn’t have to meet up Yen then I probably would have gone to Bolivia after Ecuador and then come into Chile in the north through the Atacama Desert. But I decided there wasn’t enough time to power through Bolivia, and I wasn’t in a rush to get to Santiago, so I slowed down my already slow Ecuadorian pace even more. It was only the 17^th of October and my flight from Quito to Santiago wasn’t until the 30^th. These next couple stops were completely off the beaten path both for regular travelers and backpackers. I don’t think I met anyone else that went to either of these cities.

Archidona

Getting In

I got to the bus station in Baños and had nearly 2 hours to kill before the bus left for Tena. Once again getting wrong info from the hostel; they told me the bus left at 11:30 but it actually wasn’t until 1:30, so I grabbed some lunch nearby. The bus drove super slowly and the ride took 4 hours, which is longer than I thought it would take given the short distance on the map. Then I had to hop on another bus to get to Archidona. Tena wasn’t exactly the easiest bus station to figure out (shocker) but the timing worked out nicely where I found the correct bus going in the direction of Archidona and it left just seconds after I got on. This bus also drove super slowly and it took about 30 minutes. These jungle buses don’t exactly have the highest horse power. Then I got a taxi to Pacha Ecolodge and arrived a little after 6:30. It started raining as I arrived, just in time for Santi to show me around the lodge.

The City

Archidona is a colonial town in the Napa Province of Ecuador on the west side of the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest. It is just north of the town of Tena, which sometimes gets visited by backpackers for its cloud forest, waterfalls, and whitewater rafting. The reason that I even went to Archidona (well actually just outside town in an Ecolodge) was that my friend Erica in Denver had recommended it. A few weeks earlier, she had seen on my Instagram stories that I was in Ecuador and she said if I had time that I need to visit her friend’s lodge and go rafting. Erica and her boyfriend had stayed there a couple years before and had the best time. Her boyfriend is a whitewater rafting guide in Colorado so they are serious rafters. She told me that the owners are incredible, the property is beautiful, and the rafting top notch; turns out that she was spot on about all three of these things.

I messaged her friend Santi (the owner) upon my arrival in Baños letting him know I was Erica’s friend and that I was interested in staying at his lodge and rafting. He asked me what dates because him and his wife Dani were about to leave for a 2-week trip (which I later found out was to go to Florida and visit theme parks like Islands of Adventure). I told him I could be there by the 17^th and they were nice enough to accommodate me for two nights before they left for vacation. When I arrived, I was the only one staying at the entire lodge besides Santi, Dani, and the staff. While the lodging and kayaking were very expensive by Ecuadorian standards, I basically had a private experience with the owners during my entire stay. And it was an incredible one!

After my two days at the Pacha EcoLodge, I spent one night in the actual town of Archidona just relaxing, restocking on snacks, repacking by, and regrouping on travel plans. It’s a an offthe beaten path town that was very local and authentic. I didn’t see any other tourists and I was probably the first backpacker to visit all year. The town is not very built up with lots of construction on the road. It was a much-needed chill day after an adventurous last 10 days. There was a different energy in the air spectating this small jungle town. It was really cool to watch the kids running around, people grilling out in the streets using a blower to spark the fire, stray dogs everywhere. Things that I’ve seen a lot throughout my trip but something felt more real and down to earth watching people just living their lives here in Archidona.

The Lodging

The Pacha EcoLodge only has the capacity for 25 guests and is located just outside of Archidona on a beautiful 15-acre property with private beaches on the Misahuallí River, ornamental gardens of local plants, fruit trees, and incredible vistas of the Amazon Rainforest. They’ve really created an incredible vibe and energy to the place. I easily could have spent a month hanging out here. It would be a great place to bring a big group of friends and go rafting for a few days. Or even do a family vacation when the kids are a little older and more adventurous. I stayed in a Glamping cabin, the cheapest option at around $50, which had a nice big bed and a patio with incredible views of the luscious jungle trees.

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After my two nights at Pacha EcoLodge, I just got a cheap hotel in Archidona which served its purpose as a place to chill out and relax.

The People

Santiago (Santi) and Daniela (Dani) were as amazing as Erica had advertised. They were incredibly friendly and welcoming people who were living the good life running their eco lodge and river rafting business. They were originally from Quito but moved to the jungle to live more in nature and to do what Santi loves best: run the river. They had an incredible operation going here with boutique luxury style accommodations in the jungle, insanely good food (more on that shortly), and river adventure activities (kayaking, whitewater rafting, multi day trips, instruction courses). This was such a great experience to stumble upon and I am so happy that Erica steered me in this direction.

Santi spoke really good English and we had some great chats over the couple days I was there. He’s from Quito but has been a rafting guide in the US and Ecuador for a long time. He started his own place to run people down the river. He also told me about how wild Ecuadorian New Year’s Eve is (I heard this from my host family in Montanita too) and some of the wacky traditions they have. I need to come back one year. During breakfast on the day that I was running the river, Santi told me how Channing Tatum came solo without security team and went rafting on the same rapids I would be doing. Bear Grylls also came and he was fake; they had to do a bunch of takes for everything. Rafting was too dangerous for him so they didn’t even go.

Santi also told me how their lodge had become a popular destination for whitewater raft and kayaking guides in the US to come on vacation and run the river. He would take them out the first day to ensure that they had the skillset and knowledge to go down the river without his team’s assistance than he would let them rent kayaks/rafts to go themselves. If you’re ever wondering where the river guides like to go on vacation, this was the spot. I’m sure it’s perfect for Santi too since all he has to do is rent them the equipment and let them be on their merry way. And it gives him an opportunity to meet all the different river junkies from the US. He also does kayak instruction courses where he teaches students how to solo kayak down the river. So, he really does have a diversity of services that they offer from the lodge.

Dani spoke a little English, but not too much, so it was a good opportunity to practice my Spanish with her. The dinner on the day after finishing my rafting trip, I spent the whole meal and even an hour after speaking in Spanish with Dani and Santi. I hadn’t spoken much Spanish the last 10 days so it was nice to see that I still had it. We had some really good conversations and discussed some topics that I hadn’t talked about in Spanish before. My time from living with my Ecuadorian family had paid off. We talked about how our generation had such a good perspective seeing the changes in technology having lived both before and after the Internet. Even though they were about 5 years older than me, since they are from Ecuador, they grew up way behind me as far as technology is concerned. They used cassettes much longer into the 90s and even into the 2000s before CDs even became more common. Dani is a big theme park and roller coaster fan, hence why they were going to Islands of Adventure, and we started talking about the old computer game Roller Coaster Tycoon. Now there’s a conversation I never thought I would have in Spanish. 

Another great person at the EcoLodge was one of their chef’s, Jordan. He was a super friendly guy who also spoke really good English. I could tell he liked to practice so we stuck to English when I talked to him and we had some really nice conversations. Although one did give me a bit of traveler’s guilt, because when I told him I had saved enough money to travel for 8 months, he talked about how hard it is for anyone to save in Ecuador. The salaries are so low, even for professions like doctors and financiers, that people only have just enough money to provide for themselves and their families. And I did notice in Ecuador, more than anywhere else in South America, that people really hadn’t traveled much; even within their own country. It’s just too expensive and is a luxury they can’t afford. Of course, it’s a known fact that Ecuador isn’t the wealthiest country, but it’s always more interesting to hear a first-hand perspective from a local talking about these types of things. 

The Food

The Pacho EcoLodge provided an incredible food experience. A giant breakfast spread was included with my stay; and the dinner cost an extra fee but was worth every penny. Jordan and Carlos made fine dining style meals with a creative approach and fresh ingredients. For dinner the first night we had an incredible lasagna with guacamole, cucumber salad, and a mango pepper salsa. Then for dessert we had homemade ice cream and a brownie. Wow what a delicious start to my stay here!

The following morning before we went rafting, they loaded me up with eggs, patacones, and a massive fruit bowl. Our lunch on the river was a delicious burrito with fresh hot sauce and homemade muffins. We also drank guayusa, which is a caffeinated tea made from leaves of Amazonian holly tree. It is very popular drink in these parts that I ended up trying multiple times.

The second night we had another amazing dinner with curried chicharron, rice, guacamole, and a veggie salad; followed by homemade ice cream and blond brownie for dessert. They really know how to feed you right at the Pacho EcoLodge: before, after, and during a big day on the river.

My one day in town at Archidona I had a $1 seco de pollo lunch at a little hole in the wall. It wasn’t a huge serving, but at the price of less than a cheeseburger at McDonald’s, it sure hit the spot. Santi had told me that I had to try maita while I was in town so I was on the hunt to find it for dinner. I ended up in this “outdoor food court” area with all these different food stands selling their local catch of the day. Every one of them was yelling at me and trying to get me to come to their restaurant. It seemed like as good a place as any to try maita tilapia. This traditional Ecuadorian jungle dish is prepared cooking a river fish in a banana leaf (called bijao). The bijao gets softened on the grill then the fish gets wrapped in the leaf and cooked to soak in flavors. My plate was served with a lemon, yuca, onion and tomato salad, and a pitcher of guayusa.

It was incredibly delicious and would definitely be my go-to dish if I lived in the Amazonian rainforest. The fish was cooked perfectly inside the banana leaf and was the perfect softness and juiciness to absorb all the different spices used. Since they gave me an entire pitcher of guayusa, I just sat there after dinner drinking tea and people watching. One crazy observation that I made; was everyone was still on their cell phone when looking at the family of 6 at the table next to me. Even in this tiny jungle town in the middle of nowhere Ecuador, family dinners still mean everyone is engaged in their cell phones rather than each other.

The Experience

Kayaking Jondachi and Hollín Rivers

I had originally reached out to Santi about a whitewater rafting trip, but since I was going solo and there were no other guests at the lodge, he said that we would have to do a kayaking trip on inflatable duckies. There were two trip options: one that included class II and III rapids; or one that was a longer day on the water and included class III and IV rapids. I had never done IK (Inflatable Kayak) before so I was a little unsure. With whitewater rafting I would definitely choose the harder one. I messaged Santi and told him I had gone rafting quite a few times but never IK, and I asked which expedition would he recommend. He said if I have an adventurous spirit and was willing to spend a little more money than definitely the class III and IV day because it was more fun rapids to run and the landscape more beautiful. Sold!

I had some slight nerves and anxiety after breakfast while we loaded up the truck with the IKs. I always get a little pre-rafting anxiety since the thought of falling out in the river scares me, but usually those fears are alleviated by the adrenaline rushing reward of going through the rapids. Jordan drove us in the truck 15 minutes to where we got out and hiked down to the drop off point. On the drive over, all the locals came running out of their houses to be the first ones to show up and help hike the kayaks the 20-25 minutes down to the river and make a quick buck. I guess this is a big source of income for some of the families living this far away from everything and it’s a first come, first serve type of employment.

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Without having to worry about the kayaks; me, Santi, and Pacho (the other guide) hiked down about 25 minutes on slippery, muddy rocks through the jungle. We got to the river and while Pacho blew up the kayaks, Santi and I hiked a little further to the Gran Canon which was a little swimming hole and a 25-meter cave. We had to swim across the water and climb up some slippery rocks to get up into the cave where 2 bats flew out upon our arrival. Santi told me they used to kayak down the waterfall before it caved in. Crazy rafters! The water was quite cold but felt very refreshing.

Then we hiked back and got our day started with some safety instructions and tips on how to kayak down the river. Pacho and I were together in a 2-person kayak and Santi was in a solo kayak always in front of us to take on the rapids first and to be ready for us in case of any safety needs. They even had me practice falling into the water and grabbing hold of the kayak to either float holding onto it or quickly jump back in depending on the scenario. The morning along the Jondachi River was pretty mellow and it got me used to kayaking rapids versus being in a raft. You can feel every little wave as it hits the kayak and it pushes you so much more. Body weight and how you shift your body when hitting the rapids factors in more. When whitewater rafting, you have to really rely on the whole group being in unison and sometimes you have some weak links. But since it was just two of us rowing, we could control the kayak much better. It’s also way easier to see the lines in the water that the guides are following through the rapids since we were sitting so much lower. Of course, Pacho did most of the heavy lifting throughout the morning and I only paddled when needed. He wanted me to save my arm strength for the more difficult rapids after lunch. The jungle scenery was absolutely stunning as we floated down the river surrounded by massive canyons with luscious green plants and trees and the occasional waterfall. We went through a few small rapids in the morning but nothing too crazy.

We stopped for lunch to eat our incredible burrito with fresh hot sauce, guayusa tea, and homemade muffins. Then the real adrenaline rushing adventure began. We got pummeled by the first bigger rapid in the afternoon and it knocked me out of the kayak. I was only in the water for a few seconds and it wasn’t as scary as falling out of a raft. Maybe because we were already lower to the water, or maybe because I got lucky that I fell in right next to the kayak and was easily able to get back in. Either way it was good to get that feeling of falling into the water out of the way so I would be more prepared if it happened again. 

We reached a fork into the river where we got onto the Hollín river and this is when things started getting way more intense. We really had to paddle through the next few rapids shifting our body weight to keep the kayak from flipping. It provided such a thrill as our kayak thrashed through the rapids and we followed this line in the center of them. Some of the bigger rapids had us absolutely soaked as we worked our way through them. We even survived the infamous “waffle maker.” A few crashing rapids nearly had me flying out of the kayak but I properly read them and shifted my body weight appropriately so as not to fall out. Later on, Erica told me that her whole crew flipped on the waffle maker and it was one of the worst flips she’d ever had. Pacho told me it’s the hardest rapid of the day, so I was happy to have survived that one.

We had a few more medium sized rapids ahead before we took a break at a giant rock that Santi and I jumped into the river from. The day ended with some more medium rapids before seeing a giant waterfall to our left and cruising into the finish line with some baby rapids. Pacho let me get in the back of the kayak and guide through the last couple small rapids. I was able to start reading the lines and it was fun to control maneuvering the kayak between them. It also helped to follow the route Santi was making. Maybe one day I could be a river guide…although that’s probably not where my life is heading. But this trip made me want to get a little more into the idea of self-guided rides or going with experienced friends. It was a very accomplishing day running the river on the kayak and I would definitely do the inflatable kayaking again. Of course, Pacho did all the heavy lifting, but you have way more influence on the ride down the river when it’s just 2 people paddling. Dani picked us up at the end of the river and it was the first time I really got to chat with her.

Cascadas Yanayaku

I woke up the next morning after kayaking with super sore arms even though I barely did anything compared to guides. Dani and Santi had already left for the airport, but there was another huge and delicious breakfast awaiting me. Jordan and I chatted during breakfast and he ended up giving me a ride to the Cascadas Yanayaku on his way into town. This a small hike from the center of the Yanayaku community (right nearby the school and the playground) through the jungle to a waterfall. The 10-minute walk led to a beautiful waterfall where I sat in the light rain listening to the sounds of the water crashing and reflecting on my past week. It was a very powerful and meditative experience.

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Papallacta

Getting In

One of the hard parts about leaving a small town in Ecuador (like Archidona) is that there is no bus terminal so you just have to stand on the corner of the street waiting for the correct bus to drive by. My hotel told me to just wait on the main street for a bus headed to Quito since Papallacta was on the way. Many buses passed by but none heading where I wanted. And there was really no way to find out besides yelling Papallacta at them as they drove by. I had no idea how long I would actually be waiting, but finally after about 25 minutes there was a bus headed to Quito that stopped and picked me up. It was a beautiful 2.5-hour bus ride through the Ecuadorian rainforest with landscape covered in bright green vegetation, rolling hills with clouds caught in them, and the occasional waterfall. 

The City

Papallacta is another random small town that rarely gets visited by backpackers or other foreign tourists. It sits at an altitude of just over 10,800 feet high is located in the Cayambe-Coca National Park. The town is actually a popular day trip or one night trip for Ecuadorians from Quito because it has beautiful hot springs. I had never heard of Papallacta before, but a few days earlier I was looking on AllTrails for places to hike on my way toward Quito, and I discovered a gorgeous looking laguna hike right outside Papallacta. Upon further research, I saw that the town was famous for its hot springs so I figured why not spend a day or two here.

The Lodging

I stayed at a little hotel up the hill from Papallacta, within walking distance to the hot springs. Upon my arrival I extended my stay from 1 night to 2 nights. I still had over a week until my flight from Quito to Santiago so I was really in no rush. I figured why not just relax and enjoy myself in this small town where I could walk to the hot springs every day.

The Food

There were a couple of little restaurants between my hotel and the hot springs and while they weren’t anything too special, I actually had a really nice trout and veggies dish for my first meal. I also ate some Ecuadorian classics while I still could like chuleta (pork chop) and seco de pollo.

The Experience

Hot Springs

The hot springs had gorgeous views of the mountains and the location had a number of different pools to swim in: 2 cold pools, 2 medium size hot pools, a large hot pool, and a lot of little hot pools. It wasn’t very crowded during the day either. It was super nice to relax my sore muscles from kayaking. I hopped between the hot and cold pools repeatedly since this is supposed to be good for circulatory system and muscle soreness. I ended up spending nearly 2 hours here before doing the little hike next to the springs.

My next day in town, I went back again for a 2nd round after completing my nice, long hike earlier in the day. This time I went at night. It was much more crowded in the evening than during the daytime and understandably so; hot springs usually feel nicer at night. Although I’m glad I also went the day before when it was light out to be able to see the views. The pools felt hotter at night since the outside air is cooler. Now that I knew a good bit of Spanish, it was interesting to soak in the hot water and overhear the different conversations going on.

Termas de Papallacta Hike (1.4 miles, 315 feet elevation gain, in and out)

I was super relaxed after the hot springs on the first day, but I still wanted to hike the short trail right next to the property. The trail turned out to be the perfect mellowness for a post hot spring walk. It started in a cow pasture but quickly turned into a heavily forested narrow path along the river. 

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It was just me and the sound of the river. Pure tranquility and relaxation. The short and easy trail still provided great views of the trees and the river.

Laguna Paracocha (8.1 miles, 3009 feet elevation gain, 600 feet elevation loss, point to point)

This was the hike that drew me into coming to Papallacta so I was excited for the day ahead. I woke up around 8:30 and snagged a $10 taxi from the hotel to the entrance of the ecological reserve where the trailhead started. It seemed a bit pricey for a 20-minute drive but the road was rough and what other options did I have? Plus, I don’t mind paying a bit extra if I feel like it’s really going to help that person out. $10 meant a lot more to this taxi driver in Papallacta than it did to me. I told the him I would need a ride home later, around 2-2:30 and would WhatsApp him around then. Although I wasn’t sure that I would even have service in the reserve so it could make for an interesting afternoon trying to get home. It was a future me problem anyways. At least I got to the trailhead and could begin my day hiking.

The morning sky was very mysterious with one direction looking blue and beautiful and the other covered with ominous, dark clouds. The landscape reminded me a lot of the hike I did in the Cajas National Park outside of Cuenca with similar green vegetation, flora, and deep blue colored lagunas. The path was more of an ATV road width than a trail but the landscape was still absolutely beautiful. It was a gradual uphill hike with a few flat sections and a few steeper parts (but compared to hiking Mr. T this was a cakewalk).

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Throughout the morning I must have passed at least 10 lagunas without seeing a single other person. It was an amazing feeling getting to be surrounded by all this beautiful nature in complete isolation and solitude from everything else. My soul was happy and my mind clear. I was either silently soaking in the views or introspectively thinking about and appreciating my amazing time in Ecuador. I had started off a little uncertain about how much I liked the country; partially because it was the first point of my trip that I was really starting to feel tired of traveling. But now that I was 6 weeks in and could reflect back upon my time in Ecuador, I loved this country and the experiences that I had equally as much as Peru and Colombia. Each country was unique and incredible in their own ways. I also learned to adapt my travel style in Ecuador to match my energy. I spent a lot more days staying solo in hotels and doing my own thing; and it was exactly what I needed to replenish my energy and explore the country at the pace that I wanted to.

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Back to the hike…I was very acclimated to the elevation at this point. The lake was just over 13K feet and my breathing felt like it might as well be at sea level. Well, that might be an overstatement, but I certainly wasn’t having any struggles with the high altitude. Once I arrived at Laguna Paracocha, I sat by the lake for a while: eating snacks, meditating, relaxing, listening to the soft sound of the rippling lake water and the birds chirping, and feeling the light breeze against my face. I was in a state of total bliss. I used it as a moment to reflect on how grateful I am for this entire backpacking experience and how much it’s changed my life for the better. I started thinking about future travel and remote work I want to do and where my life might head; but I was also soaking in the here and now.

Instead of going back downhill the way that I came, the hiker’s amnesia I talked about in my last blog post kicked in. It was only 12pm so I had the whole afternoon ahead of me. I decided to take the long loop back with no knowledge of what was ahead. The only reason I even knew about the loop was that I could see the dotted lines on AllTrails. 

The trail continued next to Laguna Paracocha along a narrow path with overgrown bushes and lots of mud. This was clearly a path less traveled. The terrain was very swampy and there were a few parts that I couldn’t avoid the mud. There was even once or twice when I stepped into the mud and sank deeper than expected; covering my entire boot and even some of my pants. Then began a steep climb up muddy steps as I worked my way above the lake.

The terrain changed to a more reddish-orange flora and I passed by another beautiful lagoon. The trail continued to be non-stop uphill and at some point, there wasn’t even much of a trail to follow. I just had to look for the yellow poles that were in the ground for guidance. At this point I was eating my thoughts about being well acclimated as the trail just continued to go up and my breathing got heavier. I didn’t know what to expect, but it was certainly more challenging than I anticipated. The afternoon clouds and fog were really starting to roll in and I could barely see very far in front of me. I reached about 14,330 when I finally made it to the top. Woohoo unintentionally crossed 14K again!

I heard some voice and ran into my first people of the day. It was 3 women from Quito who spoke good English and we started chatting a bit. I walked along the road with them and it was coming to the point where I would need to find the trailhead that loops back toward where I started, but it was super foggy and a light drizzle had started. The women said they could give me a ride to the highway and when I couldn’t really find the trailhead that AllTrails claimed would take me back, I took them up on the offer. I could have looked harder to find the trail and would have been fine to hike back, but at the time it just seemed easier and smarter to go with them.

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They were very friendly and gave me recommendations in Quito and the surrounding area. They also showed a lot of interest in my travel experience. I was actually at a different entrance to the reserve than the one I started at the beginning of the day so my hike unintentionally ended up being a point-to-point since I didn’t finish the loop. The women drove me about 10 minutes until we hit the highway where one way went toward Quito and the other went toward Papallacta. I thanked them for the ride and they dropped me off on the side of the highway. I just had to hope I could get a taxi or bus in a reasonable amount of time. Luckily, I had been in Ecuador long enough and was used to standing on the side of the road waiting for an indefinite amount of time for a ride. It was looking bleak at first; not many cars drove by. But after waiting less than 10 minutes a bus came by and picked me up. Ahhh I love the South American way where buses just pick people up on the side of the road. No need to worry about finding a real bus stop. I felt like a true local hopping on at this random location. For just $1, I rode the bus 15-20 minutes back to the entrance of Papallacta. I grabbed a cheap menú del día lunch by the bus stop and decided against a taxi and walked the 25 minutes uphill to my hotel. The road was actually steeper at parts than the trail. Why do I do this to myself?

A quick aside before I start this next blog post. I got home from my trip two days ago, on February 4^th, after being in South America for just under 8 months and being gone from the US for 8.5 months in total (including my Israel and Portugal trip). The culture shock began at the airport where it was weird hearing everyone around me speaking English and even just going to the counter to order food at Wendy’s felt like a crazy experience. I was also finally able to flush my toilet paper in the toilet again. Sometimes it’s the little things. Then 15 minutes after we got home from the Tampa airport; Mom, Dad, and I went to the Subaru dealership for me to test drive new cars (because I need to buy one in the next 12 days before starting the road trip back to Denver). Talk about a huge culture shock. The price of a new Subaru is more than it costs to backpack around South America for 8 months. Hmmm let’s see buy a car or go on the adventure of a lifetime; touch decision. Uhhhh why did I even come home? 

It’s a crazy feeling being back in the US and there is so much to reflect on from this trip. My brain is all over the place right now. While I am sad that the trip is over and all these amazing experiences are now behind me, I am so grateful for having had this opportunity to go on this journey that far exceeded all my expectations. I have so many new experiences, stories, friends from all over the world, perspectives on things, wisdom, knowledge, and so much more. While it flew by in some regards, it also feels like I have lived 100 lifetimes since I was last in Denver. It’s so nice be home in Sarasota at my parents’ houses in a comfortable place where I don’t have to repack my bag, figure out my next travel plans, talk to a bunch of new people, go out and order food in Spanish, etc. It was really weird this morning having so many clothing options to choose from. 

It actually feels like I have so much time on my hands now. These next few weeks are going to be a great way to decompress my past 8 months and start moving forward into the next stage of my life with my new post-backpacking South America perception on my life and the world. I feel renewed and rejuvenated after this experience and am very excited for the future ahead.

All that being said, I am still about 4 months behind on this blog so I will be slowly catching up on this as well. Luckily, I have lots of good notes on my phone and it is going to be way easier to write entries now that I have a laptop rather than using my phone. It’s still going to be time consuming and take awhile for me to write all the stories, but the blog posts will be more frequent over these next couple of weeks. It will also be a good way for me to re-live these memories as I fill in the blanks on all my various scatter brain notes.

Getting In

After trekking the Quilatoa Loop for 3 days, our (me, Lena, Sophia, Andi, and Heidi) bus from Quilatoa got back to Latacunga a little before 6pm and from there we had to take a 1 hour bus to Ambato and then a different 1 hour bus to Baños. But first we had to get our big bags from the hostel. The receptionist at the hostel told me the buses from Ambato to Baños stop going at 7, but it’s South America and no one ever knows the true bus schedule so we decided to go for it. I’ve learned that in Ecuador you just have to start traveling in the direction you want to head and figure out the rest as you go. We hopped on the first bus to Ambato and told the guy we were going to Baños (by we, I mean me, as I was the best Spanish speaker in the group). In contrary to what the hostel told us, he said there would still be buses running to Baños at this hour. As we got closer to Ambato, the bus attendant came and rushed us off saying we could flag down a bus to Baños from here. The bus had dropped us off at a gas station on the highway just outside of Ambato. Oh Ecuador you just never know what will happen next. 

Luckily there was an Ecuadorian guy in his early 20s waiting at the gas station too. I asked if he was also waiting for the bus and told him we were trying to go to Baños. He was going to a town just passed Baños so he was looking for the same bus that we would need. At least we were in the same boat as him because otherwise I didn’t know what bus we were even trying to flag down from this highway gas station. And obviously the bus attendant didn’t tell us what to look for when he rushed us off the last bus. 

There was 5 of us so worse comes to worse we could taxi the 50 minutes to Baños or just get a hostel in Ambato and leave the next morning. Plus standing at a gas station at 7:45pm in the outskirts of Ambato felt safer with 5 people than when traveling alone. We waited for over a half hour and multiple buses flew by that the local tried to flag own with no success. Countless buses going to Riobamba also drove by, and while they would actually stop, that didn’t help any of us. At some point another Ecuadorian guy, who was also heading in the same direction as us, came to wait, so at least we were seemingly in the right place. Finally, after having waited for nearly an hour, a bus came that was headed in the direction of Baños and stopped to pick up all of us standing in front of the gas station. Success! It felt like we were traveling like true locals catching the bus on the side of the highway. Always an interesting experience when you’re traveling here. I was really hungry so I decided to buy a bowl of chicken and rice from one of the ladies that came onto the bus to sell her food. It wasn’t great but for $1 I couldn’t really complain. We ended up making it to Baños just before 10, ordered some pizza, and all crashed early after a long day. It was crazy to think that we had been hiking the final day of the Quilatoa Loop that very same morning.

The City

Baños de Aguan Santa is a small, laidback town in central Ecuador that is a gateway to the nearby Amazon Basin. While most people in the world have never heard of Baños, it is very well known in the backpacker community as the adventure sports capital of Ecuador (similar to San Gil in Colombia). You can do all the extreme sports in and around this one city: bungee jumping, whitewater rafting, zip-lining, canyoning, biking, hiking, etc. The town got its name from several hot pools bubbling from the ground and so it’s also a top destination for hot springs. It is located in the valley at the base of the active volcano Tungurahua and the town itself is surrounded by luscious green hills and countless waterfalls.

Overall, I had a great time in Baños as it served as a hub for adventurous backpackers looking to push themselves outdoors. I had a nice social blend of hanging out with the Quilatoa crew I came with and meeting new people at the hostel. My experience here was interesting because I didn’t actually do a lot of the typical adventure activities that most people come here to do: I didn’t raft because I was kayaking down rapids in the jungle in a few days; I didn’t do the bike tour to different waterfalls because I was too hungover; I didn’t bungee jump because it scares me; and I didn’t zipline or go canyoning because I didn’t feel the need. Instead, I went on the Swing at the End of the World, attempted to hike to the top of Tungurahua, and partied with new friends.

The Lodging

Me, Lena, Sophia, Andi, and Heidi stayed at the Great Hostels Backpacker. Stupid name, I know, but it was a nice spot to meet people and socialize. There was a fire pit out front, that never actually had a fire, but it was a good place for people to sit around and chat. Then inside the lobby area was a pool table and a bar so that was always another good place to hang out.

It was nice because we had a big enough group that our 6-person dorm for the first 2 nights turned out to just be the 5 of us. Our good group chemistry and energy from the Quilatoa Loop continued over the next couple of days.

The People

Of course, I had my crew from the Quilatoa Loop so we all spent a lot of time together over the first few days before the crew ultimately split up: Andi left after 2 days to catch a flight to Galapagos, Sophia and Lena left a day before me to go to Cuenca, and Heidi kind of just stopped spending as much time with us and left at some point. Toward the end of the Quilatoa Loop we realized that she didn’t quite fit in with the group as much as the core 4.

This hostel was the most people from the US that I had met in one place on my trip up to this point. I didn’t expect Baños to be such a hot spot for Americans but I guess the word is out. I must have met at least 8 other Americas during my 4 nights at the hostel. Most of them were just doing the typical US style of travel for 2-4 weeks. Then there was Sebastian. He was from LA but had been living in Ecuador for a few years, first in Montañita and now in Baños working as an employee at the hostel. He was super cocky and could be annoying, but we did have some good conversations. “Bro if you need anything I’ve got you covered. I know everyone in the tourist industry in this town. I have the hook ups.” One of those types of people. There was 2 American guys, Theo and Everett, that were absolute characters. They were the typical loud and obnoxious Americans with really idiotic tendencies and dirty senses of humor. At times they were annoying and other times they were super entertaining. They reminded me a lot of some people I know at home, and I ended up getting along really well with them. I think I just needed a small taste of goofy American characters.

Then randomly enough, Alec from Belgium, the guy I had shared the tiny 3 person B&B with in Machalilla the week before showed up at the hostel with this Swiss girl Luna and her friend Elias. When I wasn’t with my Quilatoa group then I was hanging out with them and the American guys. We spent a lot of time at the hostel drinking beers and shooting the shit. There was a few other Dutch and Canadians that would also hang out with us. One night Luna and I had a funny conversation where I asked her if she preferred sweeping or mopping. I’m not sure how we got to that topic but it was nice to chat about something random like chores at home. It was not your normal topic of conversation after all these months backpacking. Overall, it was a very social hostel. Between this and the Quilatoa Loop, it was a week with a lot of English and not much Spanish practice. But I needed a week like this after doing 2 weeks of school and putting a lot of outside focus on Spanish. It was nice to take a break from learning Spanish and just enjoying myself.

The Food

There was nothing overly special about my food experience in Baños. One morning with my Quilatoa crew we went to a hot chocolate place with these oversized chairs that was kind of fun. Then that evening we cooked a group dinner at the hostel so it was good to not go out to eat for once. On my 4^th afternoon, Sebastian took a group of us to a restaurant where it was only $5 for a delicious lunch with zucchini soup, a big entree, juice, and desert. Not as cheap as some of the menu del dia meals I had in the past but it was a little fancier as well.

The Experience

Casa del Arbol

This is a fun little adventure park built on the top of the hill next to Baños with great views of the city down in the valley and of Tungurahua volcano (although it was a bit too cloudy to have a good view of the volcano). I took the bus up here with the Quilatoa gang on our first full day in town. There was a number of different viewpoints and structures setup to take photos and we were still in our goofy group mode so we took some silly photos that day.

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The park has a few swings built into the tree houses that allow you to swing over the edge of the mountain with amazing views. The swings have a seat belt which make them feel safer. There are a couple different swings and for the first one we took turns pushing each other.  

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But then the second one there was actually an employee working whose sole job is to push you on the swing, so even though he’s a tiny Ecuadorian dude, he was very good at it. He would use all his force to really get you some air time and even spin you around in 360s. It was a little scary but also super fun. I mean what’s the worst that happens, you fly off the swing and roll down the mountain? Okay I guess that would be pretty bad.

There was also this sketchy looking caterpillar slide that ended with you landing on some old, beaten down mattresses. This old guy standing outside by the bus stop kept trying to convince us to go down. I was uncertain at first that we would even fit through the slide, but Andi is a big guy and he took one for the team and went down it first. Afterwards I decided that I had to give it a shot and it turned out to be quite fun.

Hike to Tungurahua Volcano, aka Mr. T (11.82 miles, 6464 feet elevation gain, 8850 feet elevation loss, in and out but we went down further than we started)

Tungurahua Volcano is the 10th highest peak in Ecuador with a summit at 5,023 meters or 16,479 feet. “Tungurahua” means”burning throat”in the Quechua language. It Is one Ecuador’s most active volcanos so it’s important to check with locals to make sure it’s a safe time to hike to the summit. The latest eruption began in October 1999 when the volcano became active again and initially prompted the evacuation of the entire town of Baños. When the volcano increased its activity in 1999, the ice cap melted away and the peak has been free of ice since then. During a long period starting from the year 1999, the climbing of the volcano was prohibited as dangerous due to repeated eruptions and it wasn’t until September 2016 that the Tungurahua area officially reopened.

Day 1 (3.8 miles, 4,100 feet elevation gain, point to point)

My legs were still pretty sore after having hiked 4 out of 6 days going to Laguna Verde in Illinizas National Park, taking a day off, then doing the 3-day trek to Quilatoa, taking a day off, and now I found myself already back on the trail once again. There is a term that I coined back in Colorado called “hiker’s amnesia” which applies to situations like this. I told Lena (and a few other hiking friends) about this term and they loved it so maybe some day I will become famous for it…or if I ever write a book about hiking then that will be its title. I came up with “hiker’s amnesia” last summer in Colorado on a day that I hiked both a 14er and 13er in the same morning. Basically, it’s a term for when you are hiking up to the top of a summit and start feeling a bit miserable toward the end but really push yourself to keep going. And then when you get to the top of the summit you have this sense of accomplishment and feel like you could hike more, so when you’re on the way back down you decide to do another peak because you have hiker’s amnesia and forgot how miserable you were at the end of the last climb. And once you start going up the second peak you once again are reminded about the endurance challenge you are putting yourself through. This term can also apply to hiking multiple days in a row. Even though I was exhausted by the end of the Quilatoa Loop, I was once again suffering from hiker’s amnesia and decided to try to hike to the summit of Tungurahua Volcano with Lena.

Lena is more about going off the beaten path when it comes to hiking so I’m glad she discovered this trail because I hadn’t even heard of Tungurahua Volcano until she mentioned it on the bus from Quilatoa back to Latacunga. It’s not necessarily well known in the backpacker circuit, or really anywhere in the world for that matter. She just had met someone earlier in her travels who summited it and said it was super challenging but had very rewarding views at the top. We could never actually remember the name of the volcano, and definitely didn’t know how to pronounce it correctly, so Lena and I just always called it Mr. T for short. We had cracked a lot of jokes about Mr. T over the last couple days so there was no way we couldn’t give it a shot.

Normally people hire a guide since the path from the Refugio to the summit is incredibly steep and not very well marked. It can be dangerous with risk of getting lost, wind conditions, and falling rocks due to how steep it is. However, Lena didn’t want to pay for a guide so we tried to gather some more information ourselves as there wasn’t a whole lot on the Internet. When we spoke with one worker at the hostel, he said it would be no problem getting to the Refugio without a guide and that we could go a little further, but it was unlikely we would be able to reach the top. Then another worker told us we wouldn’t even be able to hike passed the Refugio. There was definitely a lot of uncertainty going into the hike, but we figured we would just get as far as we were comfortable with; whether that was making it to the summit or just going passed the Refugio. If nothing else it was going to be nice hiking off the beaten path as this clearly isn’t a trail that is on many people’s radars. We would also have to see how the weather is to determine how far we can make it. Overall, it was the type thing that would make my mother very nervous. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little nervous myself, but hey I came on this trip to have some crazy adventures. And at least I’d be hiking with a partner who had just come off finishing the PCT so she’s clearly a very advanced and adept hiker who knows her limits and how to properly access the situation. 

The weather forecast for the next 2 days was a little dicey as far as rain goes, but then again, every day I was in Ecuador it said that it was going to rain all day. And more often than not it either didn’t rain at all or it only rained for a very short time period, so we knew not to totally trust that. You just can’t trust the forecast when you’re at the equator. Otherwise, you would never leave your house. It was a cloudy morning when we woke up, but at least it wasn’t rainy so we decided to start the trek up to the Refugio. And the day turned out to be even sunnier than expected.

We could have started the hike in town from Baños but there was really no reason to add all that extra mileage and elevation gain because we still had a long day ahead of us (it turned out to be over 4,000 feet elevation gain even from where we started), and day 2 was going to be super challenging to try to summit the volcano. We took a taxi as far as we could go up the winding road before he said he couldn’t go any further and then we started our hike to the Refugio. We had to walk about a mile uphill along the road before reaching the trailhead. There was no one working the desk at the entrance to the trailhead and the door was locked so that we couldn’t even register saying that we were staying the night at the Refugio in the Sangay National Park. But the day before I had been in contact with the Refugio via WhatsApp to ensure there was space for us to stay there (to find out later we were the only ones staying there) so at least they had written records saying that we were coming.

Lena and I are both experienced hikers so we just walked at our own paces and knew in the end that we would be meeting at the Refugio. She goes slower than me but has that long hiking mentality with a constant rhythm and pace. I mean she hiked from Mexico to Canada over the course of 5.5 months so she knows how to keep a strong and steady pace. I would always be some distance ahead, but occasionally took breaks and waited up for her. Since it was such a steep trail, and I was running on tired hiker’s amnesia legs, I had to take more breaks than usual.

I didn’t know what to expect from the hike up to the Refugio since our main focus had been on the following day when we would attempt to summit the volcano, but it turned out to be an incredibly beautiful trail. The trees had a tropical rainforest vibe and the vegetation was much greener than I thought it would be since we were so close to a volcano that had erupted just over 20 years before. There were lots of mossy trees and cool “tree tunnels” that we would walk through.

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The whole climb from the official start of the trailhead to the Refugio was a nonstop steep incline with the occasional viewpoint. This was a case where I really had to push myself hiking up such a steep trail with already sore calves and thighs. Not to mention we were going from 8,500 feet to 12,500 feet so it wasn’t exactly the easiest air to breathe. Some hikes are good for clearing your head and peacefully walking through nature, and others are meant to challenge yourself physically and mentally. This one was the latter.

I hadn’t seen anyone on the trail for over an hour when I overheard a guy talking to his guide on their way down. It turns out to be my Swiss friend Dave from my Spanish school in Montañita. What are the odds of seeing him out in the middle of nowhere on this random volcano hike after not having seen anyone else on the trail all day. Small world! We caught up a bit and he said the hike from the Refugio to the top was super hard. The guide was wondering if I was hiking alone and I said no I have a friend somewhere behind. He didn’t say it wasn’t possible to get to the top, but he had this look on his face like okay I hope you guys know what you’re doing. We’ll see how it goes.

As I continued walking, I met a group of 3 people – two from the US and one from Ireland. I started hiking up with the American girl because we had a similar pace and turns out she has a lot of parallels with Alex’s life: her name is Maya (like his daughter) and she is from Chapel Hill and went to UNC (his alma mater). She was a very chatty person so we talked the rest of the way up to the Refugio although sometimes it was difficult with the altitude and the steep elevation. Toward the end, we passed by a Turkish guy who had completed the summit solo (no guide or even hiking companion) and showed us some incredible photos from the top. He said it was very challenging the last 500 meters, but knowing he did it solo without a guide gave us some faith. All of the sudden Maya, who had only planned to do the Refugio, was like should I just stay up and do it. Total wildcard move since she was in shorts and a tank top and only had a rain jacket. I told her that Lena and I definitely have enough food (we had pasta to cook and so many snacks) and that I might even have some extra layers she could wear. And just like that, she made the impromptu decision to join me and Lena the next day.

Maya and I got to the top around 1 (Lena was about 15 min behind) and just hung out the rest of the afternoon eating lunch and other snacks, chatting, and enjoying the view. She was at the start of a 16-month trip around South America so she was quite adventurous and still had a very long time to go. Maya was a big hiker and backpacker so she fit right in with me and Lena, and we had some great conversations throughout the afternoon. Of course, like any good nature loving American she was asking Lena a lot of questions about the PCT. And like any good UNC graduate, she was describing the color of something and goes oh yeah it’s like a Carolina blue, as if Lena from Austria had any clue what color Carolina blue was. We all laughed about that one.

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It actually turned out to be a beautiful sunny afternoon and for the first time since arriving in Baños, we could see Mr. T perfectly. And he was definitely a very intimidating looking beast to climb. Even though we were so close distance wise, we still so looked far from the summit. Tomorrow was going to be a very challenging day. The clouds were moving so fast that they would roll in and block the view of Mr. T then 20 minutes later it would be clear skies again.

It was just the 3 of us at the Refugio so it was a really great experience feeling so isolated from the world. The kitchen was actually nicely stocked with pots and pans; and there was butter, garlic, and oregano that other hikers had left which helped spice up our pasta with tomato sauce dinner. As the sun started going down, we got this amazing sunset creating this fire-y orange colors behind the clouds. We just so happened to time dinner perfectly with this sunset and enjoyed carbo loading with a view.

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It got cold quickly once the sun went down so we were continually boiling water and drinking hot water to keep us warm and hydrated. Since we didn’t bring any tea to add to the hot water, we put some apple and orange slices into the boiled water to try to add some flavor. It didn’t really do much for the first batch, but as the fruits stewed in there for a longer period of time it started tasting a little better. 

We discussed what time we wanted to start trying to summit Mr. T. When talking to Dave and his tour guide, they left at 3 in the morning while it was still pitch black because it takes a good 4-5 hours to get to the summit and (a) it’s nice if you can see sunrise and (b) you want to make it up to the top early in the morning to be heading down before any inclement weather sweeps in. Typically, the mornings are less rainy and windy than the afternoons. However, the Turkish guy said he didn’t leave until 8am and he still made it so clearly it just depends on luck with the weather. We concluded that since we didn’t have a guide and might get lost, we should get started by 2:30 in the morning. Sheesh that’s going to be tough.

After a game of cards, we started trying to go to bed around 8 for our 2:15 wake up the next morning. The Refugio had mats upstairs to lie on but nothing else for sleeping. Lena had a sleeping bag that she had brought, but Maya and I used these small little rugs we found outside the Refugio to help with the cold. They certainly weren’t great but it was better than nothing. I also wore all my layers besides the one I let Maya borrow. I slept decent that night all things considered; occasionally waking up cold.

Day 2 (8 miles, 2360 feet elevation gain, 8850 feet elevation loss, point to point)

The alarm went off at 2:15 and it was absolutely freezing. It had been raining all throughout the night and was still drizzling outside. Not off to a great start. But the rain stopped by 2:30 so we decided to just go for it. We were starting this early because that’s when the guides start so you can get up around sunrise and to avoid the weather later in the day. I think we might have been a bit aggressive and probably could have started a few hours later. Anyways it was pitch black so we used our headlamps. I had only been up for only 15 minutes and was already starting to trek straight up a volcano in the dark. It was quite an interesting way to wake up. My brain wasn’t working yet but my body was in auto pilot mode as we worked our way up the steep incline. 

It didn’t take long for the hike for the landscape to turn from green vegetation to volcanic rocks and sand. I could only see what was immediately in front of me with my headlamp as we continued up a super steep path uphill. I was leading at first but then Lena took charge as she set a nice continuous pace for the group. She became are group leader and I trusted her fully. You really can’t go fast with how steep it is combined with the limited visibility: it was super foggy on top of the 3am darkness. My calves were screaming as this was my 6th day hiking in 8 and it was the steepest yet (and one of the steepest I have ever done). Plus, the volcanic sand and crushed rock made it extra tiring. Oh, and we were over 14,000 feet high so the altitude was also a total ass kicker. The whole experience was crazy as we slowly made our way up the steep volcano in the dark. I had that slight sense of nervousness but just kept going one step at a time. When my brain started waking up a bit more it couldn’t believe that we were hiking up the side of a steep active volcano, in the dark, without a guide. Don’t worry brain, just let the body keep moving. I had my AllTrails going but it really only gave us a slight directional sense of where to go. For hikes like this with no real trail you just have to do your best to continue heading up and try not to get too far off course.

After 2 hours we reached our max of what we felt comfortable doing. We had only gone a mile in distance and about 2400 feet of elevation gain and were a little over halfway up from the Refugio to the summit of the volcano. At this point the weather had gotten worse and turned into a cold, light rain amidst the fog soaking our clothes and making the crushed volcanic rock and sand ground even more slippery. Plus, there was absolutely no longer a path to follow. Lena was doing a great job leading us, but she was really struggling to figure out what the best way to go is. We discussed as a group and decided it was no longer safe to continue. We might have been able to get a little further but probably not to the summit so what was the point. Even with a guide the summit would have been challenging and possibly undoable given the weather conditions. Our fearless leader Lena was the final voice of reason. It was a bit disappointing but it was the right thing to do. We had made it to 14,900 feet up so we still did pretty damn good and could be proud of ourselves for going as far as we did. The final 0.5 miles and 1,500 feet of elevation would have been crazy to do in this weather and visibility. Even though it doesn’t sound that far on paper, it probably would have taken us another 2 hours given the terrain and our lack of knowledge about the “best path.” Plus, the Turkish guy told us that the last 500 meters was the hardest section and what we had already been doing was insanely hard so I can’t imagine what that part would have been like.

We weren’t in the clear yet as we now had to go back downhill on the crazy incline we just went up. It was steep, wet, and hard to see; so we took it super slow. It was a nerve racking 1.5-hour hike down because the last thing anyone of us wanted to do was slide down the side of the volcano or injure ourselves. We were trying to retrace our steps but it was much easier to get lost going back down. We just kept going whichever way seemed easier and keeping an eye on AllTrails. Maya and I both slipped a few times, although nothing too bad. It’s very difficult to keep your balance on the steep, slippery downhill made up of crushed volcanic rock; and neither of us had poles. This was definitely a good trail to have poles, which Lena did. She also has such good footwork after doing the entire PCT. As we got lower down the volcano, the sun was starting to poke its head out and it finally became clearer where the main trail was. 

By 6am we were already back at the Refugio. Even though we didn’t make the summit, we all felt elated about how far we made it. Plus, the sheer adrenaline rush of that experience hiking a volcano in the pitch black. We hung up our soaking clothes and had breakfast and drank more hot water. Afterwards Lena and I took a nap until about 8 before the 3 of us start trekking our way down. Our clothes were still soaking wet but we just had to power through. After a night and morning of raining, the ground was much muddier on the way down than it was on the way up the day before. And since it was also very steep; once again Maya and I had a slipped a few times. But we still made it down relatively fast in spite of the conditions. The 3 of us had developed a nice hiking pace together. 

When we got to the entrance of the trailhead, the park office was open this time so we were able to give them some money for our night’s stay at the Refugio. Once back on the main road, we just ended up doing the hike all the way back to Baños since there wasn’t any taxis. The beginning was along the road before we took a short cut on a trail through forested farmland. This was the part of the trail that Lena and I decided to skip the day before. My knees were really starting to feel it toward the end. We had descended over 8,500 feet going from our highest point on the volcano that morning all the way back to Baños which is an absolutely insane descent. I don’t think I’ve ever gone down that much in a single hike and usually not even in multiple hikes combined. We made it back to the hostel around 11:30 so we still had the entire afternoon to chill and hit the hot springs.

Overall, it was a super cool experience and I’m happy and proud for getting as far as we did. I came on this trip for thrill seeking adventures and this certainly checked all the boxes. I really enjoy doing this off the beaten path hike and we had a great hiking crew. Lena, Maya, and I agreed to all meet up and do another hike like this – Laguna Amarilla – after our next respective little trips. We were going to meet there in 4 days since I was going to go kayaking in Archidona, Lena was heading to Cuenca, and Maya to Riobamba. Unfortunately, this never ended up happening because the weather continued to be rainy and we had read that the trail to Laguna Amarilla gets super muddy. So much so, that there are sections you have to wear rubber boots to even hike through them. Oh well, just another thing to come back for.

Termas de la Virgen Hot Springs

Baños has a number of different hot springs around town with a variety of reviews about how nice the facilities are, how crowded they get, and the difference in prices. I just went to Termas de la Virgen Hot Springs because it was only a few minutes away from my hostel. It is known to be quite crowded and not the cleanest of places, but the price was right and it still had some nice views being right by a waterfall.

Andi and I tried to go on the first night but per usual everyone gave us different information on closing time. The hostel said it closed at 9, Google said 10, and someone else told us 9:30. Since it was 9:15 we decided to give it a shot and see if we could squeeze in a quick 45 minutes. But when we got there, they told us that it closed at 9:30 and they weren’t letting anyone else in. So, we had to improvise by drinking more beers instead. We went back to the hostel and this was the night that I met the crazy American guys Everett and Theo.

On my third day in Baños after finishing the Mr. T hike, I went to Termas de la Virgen with Maya. It was the late afternoon and absolutely packed with Local Ecuadorians. You are required to wear a swimming cap to go into the hot springs so I bought one from the concession stand for a few dollars. Then you put all your possessions in a locker, which surprisingly was free, and they give you a key on a bracelet to put on your wrist. 

The upper area had a few larger pools that were hot, but not piping hot. They were filled to the brim with people. It was a nice spot for an initial soak. Then in the downstairs area there was one super-hot pool that scorched your skin the first time before getting used to it, and there was a super-cold pool. Maya and I kept jumping back and forth between the two spending a few minutes in each. Supposedly doing this type of hot/cold shock therapy is be good for the muscles, improves immunity and circulation, reduces inflammation, and reduces stress. It is challenging at times to convince yourself to go back and forth between the two because it’s the feeling of extremes, but it’s so worth it. And you really can feel the difference in your body. This was exactly what my body needed after hiking 6 out of 8 days and having done the crazy uphill and downhill inclines of Mr. T earlier that day.

Nightlife

The main club that everyone goes to in Baños is the Leprechaun Bar. Somehow on the same day that I hiked Mr. T, I rallied to go out with a big crew of people from the hostel to the club. There was a main room that was packed out with people and played typical Reggaeton tunes. Then there was a second room that was more lowkey playing salsa and cumbia music. I mostly hung out in the less crowded room as my energy was low after a super long day. The music and vibes of the club were whatever but the company of people from the hostel was good. I somehow still stayed out until nearly 3am making for a more than 24-hour day after having woken up at 2:15 that morning to begin the attempted summit of Mr. T. Big change of scenery that day from hiking the volcano to dancing in the club.

Getting In

I decided to go the adventurous way from Machalilla to Latacunga which required more buses, but was a more direct route, when I probably should have just gone back to Guayaquil and taken a direct bus. From a map perspective my way seemed like it was going to make more sense, but from a transportation perspective going through Guayaquil would have been much easier…and quicker. 

First I took the 1 hour bus from Macachilla to Jipijapa and after eating a quick bite for lunch, I continued for another hour on the bus from Jipijapa to Portoviejo. Everything went smoothly to start but this is when things got dicier. I wanted to take a bus to Quevedo to continue in a straight path to Latacunga. But the guy told me that bus didn’t run until way later in the night and that it would be faster to go to Santa Domingo (or maybe he was just selling me on his company). Looking at a map this didn’t make a lot of sense. At least I would be heading east, but also way too far north. Santa Domingo is parallel to Quito and much further north than Latacunga. But it didn’t seem like I had much of a choice at this point, so I took his advice. This next bus ride was 5 hours and really had me questioning my decision to take this route. 

I got into Santa Domingo around 9pm and the bus to Latacunga wasn’t until 10 so I grabbed a bite to eat. I somehow lost my ticket soon after I got it, but luckily I noticed pretty quickly and the lady at the counter was nice enough to give me a new one free of charge. She also told me to wait outside in the streets rather than in front of the bus station. I was a little weary, but there was an Ecuadorian lady who was on the same bus so I followed her. We ended up chatting while we waited. She was a 28 year old with 2 kids back in Latacunga who had to come up to Santa Domingo to fill out some papers. It’s also always good when your waiting with a local who is going to the same destination so that I feel more confident that I won’t miss the bus. Especially when it’s 10 at night. 

We were chatting for awhile and the bus didn’t show up until 30 minutes after it’s scheduled departure. The bus was pretty empty so I was able to lie across both seats and sleep the whole time. My new Ecuadorian friend woke me up right before Latacunga to let me know that we were close. Very kind of her because I was passed out. The bus didn’t end up getting in until 2 in the morning. I left Macachilla at 12:30 in the afternoon so with delays between buses it took a little over 13 hours in total. In hindsight I should have taken the bus to Guayaquil then to Riobamba and stop to spend a few days there before moving onto Latacunga. But hey what are you going to do? It was a long day, but I made it.

The City

Latacunga is not a particularly beautiful town like going to Cuenca, but it’s the jump off point for lots of good hikes – Quilatoa Loop, Cotopaxi National Park, and Los Illinizas Ecological Reserve. When the weather is nice, Latacunga is supposed to have an amazing view of Cotopaxi, but unfortunately for me it was incredibly cloudy both days I was there and I couldn’t see anything. There’s really not much to see in the town besides a few plazas with churches and some nice mural paintings. I walked around the main area in just a few hours and had already run out of things to do.

It was hard to even find a bar to grab a beer, so I settled for a pizzeria as it was the only place with drinks. It was also very difficult to find an ATM that worked. In Ecuador, more so than anywhere else, a lot of the small banks don’t work with foreign cards. I had to try about 5 machines before I finally found one that worked. I kept that in mind as I needed to go back a 2nd time to ensure I had enough cash for the Quilatoa Loop since there are no ATMs in those small towns.

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I spent a few days in Latacunga because I had to wait for Lena and Sophia (my friends from Spanish school in Montañita) to show up so that we could do the Quilatoa Loop together, but you really only need a few hours here. Like I said before, it’s more of a jump off point to other activities. At least it gave me an opportunity to acclimatize after being on the coast for 3 weeks. And I ended up discovering an amazing off the beaten path hike with the extra time I had.

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Another nice part about being in Latacunga was that my friend Rebecca (from Medellin Spanish school and whom I traveled with for a week after) saw my Instagram story and said she was also there. Wow that’s awesome! This is definitely one of the advantages of posting stories on Instagram. We met up for drinks and caught each other up on our lives for the past 2 months. It was super nice to see a familiar face and reconnect on our travel experiences. Plus it looked like we would have more crossover further down the road as we were both heading south to Chile and Argentina after Ecuador (and we ended up meeting up multiple more times).

The Lodging

I stayed at Adventure Climbers hostel for 3 nights and it was only a few dollars more per night to have a private room so I figured why not. Other than having a pool table, the hostel wasn’t too special, but it provided me a nice quiet room for a few nights. On the day before leaving for the Quilatoa Loop with Lena and Sophia, there was a German guy, Andi, asking around to see if he could join a group of people for the trek. I told him I was going the next day with some friends if he wanted to join. He was very stoked about that and ended up becoming the fourth person in our crew. At first I was a bit hesitant because he seemed kind of hard to talk to, but as we got to know each other better throughout the trek I ended up really liking him and we had a great friendship. We exchanged lots of good stories and he had a great sense of humor.

Laguna Verde de Los Illinizas (7.1 miles, 3219 feet elevation gain, in and out)

After my first day in Latacunga when I realized there was really nothing to do in town, I was super eager to go for a hike because I had more time to kill before starting the Quilatoa Loop. I was a bit anxious the night before because the weather looked questionable and just getting to this hike was going to be a bit of an adventure. The trailhead was about 30 min outside of a small town called El Chaupi and I had read that there are people in town who you can pay to give you a ride out to the different trailheads but who knows what exactly that entails. On top of that uncertainty, just getting to El Chaupi wasn’t very obvious. There’s no direct bus from Latacunga so I was going to have to wing that a bit as well. Oh and I was going solo. What could possibly go wrong? The anxious feeling was also mixed with my yearn for adventure. After a few weeks of being at the coast I had a strong itch to go to the mountains. Plus I came on this trip willing to push myself out of my comfort zone and this was a good opportunity to do so. Luckily I had enough confidence in my Spanish at this point that I felt like I could navigate the uncertainty ahead.

My alarm went off at 5:45 because I wanted to get a head start to the day, not knowing how the weather would turn out. But with some lingering anxiety and general sleepiness, I snoozed until 6:15. I walked to the bus station and said I was going to El Chaupi, and the guy told me to hop on the bus leaving for Quito in a few minutes. Okay off to a good start. Of course since El Chaupi was about a 15 min drive from the main highway, I wasn’t dropped off directly in town but rather on the side of the highway. I walked across the street to a junction that had a bus stop and hoped/assumed it would head into town.

While waiting for the bus, this guy started chatting me up about being a guide to summit Cotopaxi so I got his info. He also said he has a friend in town that could give me a ride to the Los Illinizas parking lot. Perfect! The local bus to El Chaupi arrived soon after and I hopped on for 50 cents. As if it was too good to be true, Marco (the driver) was waiting for me outside the bus. Wow this morning is going great so far! He drove me and a group of a few other people the 30 minutes up a bumpy dirt road that definitely required a 4×4 with good clearance. I scheduled a 3pm pick up time with him and all concerns about transportation to and from the trailhead had vanished. Now I could focus on the hike. 

The weather was far from desirable with grey clouds and fog blocking any sort of views. To me hiking is not just about the views and the landscape (although that it a huge part of it), but it’s also about the way it makes me feel connected to nature and how clear and positive my thoughts are. My soul is in its happy place. 

The beginning of the hike felt like I was heading to Mordor in Lord of the Rings walking on a dirt path through a cloudy mountainous marshland where I could barely see a couple hundred meters in front of me. The hike began with a steady uphill which provided a good opportunity to acclimatize as the starting elevation was just over 13K feet. While the altitude got to me at first (especially after 3 weeks at sea level), it didn’t take long for me to get back into my rhythm and I was so happy that I had decided to make the extra effort to do this hike. Even if the weather wasn’t great, my mood was.

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After about 1.5 miles of steady uphill, the real challenge began, as the incline got much steeper and the altitude got more intense. I was about 14,000 feet at this point but luckily I have done my fair share of high elevation hiking during the trip and I continued to keep a good pace with the occasional 10-15 second stop to catch my breath. I’ve become a big fan of high altitude hiking, it’s a feeling like nothing else in the world. It provides this natural high and adrenaline rush as you slowly work your way up the mountain and into the clouds. Maybe it’s the lack of oxygen in the brain, but you just reach this totally elevated mindset that is solely focused on going one step at a time. Everything in the world slows down and you are truly living in each moment.

I worked my way up the mountain and the last section before the refugee camp was covered in snow. It was a tough stretch gaining 1,300 feet in just 1 mile and I had that strong sense of accomplishment as I took a quick breather at 15,570 feet at the refugee camp. About a tenth of a mile after the refugee camp the path splits between going to Laguna Verde and going to the summit of Illiniza Norte (sitting at a whopping 16,818 feet)! As much as I would have loved to go to the summit, I had no idea what to expect and it looked like most people at the base camp had helmets and some even had ice picks. I didn’t know what was ahead and I wasn’t equipped well enough to find out.
Plus it was so cloudy that you couldn’t see the mountain peak at all…you could barely see a few hundred feet in front. So that added even more to the unknown. I guess I’ll just have to come back some day. The only good thing about not having views during a hike is that I can come back in the future and it will be like a brand new hike. I decided to take the “safer route” to Laguna Verde, although that wasn’t exactly a piece of cake either.

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Within a minute of taking the fork in the path, I was walking along a snowy ridge that hung over a steep valley. The wind was roaring and the path was about as wide as putting both feet next to each other. A wrong or slippery step would have had me tumbling down into the valley (don’t worry Mom I had my Garmin!). Of course I just took it very slowly focusing on each step and using my hands when necessary. This stretch lasted for about 10-15 minutes but felt like a lifetime. Finally the ground started leveling out more and there was no longer a deep valley next to me so I could breathe easier. A short walk further led me to the Laguna Verde standing at 15,308 feet high.

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At first it was so foggy that I could barely even see the water. I decided to have my lunch to see if it would clear up a bit. It was so cold though. Even with my gloves on, my hands were freezing. Afterwards I did a half loop around the Laguna and right as I was starting to leave, the clouds cleared up a bit and I had a nice view of the Laguna. Woohoo!!! A tour group was arriving as I was leaving so it was nice to know I was not the only person out here. The guide told me that on a clear day you also had great views of the two towering Illiniza mountains. Sigh. Oh well.

Of course I had to go back the way in which I came along the sketchy snowy ridge. Once again I just took it slow and shuffled my way out of there, passing one more group of 3 people. I was super happy once I got past this crazy snowy part as it was pretty adrenaline rushing and nerve racking.

The route down was a bit of a knee buster on the steep section after the refugee camp. Sometimes you forget just how steep it was on the way up, especially with the high altitude hiking, because you’re so focused on taking each step. The last mile of the hike ended with a pleasant stroll home through the dry brush of Mordor. The sky actually cleared up a little bit and I had some nice valley views on the way down.

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I got to the parking lot by 1:45 so I had to wait for a little over an hour for Marco to arrive but no harm there. Marco’s brother ended up picking me and a few others up around 3:15. He spoke so quickly I could barely understand a word he said. He was one of those friendly reminders that some people are still impossible for me to understand.

I’m proud of myself for taking on this adventure. It wasn’t easy or straightforward, but everything actually went very smoothly and the end result was highly rewarding. I absolutely love hiking and this one gave me an extra strong sense of accomplishment. Now I just have to return some day to conquer the summits of Illizina Norte and Sur.

Quilatoa Loop (23.52 miles, 8392 feet elevation gain, 4000 feet elevation loss, point to point)

The Quilatoa Loop is an incredibly popular trek in the backpacker community and one of the top reasons that backpackers come to Ecuador (behind Galapagos and Cotopaxi). The nice thing about this trek is that you don’t need a guide or even your own tent because there are little Ecuadorian villages with B&B’s that you can stop at along the way. It wasn’t many years ago that this trek was like a treasure hunt trying to find these villages and figuring out where to stay. Now it’s much easier to figure out because there are countless blogs about the trek and most of the B&B’s have listing on Hostel world and booking.com. Regardless it’s still an incredible experience, although I think some of the fun and mystery has been lost in our current digital age. But you could say that about a lot of travel experiences these days. It’s nice that we can research just about anything on the Internet and find information, but it does take away from some of the adventurous side of traveling. Oh well, obviously I’m going to use the tools at my disposal to make the experience go more smoothly. And it was still an adventure nonetheless.

As we had discussed in Ayampe; Lena (Austria), Sophia (Netherlands) and I decided to do the Quilatoa Loop together starting on Monday. As I mentioned earlier in this blog post, there was a German guy in the hostel (Andi) looking for a group to do it with so I said that he could join us. The 4 of us ended up being the crew and I’m so glad how it all worked out. We had an incredible chemistry and it was such a fun couple days. 

We all had so much fun with this particular group that we continued traveling together to Baños. Plus throughout the trek we added on 2 more other great people, Ryan and Heidi. More on that to come. This trek is typically done in 3 days, 2 nights (although you could fast track it and do just 2 days, 1 night but part of the fun is going slower and enjoying the B&B’s in the little villages). Another nice thing about the trek is that all the B&B’s have breakfast and dinner included in the price and you only need to worry about carrying your own lunch. And they even sold sandwiches for lunch for next to nothing; as well as snacks and drinks. Basically everything is already setup for you to make life easy. 

Rather than taking the 2 hour bus from Latacunga to Sigchos (the starting point of the trek) and immediately starting the trek, we decided to leave the night before and stay in Sigchos. This is not your normal move for doing the trek but there’s really nothing to do in Latacunga and I’m glad we decided to do it.

Day 0

The weather wasn’t great on our bus ride from Latacunga to Sigchos but it was a beautiful ride through hilly countryside and green farmlands. It was nice to see this type of landscape after spending so many weeks on the Ecuadorian coast. It got me really excited for the trek ahead. The bus driver impressively made his way around the winding squiggly road uphill with clouds caught in the hillside. As we got to a higher altitude it was so cloudy you could barely see the road; once again putting a lot of faith in the drivers here to keep us safe.

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We got to Sigchos and walked about 15 minutes to get to the Starlight Inn. No one was at the house but we were greeted by a pig dog with a tail. The creature had the face of a dog, the body of both a pig and a dog, and the tail of a pig. And the way it ate looked more like a pig. I later asked the girl working what kind of animal it was saying It looked like a dog and a pig and she just laughed. We will never know.

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The whole scene felt like something out of a horror movie with all the fog in the air, the abandoned house, and the creepy farm animal. Do they even know we’re coming? We had just booked it earlier that morning. Andi messaged the person through his booking and we ended up waiting 30+ min for them anyone to show up. Luckily we had the pig dog to keep us entertained.

Once inside the place, it was actually really nice with a pool table and a fireplace. There was 3 different rooms with enough beds to sleep 10 people, but we had the whole place to ourselves so that was awesome. Andi and I played a few rounds of pool then we all sat by the fire drinking hot tea and chatting.

Dinner that night turned out to be delicious. We had a soup to start then a giant plate with chicken, rice, beans, and salad. After dinner, we sat around the fire having some really profound and deep fireside chats. Even though Lena is only 21 years old she has a much wiser and more mature perspective on life than her age. She just finished doing the entire PCT so I respect the living crap out of her. She felt like going to college in Austria during the pandemic with online clases wasn’t really beneficial for her at that time so she left and did the PCT. It was so awesome to pick her brain about that experience throughout the rest of the trek. She had so many cool stories and very interesting insight on thru hiking, being out in nature, and lots of other things. Like I said, her maturity level was above that of your normal 21 year old.

Sophia is a doctor in Netherlands who also had lots of interesting perspectives on different topics. She cracked me up because she had this neurotic nature to her, but also from her stories has this carefree party girl style to her. Andi was your classic beer loving German who loved to crack jokes and had his own interesting take on things. Overall it was a great group dynamic and both the conversations and jokes flowed easily throughout the entire trek. 

Day 1 (7.0 miles, 1550 feet elevation gain, 1300 feet elevation loss, point to point)

Up to this point, I had bad weather for most of my time in Ecuador but I got super lucky for this trek as it was beautiful bluebird skies and sunny almost the entire time. We woke up to nice views outside the hostel. I could finally see the Illizinas volcanoes I hiked between the other day, but still no signs of Cotopaxi. Once again the Starlight Inn hooked it up with a big meal: eggs, fruits, yogurt, coffee, and juice. They knew how to prep us with a full stomach for the trek ahead.

The trail started as an easy walk along the road with views of the rolling hills and green farmlands. There was a few shortcuts on trails off the road but we mostly just followed the road. The conversation amongst the group continued to flow nicely as we made our way along the mostly flat road. Andi and I cracked jokes about how Cotopaxi didn’t exist and it continued to be a running joke throughout the trek. We were saying how if you search for Cotopaxi on Google it just says no results found. We believed that the volcano was just a conspiracy theory made up by local Ecuadorians to attract tourists.

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After crossing a little bridge, we finally had a steep uphill section with about 20 min of switchbacks. This was the first true test of the trek. It wasn’t hard, but it wasn’t easy either. And the altitude wasn’t crazy high yet but we were over 9,000 feet high so it was challenging if not acclimated. Lena hadn’t hiked much since the PCT; this was the biggest hike Sophia had done (she kept being unsure of herself but she did great); and Andi doesn’t hike too much either but he was a pretty fit guy. So as usual I was the one leading the group in the front with Andi close behind and the two girls getting to the top about 10 minutes later. Once I had hiked with Lena longer, I learned more about her style and was quite impressed by her rhythm. Something about the way she hiked, you could just tell she had done a crazy hike like the PCT. She wasn’t necessarily super fast (which really doesn’t matter) but she had a good stride and consistent pace.

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It was an easy first day of the trek and we got to Hostel Taita Cristóbal in Isinlivi by 1 in the afternoon and just chilled – reading, chatting, and drinking a few beers. There was hammocks with a nice backyard and an incredible view. It was truly the good life. I got really absorbed in my book, The Paris Apartment, and read a bunch of chapters that afternoon. Unfortunately the screen on my iPad cracked sometime during this day while it was in my backpack. It was a bummer but didn’t stop me from being able to read. 

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There was also llamas just hanging out in the backyard chilling and eating. It was kind of funny because the other popular lodge in this town, the Lulli Llama Mountain Lodge didn’t actually have llamas and our hostel did. You would think it would have been the opposite. We joked about exchanging one of the llamas at our hostel in order to have access to their hot tub.

While chilling in the backyard we met an American guy from Arizona, Ryan, who was in his late 30s and was a very well spoken and interesting character. He was also super outdoorsy and impressed when he heard Lena had done the PCT; and he asked her lots of good questions that brought out even more info and stories from her trip. I feel like with big trips like the PCT (or my South America trip) where so much happens and there’s so many stories/experiences/memories/etc, that the best way to talk about it is when other people ask good questions.

The dinner at this B&B was soup with pasta and it was decent but not as good as the other meals we had. Ryan plus our classic crew had both deep and hilarious convos that night after dinner. A lot of times when in nature, everyone’s goofy side comes out. And once that gets going then the conversations get silly and the laughter is rolling. This was definitely one of those nights. We all kept cracking each other up. A few conversations centered on ridiculous things about the US and I’m glad I had an American guy to defend/laugh at ourselves. Some of the topics included (1) Why we don’t use metric system. We all started laughing about how ridiculous the conversion is to calculate miles to feet versus kilometers to meters. (2) no ground floor in the US (3) American money all being the same size and shape. For some reason Lena was really curious how blind people decipher our currency since it all looks and feels the same. There was a quite few other silly discussions but I don’t remember anymore. All I know is that it was a great couple of hours where we giggled like a bunch of stoned teenage, but in reality we were just high on life. 

Day 2 (8.4 miles, 2615 feet elevation gain, 1800 feet elevation loss, point to point)

We woke up around 8 to another day of bluebird skies and sunny. After eating breakfast at the B&B, the original group of the 4 of us hit the trail (Ryan wanted to hang around a little longer and get started later in the day). There was also a few other groups of people leaving the hostel at this same time that we ended up passing back and forth throughout the day. The hike began downhill and led us the through the beautiful hilly, Ecuadorian countryside with luscious green grass and trees. 

We took an uphill shortcut that required a very small scramble to get up (which Sophia was quite nervous during but she did it) and provided us with great views of the valley. The next section continued with small ups and downs and stunning panoramic views before reaching a gorgeous mirador.

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We kept passing the other group back and forth and we ended up adding Heidi, a Norwegian girl, to our group because she didn’t want to walk with 6 people from the Netherlands because they kept talking in Dutch. Normally Dutch people are very good about being accommodating with everyone and they speak in English (the Dutch speak English better than any other non native speakers) when around other people but I guess with 6 of them that wasn’t the case.

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After the mirador was a very steep downhill section to the river where you almost had to run down due to the incline. Or at least I found that much easier. Once at the river we took a lunch break where I ate 1 of my 2 sandwiches I had purchased at the B&B. It was $1.50 for a pretty loaded ham, cheese, avocado and tomato sandwich. It was a steal of a deal.

After lunch was a slight uphill section to a small town that looked like it was from a western movie. It was a ghost town besides one little kid walking around and we joked that he was probably the mayor of the town. Andi and I had really started connecting on our silly senses of humor and we kept calling it the silicon valley of Ecuador. I’m not even sure how we came to this train of thought but we were saying that this is where they invented the fire extinguisher and the tree fence. Jokes that will only make sense to me and Andi, but I’m putting them in here for myself as they were hilarious at the time.

The next section was the steepest and most challenging of the day. It started with some steps that led into a number of switchbacks. All the sudden the town below came alive as all the children got out of school and little kids were racing passed us up the hill in their uniforms. For them this 20-25 uphill trek was nothing and just what they do every day after school.  

Andi and I were way ahead of the others (he always did his best to keep up with my fast pace on the uphill) and we enjoyed the views from the mirador at the top with expansive valley views. I chatted up the local guy at the mirador who had built it for tourists and he gave us some info on the land. You could also tell he was hoping for a tip or some money. At least Heidi bought a little llama keychain so that was something. There was also little girls trying to sell us fruits and other snacks but I was still too full from lunch. Shouldn’t they be in school or something? We got some nice pictures of the crew once everyone had made it to the top.

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The path continued with a steady uphill incline and one final steep section that had yet another gorgeous mirador of the valley below. We had come a long way on this day from our starting point and it’s always cool to look back on where you came from. Even though everyone was pretty tired, the good conversations and solid group connection continued. The final 1.5 mile walk of the day went along the highway before reaching Chucchilan. The road was surprisingly nice; it was better paved then most roads in Denver.

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We finally got to Cloud Forest Hostel and the original 4 of us (sorry Heidi) went up to our room on the top floor which had multiple hammocks and swinging chairs outside our room. It was the perfect place to just chill and drink some beers. I also finished my book after being totally absorbed the day before.

We were served a huge dinner that evening with soup, chicken thighs, rice, beans, and salad. It was probably our best dinner yet. I was chatting it up with some French people that we had seen in our hostel the night before. Then to finish off dinner they gave us this warm apple cider that the owner topped of with aguardiente (anise liquor that I drank a lot of in Colombia).

Andi and I had been talking about going to the Country Bar in town ever since we arrived in Chucchilan and saw that it existed. So after having a beer at the hostel we messaged Ryan and told him to meet us there (the girls were too tired to join us). But when we got there, we were disappointed to find out that it had already closed even though it was only 9pm. We went back to the hostel to have one final beer before calling it a night when Ryan came out of nowhere (he was staying at a different hostel). He knew we were at Cloud Forest Hostel and he heard Andi’s booming laugh. So the 3 of us drank yet another beer and just shot the shit. Andi was telling us about the ridiculous drinking activities in his town. They legitimately do a beer Olympics weekend just like in Beer Fest but with even more competitions. They also made a giant slingshot that they used to launch people into the lake. The videos were absolutely hilarious. Oh the stupid shit people do in a random small town in southern Germany…or anywhere. Some of my favorite Andi quotes from the night were: “only 2 people have been concussed doing the slingshot, and it doesn’t matter because they were idiots anyways” and “Beer bongs can cure cancer. I do a lot beer bongs and I don’t have cancer. That’s my science behind it.” He was the classic big German dude who loves both drinking and talking about beer.

Day 3 (9.1 miles, 4200 feet elevation gain, 600 feet elevation loss, point to point)

We woke up around 7 and had a huge breakfast at the Cloud Forest Hostel before hitting the road for the longest and hardest day. They gave us a fruit bowl, yogurt, pancakes, and an omelet. It’s good to have a big breakfast before hiking but this one was almost excessive. We saw Ryan in the morning as we were leaving town so now we had our full group of 6. The 4 original crew members plus the 2 good add ons to the group. 

The hike began along the road through farmland but it wasn’t too long before we reached a steep uphill trail that was made extra challenging in the heat. It was only about 20 minutes (for me and Andi, we waited for the rest of the group at the top) but the incline was a calf burner, especially on day 3 of the trek. After a short rest and a few group photos, we continued a short way back along the road through the small village of La Moya Baja before getting back onto the trail. This next part was a beautiful path cutting along the side of the mountain with incredible valley views. The landscape was stunning and it was one of the highlight sections of the trek.

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We took a quick snack stop off in a gazebo with a nice overlook before doing the final stretch of the day. It was a mixture of road and trail and there was some steep shortcuts that really had the heart racing with the altitude (we had reached over 12K at this point) and the day 3 legs.

Once again, Andi and I had zipped ahead of the group since it was a given that we would all meet at the top. Even though I led the entire trek, he jumped in front of me at the very end just to say he was the first one at the top. That bastard! We made it to the top a little before noon and had beautiful views of the electric blue lake below as we sat 12,500 feet high. Laguna del Quilatoa is a collapsed volcano known as a caldera lake similar to Crater Lake in Oregon. About 800 years ago, the volcano erupted, and the force of the eruption led to its subsequent collapse, forming what is now the lake. Over time, the caldera formed by the collapse filled with water, which gets its beguiling blue-green color from minerals dissolving. The caldera lake is 3 kilometers in width, and its walls reach 400 meters in height from the surface of the lake to the viewpoint area. The lake reaches as much as 240 meters deep in the center.

On a good day you’re supposed to be able to see Cotopaxi off in the distance but once again it proved to not exist because it was blocked by the clouds. However we got really lucky with the weather all 3 days and we still had perfect views of the lake. I’ve seen other peoples’ photos where it was covered by the clouds.

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The rest of the group made it up shortly after us and we sat at top for close to 2 hours eating our lunches, enjoying the views, and taking lots of photos. It had been since the Salkantay trek in Perú that I had done a multi day hike and I was feeling that strong sense of accomplishment after 3 days of trekking.

But we weren’t in the clear yet as we had to get to the other side of the lake. It was a steady up and down path along the rim of the crater. Per usual Andi and I were in the front and we lost the girls, but 3 dogs joined us for the remainder of the route. We joked that this was an upgrade since the dogs talked a lot less. We finally made it to the town of Quilatoa a little after 2 and enjoyed a beer and watched the dark clouds come in. We made perfect timing as the view became more and more covered with time and the lake was practically invisible by the time we left.

Overall it was an incredible trek and the group dynamic made it all so much better.Originally Lena, Sophia, and I had talked about staying the night in Quilatoa but there really wasn’t that much of a town and we were all ready to go to Baños so the 5 of us (everyone but Ryan) decided that was our next step. When you have a good crew stick with it. But first we had to take the 2.5 hour bus back to Latacunga to get all our stuff before heading to Baños.q

Ayampe

Getting In

The bus from Montañita to Ayampe was only about 40 minutes long and didn’t require any advanced booking, I just had to wait on the main road for it to arrive. While I was waiting, I ran into 3 girls from my school: Lena, Sofia and Silvia. They happened to be doing an afternoon trip to Ayampe so I spent the day with them. We did a short, flat hike in the countryside and then got some coconuts and hung out on the beach before grabbing lunch. Lena and Sofia were doing Quilatoa Loop the following Monday so I tentatively planned to do it with them. I was just going to have to go slow in my travels, which I had no problem doing. This was one of those interesting moments you look back on after the fact where if I had just left Montañita a little earlier or later and not been on the same bus as Lena and Sofia, then my whole experience the following week would have been completely different. We ended up spending over a week together doing the Quilatoa Loop and Baños.

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The City

I had never even heard of Ayampe until a few weeks before. I was doing some research on best Ecuadorian coastal towns and it appeared on a few lists. My Ecuadorian family reassured me about how nice of a place it is. They said it was what Montañita was like 25 years ago before it blew up with tourism where it’s got very laid back vibes with stray dogs and chickens in the street and highly undeveloped infrastructure. It’s known to be a surfer and yoga hippy town so it seemed like the perfect place for me to chill a few nights after the non stop activities of 2 weeks of Spanish school, surf lessons, and living with my host family.

The “Main Street” of town is lined with cafes that sell kambucha and organic products and the “outskirts” of town was much more green than Montañita. It was a quiet and beautiful little coastal town that was great for relaxing. However things here are quite expensive by Ecuadorian standards. A guy I talked to at the cafe said they do that intentionally so that tourism stays to a minimum and to prevent the town from becoming like Montañita. The locals like their quiet beach town. And as always there’s cheaper food options if you look for it outside the main area of town.

The Lodging

I stayed at Spondylus Lodge for 3 nights which was a nice little retreat style accommodation. The building was tucked away between luscious green trees and had a nice outdoor space with colorful plants and a hot tub. The vibe of the lodge matched the tranquil vibe of the city. Everything in Ayampe is very relaxed and moves slow. I felt a sense of inner peace and tranquility staying here. This was one of those places I would have never visited on a stricter schedule but since I had 7 weeks in mainland Ecuador, I was going nowhere fast. And I’m so glad that was the case because these 3 days were just what I needed after school. 

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The Food

Since I only had a few more days by the coast in Ecuador before heading inland, I had to eat as much seafood as possible while I was here. I probably wouldn’t eat much more until Chile. The food options in town were limited but I made the most of what I had. For lunch one day I had an incredible octopus lunch with purple potatoes and corn slaw. I also ate a mahi mahi wrap, shrimp quesadillas, and pescado frito. The pescado frito was from a hole in the wall spot outside the main area of town so it had the nice $3 menú del día price for a bunch of food. The grandma running it reminded me a lot of my host mom Yolanda. While I was eating my meal, all her grandkids came home to eat their home cooked lunch.

The Experience

Even though Ayampe is a surfer and yoga town, I didn’t actually participate in either of these activities. My rib was still hurting too much to surf and the yoga classes were at 9am, which turned out to be too early for me. After 2 weeks of Spanish classes at 8am, I really just wanted to allow myself to sleep so I didn’t set an alarm. I figured if I was up early enough than I would go to yoga but if not then so be it. My first day I did that short hike with the girls from my school as I mentioned earlier. And the other 2 days I just lied out on Ayampe Beach, which was a 5 minute walk from my lodge and soaked in the sun.

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Puerto López

I also made a day trip to Puerto López because I didn’t realize Ayampe had no ATMs so I had to take the bus to Puerto López just to pull out money. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I did want to check out Puerto López  while doing my research so I was glad to see the beach town. Plus it was only a 25 minute bus ride for $1. 

While the town itself wasn’t anything too special, Puerto López Beach had really nice sand and it was a beautiful bluebird sky day. It’s just a small port fishing town but looks like Miami compared to Ayampe. The boardwalk is lined with cabanas and open air restaurants underneath canopies. It’s also a place known for whale watching but since I had no desire to do that since I had already done that activity in Mancora, Peru. There’s also Isla de Plata, another island known as the “Poor Man Galapagos” but I also did a version of that in Peru outside of Paracas.

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There was way more food options than Ayampe so I was able to get a massive lunch for $3. It came with a fish soup that was absolutely loaded with fish; an entree with meat, rice and beets; and a juice.

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Reiki Massage

While I was sitting at the cafe one day, I started chatting with the guy working, who was your typical yogi surfer with dreads to his ankles, and he recommended his friend for a really nice reiki massage.

Reiki is an energy healing technique that promotes relaxation, reduces stress, and anxiety through gentle touch. Reiki practitioners use their hands to deliver energy to your body, improving the flow and balance of your energy to support healing.

I figured what better place than Ayampe to try this type of massage. And I’m so glad I did as it turned out to be an incredible experience and unlike any other massage I have gotten. It was pretty hippy dippy but I really got into it. She focused on putting pressure on the different chakras and I truly felt the energy she was putting into it. I was even having some closed eye visuals during the massage. It was very powerful. She also used hot stones and vibrational therapy. Throughout the massage she would lightly whisper various things in Spanish into my ear to harness her energy into mine. Afterwards she gave me a rundown of the energy she absorbed from me. I didn’t catch all of it since she only spoke Spanish, but I did understand a lot and I could see the truths behind what she said. Overall very cool experience beyond just a massage that felt fitting for Ayampe. I left with my both my body and my energy feeling rejuvenated.

Machalilla

Getting In

The weather was too nice and sunny to not stay another day on the coast. Especially when the mountains were cold and rainy. I wouldn’t be back by the water until Chile and I really wasn’t in any rush. I had the rest of the month to continue exploring Ecuador. Plus if I wanted to do the Quilatoa Loop with Lena and Sofia then I still had time to kill. So I continued working my way up the coast with a 40 minute bus ride to Machalilla to spend a night there.

The City

There’s really nothing too exciting about the town of Machalilla. The main reason that I came was that it is walking distance from Parque Nacional Machalilla, which has some a coastal hike to Playa de Los Frailes (one of the most highly regarded beaches in Ecuador).

The Lodging

I had booked a room in Guest House Machalilla and I had no idea what to expect from staying at a guest house, but I was greeted with a beer by the two guys who were also staying there: Alec from Belgium and Pablo from Spain. It turns out the owner lives in one of the rooms and just rents out the other two. He also lives there with his 6 rescue dogs. That night we had a bonfire and we sat around chatting, drinking, listening to music, petting the dogs, and playing games. We had to walk around the yard to collect firewood, and I forgot how much I missed this aspect of camping: the search to find the perfect wood to burn. We bought hot dogs from the grocery store and cooked them over the fire. It was a really fun evening and I got to know a lot about Alec and Pablo. The owner came back around 9 and he was very drunk which was quite funny.

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Hike to Playa Dr Los Frailes (2.8 miles, 564 feet elevation gain, point to point)

Alec and Pablo were just going to take a tuk tuk to Los Frailes so I did the hike there without them and figured we might run into each other. The trail was pretty flat with some small ups and downs but it was nice to be “hiking” a bit again. Unfortunately this time of year, the vegetation surrounding the trail is just dead brush but I imagine it’s beautiful in the right season. About 0.5 miles in there was a nice mirador with views of Machalilla and the surrounding coastline.

After another mile I had reached the first beach on the trail which was called Playa Prieta. The manager at my hostel in Ayampe told me there’s usually no one at this beach and it’s the perfect place to skinny dip. As advertised, I was the only one there so I figured why not? It was very refreshing to have the little beach to myself and swim sin ropa. Can’t beat swimming naked on a warm day in the cool Pacific Ocean water.

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Then I continued along to Playa Tortugita which had a few people but was also sparsely traveled. The landscape reminded me a lot of the coastline in Oregon or Washington with cliffs and giant rocks in the water. The trail started going uphill toward a beautiful mirador with views of Playa de Los Frailes on one side and Playa Tortugita on the other side. I took a snack break here admiring the giant sea cliffs and beautiful beaches.

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After 10 more minutes I had made it to Playa de Los Frailes and I ran into Alec and Pablo. Everything worked out perfectly. We sat on the beach for about an hour but then they actually start kicking people off the beach at 4pm to close the park. We took a tuk tuk back to town and grabbed a beer.

Reflection on the Ecuadorian Coast

Before my trip, I didn’t even necessarily plan to be on the Ecuadorian coast and I ended up spending nearly 3 weeks along the coast. I had no set itinerary of course, but I hadn’t done any research on that part of the country. But then I heard a lot of good things about Montañita Spanish and surf school from other backpackers while I was in Colombia and Peru so it was high on my radar. And after my 2 weeks of school, the weather on the coast was just so much nicer than in the mountains that it led to an additional 4 days exploring other beach towns; and I’m so glad that it did. This experience was exactly why long term travel is so amazing. I got to discover new places that I would have never gone to otherwise. Luckily my schedule was flexible and my travel speed was slow so I had all the time in the world. There was a few more little beach towns that I could have continued to explore, but I was so ready to be back in the mountains and start hiking again.

This post is a lot of text to picture ratio because I have a lot to say about my 2 weeks in Montañita doing a Spanish and surf school and living with a host family. This truly was one of the most incredible and unique experiences of my whole trip. Not only was it an amazing way to improve my Spanish, but I got to learn so much about the culture by being a part of an Ecuadorian family. There’s so much I could say about these 2 weeks and it was hard to figure out the best way to present it, but here goes nothing. I start out by summarizing the experience into categories like I normally do and then I give a daily breakdown. It’s super long but there’s a lot to say. 

Getting In

It was hard to find much info on bus times in Ecuador. I took the bus in the morning from Cuenca to Guayaquil which took about 4 hours. When I got to Guayaquil, which is a major bus hub, I found the bus that goes to Montañita and was fortunate enough to only have about a 30 minute wait until it left at 3:30. The bus wasn’t very crowded and it took about 3 hours of driving up the coast before we got to Montanita. The bus just drops you off on the main “highway” that runs through town and I walked 10 minutes to get to my hostel. 

The City

Montañita is a beach and surfing party town that is widely known in the backpacker community for having a good Spanish school where you can also do surf lessons. I heard about this school earlier in my trip and had it on my radar ever since.

The city lived up to its reputation as a party town as it was always loud in the streets and the parties on Wednesday night and during the weekend lasted until 5 in the morning or later. Not only do a lot of backpackers come here to party, it’s also popular amongst Ecuadorians from Guayaquil and Quito. The town was small with dirt roads when you weren’t on the main highway. It was easy to navigate with most of the action in the center area by the main beach with tiendas selling beach ware, restaurants with people trying to come get you to eat their seafood and other meals, and stands with guys selling fruits or ceviche. There were different streets dedicated to a selling a particular service with rows of little stands: cocktail alley, breakfast row, and ceviche stands. 

One really annoying thing that stands out about life here is that every morning at 7am the garbage truck goes around town playing the same song on repeat. I don’t know how the garbage men don’t go crazy; it drove me mad. 

While it was a fun beach town, if it weren’t for Spanish school then I think 2-3 nights would be a sufficient stay here. That being said, I’m glad that I spent 2 weeks here as I really got a feel for the little town. After just a few days, I could walk around town and already have a memory from each street. In this world where I’m traveling every few days, Montañita felt like home. I think living with a family made it feel even more like home.

The Lodging

After doing my 2 weeks of Spanish school in Medellin, I travelled for another 8 weeks improving on what I learned and talking with locals. Now was a good time to go back for more lessons and continue to improve my Spanish abilities. My plan was to sign up for 1 week of school and see if I liked it, in which case I would do a 2nd (which I ultimately did). The school also offered home stays, rather than staying at their hostel, for a slightly higher price and I figured this would be a great opportunity to both practice my Spanish and see how a local Ecuadorian family lives. While it was a bit nerve racking beforehand, I’m so glad that I made this decision.

After spending my first 2 nights at a hostel by the beach, it was the Sunday before school started and time to meet my Ecuadorian family. There are no addresses in Montañita so the school just gave me a map with a photo where the house will be. They also provided a photo of the family and some info about them. It was a huge family with my host mom, Yolanda (the grandma) at the center of it all, her husband Alejandro, four kids, and countless grandkids. I wasn’t sure if they all lived at the house but was about to find out. 

Of course it was not straight forward to find the house based on a static map with a building starred, so I was walking around the area where I thought it would be looking like a lost tourist with my bag. I sent Yolanda a message and she came out in the streets to find me. Phew nice to get past that uncertainty. She immediately gave off a warm and loving energy which took away some of my anxiety. She showed me my room then we chatted for a bit which helped shake off the remaining nerves. She was good at talking slowly (well slowish) and made having a conversation easy.

The house was above their family run swimwear shop which I later found out that Alejandro stitched together all the clothing and Saul came up with the designs. It was really cool to see they handmade everything in the process and I ultimately bought a bathing suit and a tee shirt to help support their business.

There was a staircase next to the entrance of the swimwear shop that led to an open air living room that overlooked a busy street in town. The living room was cozy with 2 hammocks, a rocking chair, a couch, and a small TV. It was an open space that connected to the dining room and kitchen. I had a room to myself on this same floor with 2 beds and my own bathroom. It was a very nice space and I was glad to have my own room that I could escape to when I needed privacy or was tired after a long day.

Yolanda didn’t speak any English and no one else in the family knew much either so it truly was an opportunity to surround myself entirely with Spanish. I had a lot of amazing conversations about things I had never talked about before in Spanish. It really tested my abilities to think on the fly and respond to new questions. At times it was hard to go into a lot of detail for my responses, especially in the moment (later I would think of more things I could have said). But it was such a strong learning experience to be put in these situations and it really helped grow my confidence by the end. Some conversations were better than others, but in the end I’m so proud of myself for my ability to interact with the family. And luckily they were used to having students from the school stay at their house so they were good at speaking more slowly to me. Whenever they spoke amongst themselves as a family, it was always much harder to understand.

My home stay included breakfast and dinner every day, which was always wonderfully cooked by Yolanda. She was an incredible chef and made some great dishes (more on that in the food section). I never left the table hungry. It was interesting because most the kids and grandkids don’t live at the house, but when Yolanda was cooking and it was meal time then everyone would slowly trickle into the house over the next hour. She usually served me first at the table and then it would be a rotating cast of family members that would sit down and eat. The table only sat 4 people so it was never everyone eating together at the same time. I always offered to wash my dishes after but my offer was always declined.

The People

I’m going to give a quick rundown of my host family:

Yolanda – the grandma and my host mom. She was my rock in the family making me breakfast and dinner every night and being a great source of conversation. Every time I came into the house, Yolanda would smile and chuckle “hola mi niño, todo bien?” She is such a sweet and loving lady. She spent a lot of time in the kitchen cooking for the family and keeping the house clean. Then at the end of the nights she loved watching her telenovelas, which are Latin American soap operas. If I didn’t go out to meet up with other students or wasn’t holed up in my room too tired from a long day, then I would sit in the living room and watch telenovelas with her. I think she really appreciated this and she liked to explain the story lines to me. She would always fade in and out of falling asleep on her rocking chair.

Alejandro – the grandfather. He was a really hard working guy who was always down in the swim ware shop until 10 or 11 at night. Sometimes he would come up for dinner and chat and other times he would just eat in the shop. Occasionally he gave off the intimidating Dad energy, but overall I had some nice conversations with him and we had a good relationship.

Saúl – one of their son’s. Him, his wife whose name I can’t remember, and his 2 year old son Jesse were the only other family members that lived in the house full time. Saúl and I got along really well and had some really great conversations. He even tried to convince me to buy a house in Montanita. His wife was typically tending to their son but she was really kind and we had a few nice chats, especially further into my stay.

Frixon – grandson that I communicated the most with. Whenever he was home, he would always ask me lots of questions about a variety of topics which I’ll talk about more later. I didn’t always understand him 100% the first time but he was good about repeating himself and keeping the conversation going. He had just graduated college and was getting ready to figure out the next stage of his life. Hamilton – oldest son that lived in a different house with his wife and 2 kids. Big surfer. He had lived and worked in California for a short time period so he spoke pretty good English. I only interacted with him a few times but he was very down to earth.

Grace – daughter who came over for dinner a few times. We had a solid conversation one night but otherwise not many interactions.

Other grandkids I talked to but only briefly was Alejandra who seemed a bit shy around me and Belfor who headed to college in Riobamba a few days after I arrived. The younger grandkids Liam, Leilani, and Caio were running around the house sometimes but I never truly interacted with any of them.

Sometimes just being in my room reading my book and listening to the family was a good experience. The whole family went to bed late and most school nights I went to bed before them. Even the 2 year old Jesse went to bed so late. I would hear more noise in the house around midnight than any other time of the day. I can’t imagine my nieces and nephews staying up that late.

I also loved spending time with them and getting to know the family better, more about Ecuadorian culture, the life of a big family in a small town in Ecuador, and of course the delicious home cooked meals. Interesting to think about the things they don’t have around – movie theaters, big super markets, etc. They really only leave their little city a few times a year, if at all, besides when going to college in Guayaquil, Riobamba, Quito, etc. It’s a big change for the family when one member leaves the city. 

Apart from the amazing interactions I had with my host family, just like Blink school in Medellin, I met so many people it’d be too much to list them all: Lena (Austria), Sophia (Netherlands), Tessa (Netherlands), Maga (Chile/Netherlands), Dave (Switzerland), Lulu (Netherlands), Stephen (Belgium), Laura (Poland/Jersey), Laura (Germany), Lara (France), Sarah (Germany), Herman (Netherlands), Amber (Netherlands), and countless others. It’s super easy to meet people and make friends at hostels but it’s even easier at the schools because your all sharing this experience of going to classes and learning Spanish. Also at the Montañita school there was a lot of extracurriculares with surfing, yoga, salsa, welcome dinners, almost nightly activities, and weekend trips. I spent a lot of time with my host family trying to soak in that experience, but I would also go over to the cabanas where the other students stayed and get socialization in there. It was also a nice outlet to speak English. 

The Food

Yolanda was a great chef and fed me very well. One night she told me that she had learned how to cook from her mother who passed away at a young age. Yolanda spent most of the day in the kitchen whipping up large portions of delicious dishes for the whole family to eat. For breakfast she would always make me a jugo and a cup of coffee along with a fruit cup and a main dish: empanada, omelet, meat and rice, bolon de verde (traditional breakfast dish on coast of Ecuador made of fried plantain fritters and cheese). I started out every day of class on a very full stomach.

Then for dinner it would be a protein: fish, seco de pollo, meat, chicken, breaded shrimp that was always served with rice and typically another side like beans, salad, fried plantains, etc. Saul’s favorite dish was seco de pollo and I tend to agree with him. Seco de pollo is a traditional Ecuadorian dish which is a chicken stew cooked slowly in a sauce of beer, naranjilla, onions, peppers, tomatoes, and herbs. I ate a lot of it throughout my 7 weeks in Ecuador but none compared to how delicious Yolanda made it. I was spoiled with my meals. It was so nice to have 2 home cooked meals per day.

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Lunch was not included and usually I would just grab something easy from breakfast alley, but I had a few other meals around town: encebollado, breaded shrimp with mango sauce, and chuleta (pork chops). I think the best value meal I got was a $1 plate of chuleta with rice, lentils, and a salad where the guy was grilling pork chops in front of the restaurant. It was one of those hole in the walls where you don’t know the price beforehand and I tried handing the guy a $5 bill and he asked if I had anything smaller. So I asked what the price was and he said $1. It was too good to be true.

I also went out to the weekly Monday night welcome dinner with the school. The first one was at an Italian restaurant where the pasta was average  but nothing great. The northern countries in South America aren’t exactly pasta experts. The next week the dinner was at a Thai restaurant and the curry was actually pretty tasty although still not as authentic as we have in Denver. It was a little strange that the welcome dinners were never just at regular Ecuadorian restaurants. Oh well I had my private chef at home.

The Beach

The main beach in Montañita had a boardwalk running along it and the sand was pretty nice. Not Sarasota status but acceptable. Unfortunately it was pretty gray a lot of my days in Montañita but I still went to the beach quite a few times to sit out and listen to the waves.

The day before I started the home stay, I was getting nervous if my Spanish would be sufficient enough to live with a family. But then I met a Colombian woman on the beach who struck up a convo with me. She ended up sitting next to me and we spoke for a over an hour about a variety of different things. This convo gave me more confidence in my general speaking and listening abilities. I didn’t always understand everything she said and I eventually ran out of things to say myself, but it was good practice before my home stay. It proved to me that I could hold a longer conversation. At one point she started teaching me how to salsa on the beach.

Every few minutes someone comes up trying to sell something: bracelets, ice creams, random souvenirs. At least they aren’t pushy. One guy came up and made up a rap about me and the Colombian woman. Not that I understood too much of it.I also spent a lot of time on the Olan beach as that’s where are surf lessons were but more on that below.

Nightlife

As I’ve mentioned, Montañita is a party town and there are plenty of late night places. Our go to bar was Caña Grill which I went to Wednesday and Friday night both weeks. Wednesday nights had a beer pong tournament and Friday was Friday. There would always be a band playing until 11pm (the same band and they were actually pretty good) and then a DJ after that until the wee hours. We also went to Poco Loco Beach Club one night afterwards but I wasn’t a huge fan of that one. Another popular move was to pregame at to this little bonfire on the beach; either there or at the cabanas.

The School

I was a really big fan of the Montañita Spanish school and think that it was awesome that you can also do surfing lessons. It made for some really long and tiring days but added to the overall experience. There was also yoga classes (which I did twice), salsa lessons (which I did once), and other activities almost every night to bring people together. The cost of classes was higher than when I went to Blink school in Medellin, but I think it was a better overall experience. Plus doing the home stay was worth every extra penny.

I really liked all 3 of the teachers that I had over the course of the 2 weeks. I learned even more about Ecuadorian culture and lifestyle based on conversations we would have in class. It was really interesting to get their perspective on daily life in Ecuador. While they were certainly interested in getting us to talk about ourselves, we also had lots of open conversations that gave me insight into their lives.

I picked it up pretty quickly and was standing pretty consistently by my 2nd and 3rd days. I was mostly riding the whitewash rather than the green waves but I had some nice long rides. And the Pacific Ocean Ecuadorian waves put anything I’ve ever seen in Florida to shame. It’s crazy how strong the current is when surfing and you don’t even realize how far it pushes you. It’s a very tiring sport when you paddle out and always having waves crashing into you and swallowing so much water.

The surf lessons were a great addition to the experience and I ended up enjoying surfing a lot more than I thought I would. I originally signed up to spread out my 5 days of surf lessons across the two weeks (once I had decided to do 2 weeks of classes) but I ended up going a few extra times. After my second week of classes I even went on the bi-weekly Saturday surf trip to Las Tunas. It was a great day that I’ll explain more down below in the daily breakdown.

The surf instructor Jorge was such a ball of energy and delight to listen/be around. He needs his own podcast. Everything he says is hilarious – in both Spanish and English. He was a jack of all trades: super good at surfing, dancing salsa, juggling, you name it. Seems like one of those people that picks something up and is immediately good. Overall positive energy and vibe.

For the surf lessons we would all meet in the garage below the school and get on our wet suits before a nice pep talk by Jorge. Then we would hop in the mini van and drive to the beach in the neighboring town of Olán which was about 10 minutes away. Jorge would lead us through some stretches before finally hitting the waves. So in reality we were only surfing for about 1 hour but it was nonstop once we were in the water so that was plenty of time to be surfing.

My life in Montañita was jam packed between school, surf, and home stay. The first week I had Spanish class 8-10, surf lessons 10-12 (the days I went), Spanish class 1-3 then back to my host family surrounded by more Spanish. Every day I did surf lessons that week I got home at 3 and immediately took a nap. The second week I had Spanish class 8-10, surf lessons 1-3 (when I went), and Spanish class 3-5. It was a crazy routine of life.

Daily Life

I know I’ve already said a lot in the summary of my life in Montañita but if nothing else but for my own reading pleasure later in life I’m going to give a “brief” daily breakdown. There was just so much that happened in these 2 weeks and I want to have it documented while I still have good notes about it. Experiencing this different lifestyle and way of travel really slowed down my trip in a lot of ways.

Sunday

I arrived at my new host family home around noon after struggling to find it (which I explained above). Yolanda immediately made me feel at home after our brief opening convo. During lunch I had my first experience of a delicious home cooked meal by Yolanda and family members coming in and out to eat. I chatted with grandson Frixon for 20-30 minutes. It was a nice experience and gave me more confidence in being here. I felt more at home. Sometimes I didn’t fully understand his questions but mostly did. Overall good conversation and took mental notes on types of things he was curious about: where my favorite place is to visit in the world, how much things cost in America like a new iPhone or cost to buy a home, etc. While a lot of my answers were shorter and less detailed than I would have liked, I was still able to hold down the basic conversation. Plus these questions are really challenging because certain things have such variable answers. Cost of buying home. Where? How many bedrooms? How big? Of course I just had to give a general answer, which regardless what it was going to be was incredibly high for them.

Afterwards I went to the beach and hung out for a little bit to get some fresh air. That evening during dinner, I got the chance to chat with Alejandro a bit at dinner. He asked me some questions about myself and we talked a bit about fútbol. Then it was just Yolanda and I and we had a very nice conversation (although she did most the talking).

She speaks slow and proper so I understood almost everything she said. She loves hosting students and has been doing it for nearly 10 years now. First we talked for a bit about Venezuelan immigrants. Then she told a long story about a Swiss girl that she had to take to the hospital for her appendix. Yolanda is just such a sweet motherly figure and my first day made me feel so much better about my decision to do a home stay. It was a big day of Spanish speaking so my brain was fried when I went to my room. This would become the norm for every night during these 2 weeks. 

Monday

Yolanda made me an incredible breakfast to start the day, and this would be the running theme throughout the next 2 weeks. As I mentioned above the breakfast would usually consist of a main plate, this particular morning it was a big empanada, then a small side of fruit, a blended fruit juice, and a coffee. It was such a great way to start the morning; especially given how long my days were ahead. 

I had to get to school at 7:30 to take my Spanish placement exam. Most of it was a breeze but the last few sections dealt with topics that I hadn’t learned yet like imperative and subjunctive. I was placed in a fairly high, but appropriate, level and it was just me and one other girl named Lulu. She was an 18 year old Dutch girl who just arrived in South America and would be traveling for 3 months. She was probably stronger than me at grammar since she was just learning Spanish in high school, and grammar has never been my strong suit even in English. But my speaking was way ahead of hers since I had been practicing for 3 months now in real world situations, and I had a way better arsenal of vocabulary. I have really learned a lot of words because throughout the day when I’m thinking in English, if a word pops up in my brain that I use frequently and don’t know in Spanish, then I look it up and write it down in my notes. I also occasionally read articles in Spanish in which case I’m constantly learning new vocabulary.

Our morning Spanish class from 8-10 was mostly focused on grammar and writing in el pasado pretérito y imperfecto. The professor, Stalin, spoke kind of quickly but my ear was decently trained at this point so I understood him pretty well; however Lulu was struggling. 

Then from 10-12 was my first surf lesson. It was a group of about 8 of us and we met up in the garage below the school and get on our wet suits before driving in a van about 10 minutes to the beach in Olan. I already talked about him a lot above but the main surf instructor Jorge was an incredible energy and really helped shed any anxiety about the upcoming surf day. On days with more students there was another instructor David that also helped out.

After doing some warm up stretching led by Jorge, those of us surfing for the first time were given instructions on how to paddle with the wave and stand up on the board. There’s really just a few things to know to get started. Then we were split out into groups based on skill and the beginners were given a lot of help on which waves to ride. I did the surf lessons because I’m here and why not do it as part of the experience with the school, but it turned out to be more fun than I expected. I wasn’t great but I did get up a few times. For being my first time ever surfing, I was proud of how I did and excited to go back again the next day. After about an hour in the water, we headed back in the van to school where we showered off our wetsuits and ourselves. Then me and some friends from surf class went and got lunch at breakfast alley. It was only an hour between lunch and my next class so didn’t have a lot of time.

Then afternoon classes from 1-3 began with a different professor, named Elizabeth. She turned out to be both an amazing teacher and person. I really loved her energy and she had a great way of bringing out the best Spanish in me. She was very easy to chat with and good at getting us to communicate. At the same time, she was also extremely chatty and told us lots of stories which really gave me better insight into the life of an Ecuadorian mother in her 30s. I felt very comfortable chatting with her which made my Spanish better and more confident. While she knew how to translate some words into English, she really didn’t know much English, so the class was all in Spanish. As a matter of fact all my classes were. It’s really the best way to learn.

The running theme for this week was the morning classes were more focused on writing and grammar, and the afternoon classes were focused on speaking and grammar. The first 15-20 minutes (if not longer) of every class with Elizabeth was just shooting the shit and getting us to talk about various things. Since today was the first class, we mostly talked about ourselves and our travels. Elizabeth was really good about continually asking questions to get us to explain ourselves in more details. It was great practice. At the end of class we told a made up story in the past where Lulu and I would trade back and forth sentences. It was very difficult because usually I’m talking about myself or things I know about, but this exercise required making stuff up in Spanish. It was a good brain teaser. At the end of class Elizabeth gave us some homework to do for the next day. 

I was absolutely exhausted after 4 hours of Spanish lessons and 2 hours of surfing and after saying hello to Yolanda and briefly telling her about my day, I took a 2 hour nap. Then I went out that night for the weekly Monday welcome dinner at an Italian restaurant with a big group of fellow students. I wasn’t staying at the Cabanas so I hadn’t gotten a chance to meet as many people, but the welcome dinner was a great opportunity for that. I met a lot of people and had some good convos. After spending the last 2 days absorbed in Spanish, it was nice to just speak in English the whole time. Afterwards I went back and drank a beer at the Cabanas with some of the people I just met. 

Tuesday

I went into a lot of detail about my first day and that pretty much sets the scene for how my days went in the first week of school: big breakfast > morning class with Stalin focused on writing and grammar > surf lessons (3 of the 5 days in the first week) > afternoon class with Elizabeth focused on speaking and grammar.

My day 2 surfing arms were a bit sore but I did even better on this second day. I stood up more and rode a few waves for a longer period of time. I was really happy with how well I did and was starting to see the appeal of why people go surfing on a consistent basis. Plus like any of these types of sports, the more often you go then the better you get. The process of standing up becomes more muscles memory and you can do it way faster without having to think so much.

I was super tired for afternoon classes after this day’s surf lessons. It’s a shame that the class with more talking is in the afternoon because I was always really exhausted on the days that I surfed. Luckily Elizabeth was still good at extracting it out of me and it was another solid lesson. Once again I was dead by the time the day was done and I took another 2 hour nap after class.

After another delicious dinner, I hung out in the living room area with Yolanda and we watched the news and then novelas (Spanish soap operas). The local news was showing videos of people in Guayaquil that go to restaurants and hold them up with guns so they can steal everyone’s cell phone. Sheesh glad I didn’t go there. I knew it had a reputation of being sketchy but it hits home more when you see it on TV. 

Yolanda loves novelas and she was explaining some back stories to the plot lines for me. The first one was called Luz de luna from Perú and I was actually following the different story lines pretty well and getting into it. It was very dramatic and would constantly have this cheesy music in the background. There was a few different stories developing: a pair of male coworkers hanging out where one of them was falling for the other; a man with his daughter whose wife had just left them; a woman whose father just got injured in a car accident; a grandpa whose granddaughter’s friend had seen him almost try to kill himself. And all the stories were intertwined by them being family or friends. It was quite juicy. I really enjoyed the two episodes we watched, and it was a good bonding experience with Yolanda. Then the next telenovela on was from Turkey with dubbed over voices in Spanish. I couldn’t quite get as into this one and went to bed after about 20 minutes of watching.

Wednesday

I was really enjoying my home stay, the Spanish classes, and the surf lessons; so I decided to go ahead and pay for a 2nd week of Spanish classes and to do the home stay again. And since I had already paid for a week of surf lessons, I decided that I would split the 5 lessons out over the course of 2 weeks. While going every single day is the best way to improve, I thought it was going to be too much. Surfing is super exhausting on the body. Plus the afternoon classes were always much more of a struggle after surfing, and after all, I did come here mainly for the Spanish learning. So I figured it’d be best to spread out the surf lessons and take some days off. I decided to take Wednesday and Thursday off from surfing so I used my extra 2 hours to just go back to my home stay and either chill or do some additional Spanish practice. I was sitting on the couch in the living room reading some Spanish when Saul walked in so we struck up a conversation. He was telling me about his work as a designer and the adult fútbol league he was in. We talked a bit about the work I had done and sports in general.

It was a really nice convo and got the speaking juices flowing for my afternoon class with Elizabeth. I was much higher energy that day since I hadn’t surfed and it showed in class. Elizabeth told us a funny story about how she was in some town (I don’t remember which) and she was trying to find this store she used to go to. So she just kept walking in circles looking for it and couldn’t find it. And apparently that street had changed over time and was an area where lots of prostitutes worked. So some guys cat called her thinking she was walking around looking for work.

I finally didn’t need to take a nap after class since I didn’t have surf lessons so I just lied on my bed in my room reading my book, Of Songbirds and Snakes. I needed a little reprieve from Spanish so it was nice to read in English. Plus I was starting to get really absorbed into the story.

There was another school dinner that night at Rose’s Burgers, but I decided I would eat the free meal at home with my host family then head over there after to meet people from school. I would way rather have Yolanda’s authentic Ecuadorian meals than a burger. Plus I liked to take the dinner time opportunities to chat with the family. It was all part of the experience of doing a home stay: eating local food and talking. The whole family was coming in and out on this night and I met Hamilton (the oldest son) and Grace (the daughter) for the first time. I can’t recall the specific conversations we had but there was a lot of activity at the table on this night. After dinner I met up with the others at Rose’s Burgers and had a meal while they finished their food. Then we went to cocktail alley and sat around the table chatting and drinking. There was a big diversity of backpackers from Belgium to Germany to France to Australia to Netherlands and more. Plus as I’ve mentioned before, there seems to be this even stronger bond you create with your fellow Spanish school backpackers. Afterwards we headed to Caña Grill (the go to party spot) where a live band was playing. They were doing some covers of a wide range of genres and were actually quite talented musicians. The drummer was crushing it!!

It was $6 for all you can drink Mojitos but I was trying to keep it contained on a school night so I didn’t go for the deal and stuck to just a few beers. Some other classmates were getting litty though. On Wednesday’s they have a beer pong tournament so I teamed with Tessa but we lost in the first round. The band ended just after 11 and a DJ started playing classic dance music songs which really lifted the energy of the place. At one point the bartenders were walking around with a limbo stick and people were boogieing underneath. I ended up staying out until about 12:30 so it was late for a school night but not too terribly crazy. All the teachers know that Wednesday is a big party night and they almost expect students to be hungover the next day.

Thursday

Once again I took the day off from surfing lessons but otherwise it was a pretty standard day of school. We learned how to use the future tense, not just the easy ir + verb which is “I am going to + verb,” but the actual future tense that corresponds to “I will + verb” in English and requires different conjugations. We also learned the conditional tense corresponding to “I would + verb”.

After class I had decided to sign up for a Salsa lesson. I neglected to do so during my time at school in Medellin and I kind of regretted it. While I didn’t plan to be a salsa master, I at least wanted to learn the basics. There was 7 of us in the class which made for an odd number (we had 4 guys and 3 girls) so the instructor rotated around acting as the girl to be the eighth. The basic steps of salsa are fairly simple, it’s when you start adding in more complexity to how you do them that makes it difficult. We ended up learning 4 different “movements” throughout the class. At first I was a bit stiff but I started to get the hang of it and it was actually quite fun. Salsa is very interesting because the guy is the one that leads everything. Whenever you want to spin a girl or do some sort of figure eight motion, it’s on the guy to give the signal for the next step. It was a fun hour and I really did learn a lot just from that one class. If nothing else I learned some of the intricacies involved beyond just doing the stepping motions. Good salsa dancing is very entertaining to watch.

That night at the dinner table I had some really interesting conversations with Frixon. At one point he asked me if I believe in God. That already makes for an interesting dinner table conversation and even more so when trying to answer in Spanish. Especially when your speaking with people that live in a highly religious country. I sort of danced around the question and was explaining how I grew up in a family with a Jewish mother and a Christian father, which they found quite interesting. It was a powerful exercise in using my brain. And the hard part is that I can’t go into as many details with my answers in Spanish. Some of the questions he asked already required me to think hard in English about my answer let alone to respond in Spanish.

After dinner Yolanda and I sat around the dining table having some good discussions. She told me that she learned to cook from her grandma because her mom passed away at a young age. Then she told me about how they have hosted many students for over 10 years now. That’s why they have 2 beds in my room and 1 more upstairs. I didn’t even realize there was another room upstairs to host people. During the peak business of the school before Covid they were typically hosting 3 people at a time. Then we went into the living room and watched the same Peruvian novella, Luz de Luna, from the night before. It was a nice bonding evening with Yolanda. I went to bed around 10:30 and that night I could hear the conversations of the family from the living room and that was entertaining in itself. The 2 year old, Jesse, would normally stay up way too late and be screaming until about midnight.

Friday

Woohoo it’s Friday!! After a long week of Spanish courses, surf lessons, and my home stay; I was so ready to be in the weekend mode. But still had one more day of class to go. And I was actually a bit sore in my legs from salsa dancing the night before. Who knew it was such a strenuous activity? But I was using muscles to dance that don’t normally get usually.

Stalin suggested that I asked to be bumped up a level for next week because otherwise it would be a whole week of learning the imperative. While it is an important tense, it could be learned in way less time. And if I went up a level then I could start learning the subjunctive. So I took his advice and talked to the main coordinator of class schedules who said it was fine.

Lulu was sick this day so both my classes were private lessons which was cool. After a few exercises, Stalin and I just spent the last 30 minutes chatting about whatever. I decided to return to surf lessons again this day to do my 3rd of the week. While it was a decent day on the water, taking those 2 days off definitely set me back a little bit in my progress. I think that Tuesday was actually my best surfing day that week. Then in the afternoon I told Elizabeth about how I was going straight to subjunctive the following week, and since it was a private class without Lulu, she went ahead and fast tracked through the rules of the imperative in one day. It was super nice of her to do that and I feel like I got enough of an overview to get the gist of it.

I took another long nap after class that day since I had also surfed and I wanted to have energy for the Friday night party. There was a BBQ that night at the cabanas for a small price. It was a good opportunity to socialize with my fellow backpackers/students. Some of the teachers from the school were also there to hang with the students; as was the surf instructor Jorge who brought his ever contagious energy. The grill master was crushing it cooking a lot of meat for the big crowd.

After dinner, the party really ramped up as people started dancing salsa (with Jorge leading the charge) and getting looser. We played a massive game of flip cup that was really fun because we did 4 different rounds down the table: starting with normal flip cup, then using your mouth to suck the cup and turn it, then using your tongue to flip the cup, then kicking the cup. The energy was high as we headed to Caña Grill in time to catch the end of the band. Then the DJ got behind the decks and turned the dance party up. At one point a few of us hopped over to Poco Loco club which was more of a traditional club environment. I didn’t actually like it as much and headed back to Caña Grill. Before I knew it, I was out until just after 4 in the morning. It was a fun party night out on Montañita after a week of classes.

Saturday

This day was a struggle after the previous evening’s partying. I ended up sleeping in until about 1pm and continued to struggle to get out of bed. I felt a little guilty for not leaving my room and wanting to hang out with my host family but I also just felt so crappy. At some point in the afternoon, I left to go to the beach with my friend Dave from school, just to get out of the house for a bit. Otherwise after dinner I went back to my room to read and fell asleep around 9 that night.

Sunday

It was a different type of fútbol Sunday as Saul invited me to watch his adult league game in Sinchal, a neighboring town. Hamilton and his wife picked us me, Saul, his wife, Jesse, and Alejandro and drove us the 25 minutes to Sinchal. On car ride over we were listening to the Doors and they were singing along to Light My Fire. Jim Morrison transcends all cultures. While soccer isn’t my favorite sport, it was cool to attend an adult Intramural league game in Ecuador since it was once again a new and interesting cultural experience.

The first half was pretty boring but Saul’s team scored a goal toward the end. Jesse was on the sideline crying and calling out his Dad’s name the whole half; and the mom just sat there doing nothing. It’s certainly a different style of raising kids in Ecuador compared to watching my brothers. At half time Alejandro and I walked onto the field and chatted with the team. He was good friends with the coach and seemed to have lots of connections on the field. The second half was a bit more exciting as they put up 3 more goals including 1 by Saul. In the end, they ended up winning 4 to 1. Overall it was a cool experience and I feel like it helped me connect more with Saul and Alejandro to be a part of it. I think they really appreciated that I showed interest in going. Although I was pretty quiet throughout the day because I was still slightly recovering from Friday and I really don’t have a lot of insight to add when it comes to soccer, even in English. 

Monday

My schedule on the second week was a little more spread out. I had morning classes from 8-10, once again with my favorite teacher Elizabeth. Then I had a break for awhile as surf lessons this week were from 1-3; followed by my afternoon classes from 3-5 with Curly. I was no longer in classes with Lulu and had a new classmate this, Laura, a Polish girl who lives in Jersey. I didn’t even know an “old Jersey” existed but it’s a small island between England and France that is apparently a big tax haven. Laura was much better at Spanish than Lulu and was better than me at speaking. She had been doing a 4 week traveling Spanish program across 4 different cities in Ecuador. I didn’t know that was a possibility but sounds like a cool experience to mix travel with education. She spoke Polish and English perfectly, some French, some Japanese, and some Norwegian; so she was clearly a language enthusiast. All while being a doctor and marathon runner. I’m not sure how she has time for it all, but she seems like one of those people that is constantly doing things.

Once again Elizabeth was very chatty and good at getting us to talk. We spent nearly an hour just talking about random things as she pried into Laura’s background. We also got started a bit on learning the basic rules behind the subjunctive. When I got back from class I had another good lunch talk with Frixon as he continued to be a great source of conversation in the house. I took the day off from surfing as I only had 2 more lessons left that I had paid for. I decided to rent one of the Spanish grammar books from the school (just had to pay a deposit that I got back upon return) so that I could practice further. I figured why not since it was available and it was my last week of classes I’d be taking during my travels.

My afternoon teacher was Curly who was a 26 year old chatter box. I liked her a lot and while she did do a good job getting Laura and I to talk, she also chatted a bit too much herself. I’m fine with the teacher talking a lot because it’s still listening practice but Curly started droning on about ex-boyfriends and sometimes it was just a bit much. I’m hear to learn the subjunctive, not about your love life! Anyways it was still a cultural perspective hearing her stories and about her upbringing. At one point Laura had to get her back on track when she was about to go on about another story and said “soooo subjunctive.” We got a little bit of subjunctive practice in, although not too much. 

That night I went to the welcome dinner again to meet the newest students and chat with others I’d already met. We went to a Thai place in Olan, which actually turned out be pretty good. Maybe not super authentic but it was tasty. It was the first time I had Thai food since America and I miss it a lot. I had some great convos at dinner and met my first Slovenian who was very well spoken and interesting to talk to. Then I went back to the Cabanas and hung out for awhile.

Tuesday

This was a very busy day as I had my morning class then a short break then surf lessons then afternoon class then yoga. I had a really good surf lesson that day and felt like I was starting to get the hang of it more. I didn’t need to think as much about the actions involved with standing up and just did them naturally. This allowed me to go through the motions much quicker.

Laura had convinced me to sign up for yoga and I’m glad that I did as it had been a long time. I forgot how nice it makes you feel to get in a good stretch and work on your balance, as well as just the general sense of inner peace it creates. It was just Laura and I that signed up so the instructor asked if we wanted it in Spanish or English, and we decided on Spanish. Why not? We were both at a high enough level. It was actually quite soothing to have the instructor lead us in Spanish although sometimes I had to think a little harder to figure out what she was requesting us to do with the poses. She would occasionally switch to English to help us out. Laura is super flexible and well balanced, but I was struggling on a few of the poses that required a lot of balance. They were difficult and it had been awhile! Luckily with yoga there’s usually an alternative pose you can do that’s easier for those of us who don’t do it as much. Overall it was a great class that left me feeling better than I started and it was cool to add yoga to my list of Spanish activities.

That night during dinner Yolanda and I had a good convo talking about the history of Montañita. She was telling me how 20 years ago they didn’t have this level of tourism and it was basically just a small farm town with cows and chickens running across the streets. But now it has become a lot more commercialized (well relatively speaking) with more restaurants lining the beach and hotels for accommodation. It was interesting to hear her perspective because I think a part of her is happy to see the local economy thriving more but another part misses when things were calmer and more peaceful. The pandemic was very difficult for the town since it now relies so heavily on tourism. They had to close their swimwear shop for an extended period of time and weren’t getting any additional revenue from hosting students at the school.

Wednesday

That morning in class we had an interesting conversation with Elizabeth about how Ecuadorian woman don’t keep their diet and fitness after having kids and tend to let go. She works really hard to not let that happen. It was interesting to hear her take on the dietary habits of other Ecuadorians and her concerns over the amount of sugar people it.

This was my best day of surfing to date. My ability to stand up was good at this point and I was able do it almost every time without thinking and just doing. Plus I was getting better at balancing once I’m actually up. I rode a few waves all the way to shore. It was a really nice feeling seeing the progress I made as a surfer. I was still just riding the white wash rather than the green waves but it was a really good day on the water. I felt like it was a turning point in my young surfing career. 

That night was another pregame at the cabanas before heading to the classic Caña Grill. The band was really crushing it this night and even did a La Bamba > Twist and Shout > La Bamba sandwich jam. I ended up staying out until about 1am before calling it a night.

Thursday

Nothing too much of note happened at school on this day. I had used up all my surf lessons and while I could buy individual days I decided to take the day off. I did go to another yoga class that night and since there were 4 of us this time, it was taught in English. This class wasn’t quite as strenuous as the one on Tuesday. The teacher worked us through a lot of different poses over the course of the hour. That night at home was the last of which I watched novelas with Yolanda. That’s certainly something I will miss as it was a fun way to wind down at the end of the night and passively practice my Spanish listening while spending some quality time with Yolanda.

Friday

Graduation day from classes! I started out the morning by going to the bakery and buying Elizabeth a pastry to thank her for 2 great weeks of classes. I thought she was an incredible teacher and great person to talk to. I really appreciated her style of teaching and all that I learned about Ecuadorian culture from her. Laura was also “graduating” after her 4 weeks of classes so spirits were high. It was hard to try and learn anything new but as usual we mostly just talked. Then at the end, Elizabeth had a little cap and gown that we took graduation photos in.

During lunch I talked with Saul and Frixon about housing prices in Montañita and how it’d be a good investment. Saul is in the industry and really had me thinking about the opportunity. He said it only cost about $40,000 to buy some land and build a property. And that the price in a few years will already be so much higher as Montañita continues to grow as a tourist destination. He wants to start buying up properties and making some cash from rentals and future real estate sales. During the conversation he really had me convinced how good of an idea it’d be, but looking at it now my sentiment has changed a bit. While I had a great experience in Montañita, I don’t think I would actually want to own property there. It’s a very noisy town and a few days there is a sufficient amount of time so why would I want to permanently own something. Oh well it was still a good conversation and I feel like Saul and I had a stronger relationship afterwards.

I decided to do another surf lesson with the gang to get it all in. I had to be extra careful today because my rib was kind of hurting. The board hit me in the rib on Wednesday when a wave had come crashing in. It was inevitable that I would have some injuries after 2 weeks of surfing lessons. I rode a few nice waves but overall it wasn’t as good as Wednesday. I decided to also go ahead and sign up for the surf trip to Las Tunas the following day so I could get one more good surf day in.
That afternoon was our last class with Curly, and my last hours of school on the trip! She was super chatty as usual and we didn’t get too much further along on the subjunctive but at this point I didn’t really care about much further education. I was ready to go back to the carefree backpacker life and use some of my new Spanish skills in real life situations. Now every time I use the subjunctive I give myself a pat on the back even though the person I’m talking to doesn’t even think twice about it since it’s just the natural way you’re supposed to talk.

After class I got a chocolate cake for my family to thank them for the hospitality and amazing experience. It was the perfect timing because everyone happened to be home, almost all the kids and grandkids were there. They didn’t expect to receive the gift and were super thrilled by it. It didn’t take long before the giant cake was eaten entirely as we sat around chatting and enjoying its chocolatey goodness. The cake cemented my stay being memorable for the family. At this point I had a strong sense of comfort and homeliness with everyone in the family. I had much more confidence in my speaking abilities after 2 weeks with the family and doing classes, so I was much better at answering their questions in the moment. I was able to correctly conjugate more quickly and speak in more details. We even took a nice family photo together after eating the cake.

That night after dinner I went over to the cabanas and met up with the crew. We took a taxi to Olan for a party but once we got inside, there was absolutely no one there. The DJs were actually really good but I guess we were way too early. After hanging around for about 30 minutes we decided to go back to Montañita rather than waiting for the party to fill in. First we went to a bonfire on the beach before going back to our normal stomping grounds at Caña Grill. It felt like I knew so many people going in there after 2 weeks of Montañita. I even ran into my Russian friend, Talia, that I had met in Cuenca. While I wanted to party late, the surf trip started at 8am the next day, and I wisely called it a night around 1am.

Saturday

I had to be at school by 8am for the surf trip to Las Tunas. It was a group of 8 of us going plus Jorge and it was a nice opportunity to explore a new beach area about 45 minutes north of Montañita. Just like when skiing new resort, surfing a new beach had totally different vibes and type of waves. They were stronger and shorter here. You really had to be patient to catch the right wave at this beach. I got my most speed so far but also got swallowed whole by multiple waves. I had to paddle out pretty far to get better waves so it was an exhausting morning. My rib was also hurting from earlier in the week so I didn’t end up riding for too long. Overall not my best day but still fun.

It was a good last day with the group of school friends. Finally had some sun so even when I wasn’t surfing, I just lied on a towel and soaked in the sun. We also played a few card games and chatted the afternoon away. Jorge setup a nice fruit platter of watermelon, pineapple, strawberry before lunch. Then I ordered a delicious pescado asado. We didn’t end up getting back to Montañita until around 7:00. Originally I was going to head to Ayampe on this evening (in hindsight I should have just brought my stuff with on the surf trip since Las Tunas was just past Ayampe), but it was already late in the evening and Yolanda said I should just stay another night. Okay why not? I’ll take one last round of her cooking.

The family was also hosting 2 new people starting that day. Around 8pm an older German guy showed up that spoke pretty much no Spanish. Yolanda had me act as the translator between them. I give the guy respect for going in for the home stay to surround himself by Spanish but he knew so little that it was going to be an interesting experience for both him and the family. Yolanda told me that they get guests like this sometimes where they don’t know any Spanish but they improve quickly. Best of luck to everyone involved in that situation. I was so glad that I had the house to myself with the family so that I could really spend time talking and getting to know them rather than dealing with another student in the house. Plus it prevented me from speaking English while at home. Once the German guy was there then we talked on the side in English. I gave him a bit of a rundown of the family and lifestyle. 

Then the other new student at the house, Tanja, showed up. Except she actually wasn’t new, we had met before, she just didn’t like her first host family. Her Spanish also wasn’t super strong so it was going to be an interesting week for Yolanda and family. I was glad to see it would provide some extra income for the family. She was Swiss German so it would be good for the German guy and her to have an outlet to speak to each other. After dinner, the 3 of us went out for a couple of drinks before calling it a night.

Sunday

During my final breakfast with the fam, Saul told me about their New Years celebration in Montañita and convinced me that I have to come back for it some day. There are parties everywhere throughout town. At 11:45 all the surfers go in the water to catch one last wave for the year and then to do their first one for the new year. Then they put on masks and costumes and run through the streets yelling. Weather is sunny and perfect. The city is decorated with Christmas lights. Overall sounds like a great time and place to be in Montañita. 

After breakfast I said my goodbyes to everyone before walking to the bus. It was actually a bit of an emotional moment as they had been my family the last 2 weeks and really treated me as such. I could tell Yolanda was sad to see me go. We had created a nice connection during my stay at their home. This whole experience was something I will never forget and was one of the highlights of my whole trip. Not only did it improve my Spanish, but it gave me the opportunity to dive deeper into the Ecuadorian culture and lifestyle. Plus I learned how to surf and made a lot of great friends at school. A+ experience.

Getting In

I left Mancora, Peru at 11pm and around 1:30am I was woken up by the bus driver for the border crossing at Huaqillas. I realized that I had forgot to look if there were any requirements to enter to Ecuador (Peru had a health form and Colombia had a migrations document; and both countries required showing a proof of leave). I didn’t have any of these things figured out so I was a bit nervous, but turns out it was the easiest border crossing of all. Not sure what they would have done had I needed some other documentation, left me behind at the border at 1:30 in the morning…Luckily the border crossing was a piece of cake, even easier than being at the airport.

It was just one building for both the Peruvian exit and Ecuadorian entrance. I got in one line to leave Peru, got my exit stamp, walked to the other line to enter Ecuador, and the only question they asked was how long I would be in the country, and then all was good. My bus only had about 15 people on it since it was the middle of the night and there was no one else at the border so crossing took less than 30 minutes. I passed back out until we reached Cuenca around 7 in the morning. Just like my arrival in Peru from Colombia, I immediately felt a totally different energy in Ecuador. It’s crazy how quickly the senses pick up on being in a new country based on smell and sight. 

The City

Cuenca is a charming colonial town with European style architecture located in a highland valley at about 8,200 feet. The city has a few rivers running through it and is surrounded by mountains on all sides. It’s a short bus ride from Cajas National Park. Cuenca wasn’t quite as beautiful as Arequipa in Peru but it had a very similar feel with the architecture and the tranquil vibes. This city is sometimes referred to as “The Athens of Ecuador”. Cuenca is the 3rd largest city in Ecuador with a population around 430,000. The city felt super safe and the streets were very clean. I really enjoyed just walking around aimlessly with a destination in mind, but not being in a rush to get there.

They use dollars in Ecuador which made it super easy for me since I didn’t have to do any conversions in my head. Interesting thing is instead of getting back $1 bills typically you get back saqajawea coins. I even had one with Marin van Buren on it; I’m sure he’s very well known here. Also they have their own 50 cent Ecuadorian coin. Generally speaking things in Ecuador were a little more expensive than Colombia but cheaper than a Peru; although like anything it’s all relative to how you spend money. I later found out when I was in Quito the full story behind the use of dollars and why coins are more popular than bills.

Ecuador used to have its own currency, but then in the early 2000s under some poor leadership, the country experienced hyper inflation that was so drastic that grocery stores would have to change their prices every hour. People panicked and rushed to banks to withdraw their money which caused the banks to shut down. It was a sad time where people lost nearly everything they had. In 2001 the government decided to switch to the US dollar. The government gave everyone 6 months to switch out their currency, but some farmers and more rural people who never trusted the government or banks and would just put money under their pillow, didn’t exchange their currency and lost it all. I feel so bad for all these Ecuadorians and it really makes you take me appreciate having a stable banking system and currency. 

The reason that they use coins for $1 rather than bills is that coins have a longer average life span. The $1 bill only has a lifespan of 5-7 years. And since Ecuador obviously can’t just print more US dollars, it’s more beneficial for them to use $1 coins.

The Lodging

I wanted to start out Ecuador with some solo time just like when I arrived in Peru. I think it’s good for me to start out a new country having a solo spot to allow for extra time to decompress and reflect on my experiences in the previous country. Also I had been partying hard and socializing a lot 3 straight nights in Mancora and I wanted time to myself. For just over $25/night I had a spacious studio apartment right nearby Parque Calderon, which is the main plaza and a great place to sit on a bench and people watch. the apartment had a perfect view of the Catedral de la Inmaculada Conception, a small kitchen, comfy bed, huge sofa, TV, and desk. It felt like such luxury living! I was so pumped to have so much space and empty everything out of my bag.

I originally booked 3 nights here but on the 2nd day I decided to add a 4th night. I was enjoying the space so much and I really wanted to take things slow to start out my trip in Ecuador. It was really cool to lie in bed at night time and watch Netflix and look out the window at the lit up church with it’s soft blue lighting.

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The Food

I continued the eating habit I started in Peru where I would seek out restaurants with menú del día specials. I love this approach because you get to try local food and eat for cheap. On my first day I went to the market for lunch and it’s always a bit of a guess on the first few meal orders when going to a new country while I get used to the typical cuisine of the country; especially when going to the market. For $3 I got a chicken soup, fried fish with rice and a salad, and a small fruit juice. Ahhh nice; reminds of Peru already.

The next day I got a $2.50 menú del día with encebollado, chuleta (pork chop) with rice and lentils, and a juice. Encebollado is a typical Ecuadorian dish that is served all across the country. It is soup made with fish or other type of seafood, coconut milk, onions, peppers, and garlic. People use it as a hangover cure which you would never expect a fish soup to be used for. Another interesting thing about this soup is they bring out a small bowl of popcorn with it that you slowly add to the soup…or just eat on its own on the side. Ecuadorians love their soups and this was just one of many that I tried.

One morning I tried tigrillo which is a traditional Ecuadorian breakfast made with scramble eggs, plantains, cheese and onions. It was decent but not my favorite. Maybe it was just because the portion they gave me was too large but I couldn’t finish it.

Aside from those meals I mostly ate at home since I had a kitchen and lots of space. I picked up a bunch of veggies and some ground meat at the market and made myself a big pasta that lasted a few meals.

I also had the realization that fruit juices aren’t going to always be this good and this cheap. The fruit is much better in the north of South America than the south. I had been drinking a lot of fruit juices during my travels but wanted to start doing it daily (this habit really only lasted in Cuenca). Every day I would go to the market and grab a different type of blended fruit juice for just $1. I also tried a popular pink flower drink in Plaza de las Flores that was quite refreshing during a day of walking around town.

The Experience

Exploring Town

On my first day I had a long time to kill before my 3pm Air Bnb check in so I went to a cafe for coffee and breakfast, got my Ecuadorian SIM card, dropped my bag off at the Salina Hostel (for a small fee), walked along Rio Tomebamba to Parque El Paraíso and chilled for a few hours, grabbed lunch at Mercado 9 de Octubre, walked through Plaza de Flores and Plaza de San Francisco, and then finally checked in. Cuenca has a really pleasant vibe to it and is nice to just wander around.

Later that afternoon I walked to Mirador de Turi which has a panoramic view of the entire city. It took about 25 minutes to get to the start of the hill and then it was a set of stairs leading to the viewpoint. I almost got to the top and the door was blocked so I couldn’t make it any higher, which was a bit disappointing since the view of the city was blocked. Two backpackers (Russian girl named Tati and Swiss guy) got up to the roadblock I was at and were also confused about what to do. Luckily some locals came so I followed them around the blocked door by walking along the side of the hill (it was a bit sketchy) which led to an opening into a construction site with employees actively working. We all walked through construction site to the top where there was a road again. The 3 of us laughed about how that type of thing would never fly in our countries.

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The views of the city and the mountainous backdrop from Mirador El Turi were fabulous and I was surprised at how large and sprawled out Cuenca is. There is a little adventure park at the top of the hill that you can pay money to go on a few rides but me and the other 2 backpackers decided to spend our money getting a beer instead and went to a little restaurant/bar that had big glass windows to enjoy the view. Day turned into night as we chatted over beers and it was cool to see the city light up during that transition. We split a taxi ride back into town and after dropping them off at their hostel, I grabbed dinner and went to bed early after a long first day in Ecuador.

Markets

It’s always fun to go to the market in South America even if I have nothing specific in mine to purchase. There was a couple different markets around town and the 2 main ones I went to were Mercado 9 de Octubre and Mercado 10 de Agosto. They weren’t nearly as hectic as the market in Peru. The first floor was stands selling fruits/veggies/meats/nuts/other goods and the second floor was restaurants and juice stands. As mentioned previously I had lunch at the market one day, bought some veggies to cook, and got a daily fruit juice so I made quite a few appearances in the market during my 4 day stay.

Museum Pumapongo

This is the most well known museum in town and the entrance is free so how could I not go? It was just a 15 minute walk from my Air Bnb. I’m not a huge museum person but I actually really enjoyed this one and ended up spending a few hours here. The exhibits at Pumapongo highlight the cultural history of the different tribes that have inhabited Ecuador dating back thousands of years. You can see a large variety of artifacts throughout the history of the country including pottery, textiles, tools, traditional masks, instruments, and shrunken heads. There is also a whole room dedicated to providing information about shamanic practices and the importance they have had on the tribes. 

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There is a small set of ruins behind the museum and a beautiful garden with rolling hills in the background. It was a pleasant area to walk around on a sunny day and led me to an unexpected bird sanctuary. I didn’t realize this was going to be a part of my day as well. There were blue and yellow macaws, buzzard eagles, parrots, parakeets, hawks and more. There was one bird just hanging out outside the cage that I thought was a statue at first.

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Overall it made for a better than expected afternoon at the museum and gardens. Plus all the exhibits were in Spanish so I picked up a few new words for my vocabulary.

Parque Nacional Cajas Route 2 into Route 1 (6 miles, 1725 ft elevation gain)

I woke up early and walked to the bus station to head to Parque Nacional Cajas for my first hike since the Salkantay Trek so it had been a few weeks. It was a quick 45 minute bus ride for just a few dollars and the entrance to the park is free (you just need to sign in at the ranger station). This park remains off the beaten path and only allows and 92 visitors per day. But I don’t even think that number gets close to being reached. It is known for its rugged terrain with glacial valleys, moors, forests, and about 165 lagoons. Hiking is already my favorite activity and I love how cheap it is.

Vendors just come right on the bus in Ecuador (more so than other countries) and try to sell you shit from food to charging adaptors. Some people will just drop it in your lap then come back around for money or take their product back. The guy was pretty adamant I bought his chocolate which I was reluctant at first but I ended up giving him a dollar for 4 little truffles. It actually turned out to be a good purchase for the hike.

I was lucky because it was a sunny day with minimal clouds, which seems to be rare in this park based on my readings. I started the trail around 9 and immediately was back in my happy place to be hiking again; it had been far too long. The park has some set routes and I decided to do route 2 into route 1 because I had all day to explore. It was a totally different type of Andes hiking from Peru, both the look and feel. But it still had the high altitude challenge as I started just over 13,000 feet high and made my way just below 14K. I wasn’t in my Peruvian Andes hiking shape from a few weeks ago and was struggling to breathe a few times, especially during the super steep sections.

The landscape throughout the hike was a swampy marshland with many lakes. It’s what I imagine hiking in Scotland to be like, but at a way higher altitude. The trail started out with a steady incline but then it was super steep with giant mud steps. After that was an even steeper incline where you almost couldn’t stop and had to keep your momentum. I had to take a few short pauses when the ground was more flat to catch my breath due to the altitude and steepness. After about 15-20 minutes of this I made it to the top of Cerro San Luis with an elevation just under 14K. The views of all the lakes and mountains in the background were absolutely incredible. I took a snack break and soaked in my first taste of the Ecuadorian Andes. My soul was at peace and this is when I started feeling truly comfortable with my new life in Ecuador. I knew I was in the right place at the right time. I didn’t seen a single other person all morning. It was pure bliss and tranquility.

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It was a steep downhill on the other side of the mountain to match the way up. I nearly slipped a few times because of the incline but I took it slow and shuffled my way down. Once I was at the bottom of the other side of the mountain, the trail linked up with Route 1 which was much more mellow. I went through Bosque de San Luis, a forested area with trees that had very windy trunks. I finally saw a few other people on this route since it was an easier trail but it was still few and far between. This park remains off the beaten path and I hope it stays that way. It was so nice to hike in such untouched land.

The next section of the trail went along a few different lakes and was pretty flat with small ups and downs. I sat down in front of one of the lakes and had a sandwich for lunch. Then I continued through some marshy areas where I accidentally got off trail a few times. It wasn’t always obvious where to go. The final section was a moderate uphill to a viewpoint above yet another lake before I ended up back at the ranger station and completed my loop.

Overall amazing first hike in Ecuador that was minimally trafficked and incredibly beautiful. The bus stop to head back to Cuenca was in front of the park so it was easy to catch a ride. During the 5 minute wait I ended up talking to a French couple and making friends with them. We shared a taxi back from the Cuenca bus station to the market for some fruit drinks then exchanged numbers to hang out later.

Amaru Bioparque

The weather on my 4th and final day in town was supposed to be very rainy. But it turned out to just be cloudy so I decided to take a 20 minute taxi to the Amaru Bioparque just outside of town. This animal park felt more authentic than being at a zoo. It was up on the hillside and you “hike” between the exhibits up and down dirt trails through the trees. The trail goes in one direction so you end up seeing every exhibit unless you turned around for some reason. 

There were some exotic animals that you don’t see in American zoos and most are actually indigenous to this area that were rescued so you don’t feel quite as bad that they are in cages. The list of animals I saw includes Andean bears, wolf, puma (although it didn’t show itself, owl, Huron, eagle, condor, llama, variety of birds, crocodiles, caiman, turtles (including giant tortoises), snakes (boas, anaconda, equis, vipers, all sorts of other varieties; more than I even knew existed; the Ecuadorian rainforest is full of all sorts of scary snakes) monkeys, frogs, tapir, jaguar, cuchuchos, lions, and peacocks.

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For some of the bird exhibits you actually got to walk inside their caged area and get up close and personal with them, which I thought was really cool. I finally got to see the jaguar that never showed up in the jungle of Peru. It’s a beautiful animal and very large in real life. I really want to see one in the wild, but would also be really scared so I’m not sure that I actually do.

While not as cool as seeing these animals in their natural habitat, the Amaru Bioparque was a fun daytime activity for my extra day in Cuenca. I think my nieces and nephews would absolutely love this place.

Nightlife

On my final night I met up with the French couple to have a few drinks, which turned into a whole night out. We had some good conversations over beers at this outdoor patio bar. Then all the sudden things ramped up and instead of going out to dinner we ordered shots and cocktails. Around 10 we walked over to this club the French guy had heard about it and after paying the cover we were the only people there. Oops must be too early. We hung around and had a few beers while the place slowly started to fill in. Finally around midnight it was much more popular as we danced to the house music. The French couple left around 1:30 and I stayed for a bit longer before calling it a night and stumbling home.

Different Approach to Travel

I needed more solo time my first week in Ecuador (and throughout the country in general). It was the time of the trip where I started to feel a bit exhausted from traveling. I learned to change my travel style in Ecuador and to just take things more slowly, spend more time solo, and soak in the experiences from a different lens. Even if I didn’t do something every day, I was still living my daily life in a different country. In Cuenca, I had a few afternoons where I didn’t even leave my Air Bnb and would just read in bed or watch Netflix in Spanish. It was super nice to just relax and not do anything. It was a great way to recharge my energy after a few months of traveling.

Four days is awhile to spend in Cuenca but I wanted to take it slow to start Ecuador. I had my nice Air Bnb so I took more time to just relax. Plus my Spanish school in Montanita didn’t start until the following Monday so I had time to chill.

Even though I had my own space and spent a lot of time solo, I still ended up meeting those 2 backpackers on the way up to Mirador El Turi and going out on the town for a night with the French couple. So I was still able to get in some good socialization while having rest time and personal space at my Air Bnb.

7/25 – 9/11 (48 days)

Miles hiked: 127.2 miles hiked. 38,715 feet elevation gain

Places visited:

• Lima (7 nights)
• Oxapampa (2 nights)
• Huaraz (7 nights)
• Santa Cruz Trek (2 nights): Parla > Taulipampa
• Arequipa (2 nights)
• Colca Canyon Trek (2 nights): Llhaur > Sangalle
• Cusco (7 nights)
• Manu National Park (3 nights)
• Salkantay Trek (4 nights): Soraypampa > Colpapampa > Sahuayacu Playa > Aguas Calientes 
• Paracas (3 nights)
• Huacachina (1 night)
• Mancora (3 nights) 
• Night buses (5 nights)
• Day Trips: Pisac, Ollantaytambo 

Best place – Huaraz and surrounding area 

Best experience – Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu 

Worst experience – Getting food poisoning in the jungle during Manu National Park tour

Most extreme experience – Ice climbing Nevada Mateo in the snow 

Best meal – Punto Marisko seafood (ceviche mixto y arroz con camarones)

Worst meal – Pizza in Aguas Calientes 

Most wild card move – going to 2 day music festival with Peruvian girl I just met a few hours before 

Craziest travel experience – 11 hour bus ride that turned into 32 hours because of accidents on the road. Honorary mention to landslide that destroyed the road and they rebuilt it in a few hours 

The Culture

Peru is a hiker’s paradise but it’s got a lot of other things to offer too: food, markets, alpaca and Inca style gifts, ancient ruins, and so much more. While the culture in Peru wasn’t quite as vibrant as in Colombia, it was still very warm and friendly. I had some great conversations with locals during my 7 weeks from tour guides to travelers to my Peruvian “girlfriend.” I really liked that a lot of Peruvians would travel within the country and stay at the same hostels as the backpackers. It was a good opportunity to meet locals my age who were are also traveling and get a better perspective on their lives and experiences rather than only meeting European backpackers.

I think it’s really cool and interesting to see how heavy the Incan influence still is on Peruvian culture, especially in the mountains. Going to see Incan ruins adds a lot of historical and cultural context to visiting Peru. It’s really so impressive to see the architecture and engineering genius from that ancient civilization and how it still holds the test of time through inclement weather and natural disasters like earthquakes. Not to mention the mystery of how they even built these incredible cities from massive rocks way up in the mountains. A lot of the locals in the mountain towns like Huaraz and Peru speak Quechua (Incan language) and for most of them it’s actually their first language with Spanish being second. There’s a very distinctive energy and mindset to the mountain people in Peru. You can tell that they really respect the land and know how to live in harmony with it. They also have a very strong community aspect. It’s incredible to see how many people have been living this deep in the Andes for so many generations with such a strong lifestyle and culture.

Peru has an incredible market culture with beautiful artesanal crafts, alpaca goods, and every type of food imaginable. Going to the market here is a one stop shop for anything you could need. It’s a fun experience just to walk around and soak in the energy even if you don’t buy anything. It’s also a great place to get a cheap and delicious lunch and/or fruit drink.

Just like Colombians, Peruvians love to go out dancing to salsa, cumbia, and reggaeton. When it comes to nightlife, it’s easy to find a party in Peru. As advertised to me by other backpackers, the Wild Rover Hostel chain was always a spot to party and I unintentionally stayed at all 3 locations across the country. I actually never ended up going out in Lima in spite of all my different nights staying there, but the party scene was big in Cusco, Mancora, and Huacachina. I had an absolute blast going to the 2 day music festival in Oxapampa, Oxafest, with Maria. It was really cool to have this experience in Peru: the energy was on point, the music was great, and it reminded me why I love going to music festivals. 

People were more pushy than Colombia trying to sell you stuff in the streets (although I didn’t go to Cartagena) or get you to come to their restaurant, tour, etc. It was also more expensive although one big reason is that I did more excursion and tours in Peru. Overall I’d say the cost of things was a little higher although once I discovered eating from the menú del día spots it saved me a lot of money. There were many days that I would spend more money buying a few beers than it cost me for all my meals. 

The Food

I absolutely loved Peruvian food! The flavors were delicious and the side of aji added the perfect amount of spice. When it comes to seafood, I loved the ceviche, leche de Tigre, and arroz con mariscos. As I’ve mentioned many times I was a sucker for the menú del dia where you could get a soup, entree, and glass of tea for $2-4. I loved going to the market and sitting at a local stand watching them cook my meal and sipping my tea. Usually these places were equally as tasty, if not more tasty, than the higher priced restaurants.

The typical entrees I ordered were: lomo soltado, fried trout, and chicken milanesa. I also loved eating chifa, Peruvian Chinese fusion (read more about it in my Huaraz blog post), where I would get a massive plate of fried rice or noodles for just a few bucks. Some other dishes I really enjoyed were aji de gallina, papas huancaina, rocoto relleno, and alpaca. Of course I also had to try the Guinea pig which I didn’t find to be that exciting but I also didn’t eat it at a fine dining restaurant. The queso helado in Arequipa was the highlight desert that I continue to crave on a hot day. The fruit drinks weren’t quite as good as Colombia but they were still delicious. After 7 weeks, I still never got sick of the Peruvian food and barely escaped back to eating anything Western. I don’t think I had a single burger and the only time I had pizza was in Aguas Calientes and it was terrible.

The Cities

I was not the biggest fan of Lima, and it’s probably my least favorite of the South American capitals (at the time of writing this I’ve been to 4). But it did serve it’s purpose as a home base between my travels…I did end up spending 7 nights here over 4 different times. Also I had my local “girlfriend” here which gave me a reason to come back. And a lot of the Peruvians I met elsewhere in the country during my travels were from Lima and they were great people.

That being said I’m just not a huge city person and I do see the appeal. There are endless incredible food options, Miraflores and Barranco are both really nice neighborhoods, and the boardwalk along the beach/above the sea wall is nice to walk around. I didn’t do any of the museums or historic district but that’s always an option too. Lima is just a massive city both in area and population. You could spend 1-2 days here and get the vibe or also easily spend 1-2 weeks eating well and soaking in the city energy. 

Arequipa is the second biggest city in Peru yet most people have probably never heard of it. I actually loved the tranquil vibe of the city and would definitely spend more time here in the future: the food is delicious, the white volcanic stone architecture is beautiful, there are lots of small streets to wander around, and the gigantic surrounding volcanos add a nice backdrop to the city.

While Cusco is the gateway to Machu Picchu and the surrounding Sacred Valley cities, it’s also a beautiful city nestled in the hills. It is very touristic, but I did like the overall energy and vibe. The market is probably the best I saw in Peru (Arequipa being a close second) and there are plenty of good restaurants and bars. 

Huaraz was my favorite place in the whole country as it’s a small, beautiful mountain town but it still has a lot of energy and activity in the streets and has access to the best Andes hiking.

The coast of Peru isn’t particularly beautiful compared to other places in the world but the coastal towns had a good energy and vibe, fun nightlife, and delicious seafood.

The Landscape

Peru is in the heart of the Andes mountains and has some of the most amazing landscape I’ve ever seen. It’s such a crazy feeling when you’re 15,000 feet high and yet the mountains next to you are still towering above. The county has 37 peaks higher than 6,000 meters with Huascaran South being the highest at 6,768 meters (22,205 feet). I found it so magical to hike in the Peruvian Andes with the expansive mountain and valley views. It’s a different type of challenge when hiking this high up, but it also gives you a very rewarding sense of accomplishment and it is quite an addictive feeling. I went over 15,000 for my first time (and a few more times) as well as over 16,000 once; and it always left me both incredibly satisfied and craving more. There are so many other landscapes and microclimates in Peru besides the Andes. It has some of the deepest canyons in the world, Cotahuasi and Colca, as well as some incredibly high volcanoes.

It also has a very long coastline with many small beach towns and it’s largest city, the capital, Lima. The area by the coast is very arid with lots of desert and dry land. As if this wasn’t enough biodiversity, the western half of Peru is made up of the Amazon jungle. This largely untouched land is home to a variety of exotic plants and wildlife. It is also the home of many native tribes that live a much different lifestyle than the rest of the modern world relying solely on the land for their survival.

The Weather

Since Peru is south of the Ecuador, it was technically their winter (and therefore dry season) when I showed up in late July. I got lucky with the weather for the most part as it wasn’t too hot or too cold, and it was mostly dry. I did get screwed with some of my hikes in Huaraz where I didn’t end up getting the views that I could have: the Santa Cruz trek was incredibly rainy, foggy, and cold; and my Nevada Mateo ice climb was snowy and cloudy. But the experiences were still incredible and it gives me a reason to just do them again. At least the Salkantay trek with Matt was absolutely beautiful weather. And in general over the course of the 7 weeks, I had a lot of sunny days and bluebird skies. Lima was always grey and somber weather but I think that’s just how it always is there in the winter. 

Transportation

Peru is an interesting country to get around because the Andes mountains smack dab in the middle of the country makes it difficult to get anywhere directly. There are lots of narrow, winding mountain roads where you just have to trust the drivers…and I really do, it was impressive to watch these guys navigate these crazy roads. The main highways were in pretty good condition but some of the smaller roads were full of potholes and crushed rocks. I even had one landslide experience on the way back from Manu National Park (from this blog post) but they impressively built a new one in just a few hours. There are a lot of very long bus rides to get between the major destinations so I ended up taking way more night buses (5 in total) here than in Colombia. It’s an efficient way to not lose a day of travel and to save money on accommodation. Sometimes I was tired enough to get a good night’s sleep and for other I only got a few uncomfortable hours. I usually just took the cheaper buses but if you really wanted to have more comfort than companies like Cruz del Sur offered seats with better incline. The longest bus I intentionally took was the 20 hour ride from Lima to Mancora and it really wasn’t that bad. The longest bus I unintentionally took was the 32 hour ride from Lima to Oxapampa (from this blog post). Besides that one really bad experience, the buses usually departed and arrived relatively on time, especially compared to Colombia. The longer bus rides all had functioning bathrooms and sometimes they would even make a 30-40 minute pit stop for us to get lunch.

Domestic flights were also cheap so I took this route twice to optimize my time. Once to get from Lima to Arequipa since Matt was visiting me soon and I had to speed up my travel. And once with Matt to get from Cusco to Lima because that bus would have been 24 hours and he was only visiting for 2 weeks.

My Spanish

I had a lot of opportunities to practice my Spanish and I definitely improved on the foundation that I created in Colombia. Whenever I went on a tour I would make a point to try and chat with the guide in Spanish, although sometimes it made them think I was better than I was. I wanted to talk in Spanish for 30 minutes, not 4 days…but hey it was good to practice whenever I could. And Peruvians are actually quite good at speaking English. I think it’s because Perú has been a popular tourist destination for so many years now that a higher influence is put on learning Spanish. All the Peruvians I met that were my age had a good foundation of English and some were very fluent. Based on a conversation I had with one girl, it seems like their education system has a solid focus on learning English. I think the highlight of my progress was my last stop in Mancora when the crew I hung out with was mostly Spanish speakers (more on that from this blog post).

My Route

My route in Peru didn’t make any sense. I talk about it in my Lima post how I ended up in that city 5 separate times and created my own Nazca Lines. But backpacking doesn’t always follow a straight line. I could have planned better, but I was also just living in the moment in Peru soaking in whatever path felt right at the time. A part of my poor planning was also because I had to meet Matt in Cusco on my birthday, August 17th, and I really didn’t do a great job mapping things out before then. Another factor was that I really wanted to head to Ecuador since I had skipped it after Colombia due to the protests going on. This required me to backtrack up north rather than continue south toward Bolivia. In the end it really didn’t matter for me because I still had the best time but if I were recommending a route through Peru then I certainly wouldn’t give mine.

Backpacker Life

As I entered the second South American country on my journey, I was still coming off the high of my Colombian life. I had really gotten into the full swing of the backpacker lifestyle meeting new people, exploring new things, embracing the culture, and loving every second of life. I felt very comfortable traveling solo. But arriving in a new country pushed me a bit back out of that comfort zone…although only for a few days. As I write this now I’ve been to 5 countries so I have more perspective on the feeling, but every time I’ve gotten to a new country it’s a bit of a reset. There’s a brief adjustment period to get used to a new culture, a different Spanish accent and slang, and the overall different vibe of being in a new country. While there is a lot of similarities between the South American countries, each one has a distinct energy and feeling to it. Luckily after a few much needed solo days in Lima, I met Maria and had the most wild card experience of my trip and then everything went uphill from there in Peru. I was quickly in my backpacker zone making new friends, soaking in the culture, enjoying the incredible food, and high altitude hiking through the amazing Andes landscapes.

One Regret

I regret not doing the Huayhuash trek nearby Huaraz with my friends Joe and Lorna. The trek is 8 days and at the time that seemed like a large commitment. Especially because Matt was visiting me in less than 2 weeks so I was going to have to change around my itinerary for what I was going to do before and after his arrival. But I wish I had pulled the trigger because it’s one of the most epic treks in the world and I would have been doing it with 2 very good friends. During the first day of the Santa Cruz trek (the shorter 4 day trek I did instead), I felt this sense of regret that I wasn’t doing Huayhuash. The fact that the weather wasn’t great on Santa Cruz didn’t help. But the next day I kicked those feelings of regret because I was still hiking in such a beautiful place doing the thing I love most. Even with 8 months of travel I still can’t do it all. And I reminded myself that there’s no reason to dwell on past decisions, especially when the alternative is still an incredible life experience. Plus not doing the Huayhuash trek on this trip just gives me yet another reason to go back in the future.

Paracas

Getting In

After one of my many stops in Lima (this one being with Matt), I took the 4 hour bus from Lima to Paracas. It was a short and easy bus ride. The second I left the Cruz del Sur bus station, people are already trying to sell me their boat tours to the “Poor Man’s Galapagos” which is the city’s claim to fame. 

The City

Paracas is a coastal town in central Peru just south of Lima with the beach and Pacific Ocean on one side and the desert on the other. It is incredibly dry and known to only rain about 30 minutes every year. The city doesn’t have the nicest infrastructure or boardwalk, but it was good to be back on the water in a beach town. And the sunsets here were absolutely incredible.

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You can tell that Paracas has started to grow as a city as it has started to become more of a tourist destination recently. I hadn’t really been by the water since Park Tayrona in the north of Colombia (not counting Lima but that felt different) so it was good to feel the sand between my feet again. When walking along the boardwalk, every person tries to you to come to their restaurant; the competition begins the second you walk by. Overall I had a nice experience chilling out here for 3 days but the town could easily be seen in 1 day or even skipped entirely if on a tighter schedule. After being on the go so much, it was nice to spend a few afternoons just relaxing and sunbathing by the pool at the hostel.

The Food

Since I was right by the coast, naturally I was going to eat a lot of seafood. The restaurants on the boardwalk were all super overpriced but had decent food. On the second day, we went up this dirt road by the hostel and found a street lined with locally priced restaurants with good menú del día prices. Now we’re talking! I ate the rest of my meals on this street. The ceviche could be ordered as the appetizer on the menu del dia for a few extra soles and was always incredibly fresh and tasty. I also had some delicious avocado salads where they would give a generous portion of avocado. And of course the fried fish entree was always a good go to.

The People

I got into the hostel at the same time as a Swiss girl, Sandra, and we ended up spending the next few days doing activities together. She had just started her South American adventure and was eager to hop into the lifestyle. The first night we also made friends with these 5 Canadian guys who were just doing a short travel trip and highly entertaining to be around. The first night at the hostel was Karoake night which started out tame with 1 person going up at a time but after free shots from the bar and more time of drinking eventually led to rowdiness on stage. People started going up together in groups to sing and the crowd drunkenly sang along and danced on table. I went up to sing a couple times with the group of Canadians so everything thought I was from Canada. The MC was trying to end karaoke night but then kept saying okay one more song. I’m not normally a karaoke guy but it turned out to be a really fun, drunken good time.

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The Experience

Paracas Natural Reserve

Sandra and I rented bikes one day to go around the Paracas Natural Reserve. It’s recommended to start earlier in the morning because it can get incredibly windy in the afternoon. It was only about 15 minutes to get to the entrance of the park and then we spent another 3.5-4 hours biking around the reserve and making stops along the way. I had no real expectations for this activity, but it turned out to be incredibly beautiful and my favorite thing I did during my stay here.

The bike ride inside the park started out with a steady uphill incline and insane headwind. It didn’t feel like we were moving with the wind pushing so hard against us, but we slowly made our way up the road. The landscape was a sandy desert and it felt like I was in Utah or Arizona. We passed by a French girl whose tire had flown off so we stopped to help her out. None of us had service to call her bike rental company. There wasn’t much traffic on the road so we waited with her to try and flag down someone to help. The first car just flew right by us but then the next car stopped and it was the perfect people to help. They spoke good English and had tools in their trunk to help fix the tire. The guy fixed the issue in a matter of minutes and had the bike working better than ever. It was quite a fortunate turn of events and she ended up joining Sandra and I for the rest of the ride. There was multiple viewpoints to stop at along the reserve with beautiful coastal views and giant rock formations.

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The ride was way better than expected and the 3 of us were all thoroughly impressed. We made a few stops along the way to enjoy the views and eat some snacks before finishing with Playa Roja, which is advertised as one of the highlights of the Reserve. It was certainly pretty but it’s funny because the tour agencies in town definitely photoshop the colors to make it look more red than it really is.
Now that it was early afternoon, the wind was really ripping on the way home. Luckily it was mostly a tailwind so it was pushing us forward to the point where we didn’t even have to peddle. But there was one long winding turn our bikes were at a 90 degree angle fighting against the crazy wind. It was a really solid bike ride with a mixture of desert-like sand dunes and rocky coastlines.

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Ballestas Islands

Ballestas Islands, also known as the Poor Man’s Galapagos was exactly what’d you expect for paying less than $10 versus the hundreds, (if not thousands) of dollars for Galapagos. The boat ride is about 2 hours and leaves early in the morning to avoid being on the water during the heavy afternoon winds. It was incredibly touristy and the dock was packed with different companies taking out crowds of people.

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The island had some really cool rock formations but overall the experience was pretty underwhelming. Although it was really nice to be on the water in a boat for a few hours. We did see a few sea lions, a couple penguins, and lots of birds. The best part was all the birds in the sky and the flocks of seagulls flying in unison.

Huacachina

The City

Sandra and I took the 1 hour bus together going inland from Paracas to Ica and then we took a 10 minute taxi into Huacachina. The town is known for being a desert oasis and is popular among backpackers for doing the dune buggy and sand boarding tours as well as partying. While it is incredibly touristy, it did turn out to be a great one day stop for both these things.

This desert oasis has also been a popular tourist destination for locals for 70+ years. The town population is just over 100 yet thousands flock here to ride in the dune buggies and experience the desert vibes. The whole town is basically just tour agencies and people trying to sell you their dune buggy trip. It’s also another great spot to catch a fire-y red sunset.

Dune Buggy and Sand Skiing

The main attraction of Huacachina is the dune buggy tours where they drive you around super fast up and down the giant sand dunes. All the tours leave around 4pm when it’s not quite so hot, and at that time it’s a chaotic mass of people walking to the buggies. This is definitely a very touristic destination, but hey I am a tourist.

The buggy tour also includes a few hills to body board down, but Sandra and I decided to spend a little extra money to rent skis. I mean how often do you get to hop on skis in the sand? We did a practice run before the tour and couldn’t even move at all; it was impossible to get speed and traction. We were really questioning this decision. But once we got on the actual sand dunes it turned out to be really fun and we were able to get a few turns in. There was 3 different slopes that we skied down culminating with the largest one. The first two rides were only 5-10 seconds but the last one was a solid 30 or 40 seconds.

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I never expected to hop on skis in the sand but I’m so glad that I did. It was a fun, unique experience. It’s a much different feeling than being on the snow and way harder to turn.

The dune buggy ride itself was incredibly fun; it was like being on a roller coaster. The driver would accelerate up the hill then we’d fly over the other side. He would also take these angled turns around the dunes like a NASCAR driver. The Bolivian mother and daughter sitting next to me were screaming the entire time. It was highly entertaining.

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The experience was quite thrilling and it was a nice combo between the dune buggy ride and the sand skiing. We also made several stops along the way so everyone could have their classic desert photo shoot. The ride ended with us watching the sun go down from the top of one of the sand dunes.

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The Nightlife

Once again my stay at Wild Rover (the hostel chain I stayed at in Cusco for my birthday) was a big party night. They charge ridiculous prices for drinks so me and this British couple I met in Paracas decided to buy personal sized bottles of rum so that all we had to do was buy coke. It was definitely the move. The 3 of us and this Australian couple all hung out drinking and chatting. The party was starting to pick up throughout the evening as people danced around the pool to a mixture of Reggaetón and pop music. Then around 1am, the Wild Rover party shut down and everyone took “the secret entrance” from the hostel directly to the club next door. The club was full of Peruvians and backpackers and the energy was through the roof. It was a whole lot of fun and I was quite popular with the Peruvians that night. I ended up stumbling back to Wild Rover just after 4 in the morning. My 9am bus ride from Ica back to Lima the next morning was rough. I nearly ate the cost just to sleep in more but I pulled through. I ended up sleeping most of the bus ride.

Mancora

Getting In

I spent a few final days in Lima after Huacachina meeting up with Maria again before heading north up the coast on my way to Ecuador. The bus ride from Lima to Mancora was a whopping 20 hours all the way up the coast of Peru. But it actually wasn’t as bad as it sounds. Unlike my unexpected 32 hour bus ride earlier in Peru, this one I anticipated to be an incredibly long ride. I left Lima at 12pm and was in Mancora by 8 the next morning. I stocked up before the bus ride with snacks and a sandwich, but they also gave us a brown paper bag with some food and bottled water. I spent the ride catching up on my blog, practicing Spanish, listening to music, and sleeping at night time. There was 2 stops along the way at coastal towns where we could get out for 10-15 minutes and stretch our legs. Overall it went by pretty quickly all things considered. When I arrived, there were moto taxis everywhere and I had one drop me off at my hostel.

The City

Mancora is a small coastal town in the north of Peru that is well known in the backpacker community for surfing and partying. It’s the perfect stop off when either heading north to Ecuador (as I was) or heading south from Ecuador. It’s a beach town to the max with all the water sports: surfing, kite surfing, diving, jet skiing. The town isn’t super highly developed with most roads being a mixture of sand and dirt, and one main “highway” through the center. But it lives up to its reputation as a beach party town with chill vibes during the day hanging out on the beach and clubs open late at night. There are always moto taxis waiting outside Wild Rover to take you to the beach or to the club depending what time of day it is. I really enjoyed the energy of this town; but it’s also a lot of partying so a few nights is enough before it’s time to move on.

The People

I once again stayed at Wild Rover hitting the trifecta of all 3 locations in Peru. Just like the other 2 locations, this was a big party hostel with nightly drink specials and free shots. There was a pool in the middle and lots of places to relax and soak in the sun. 

There are some hostels that just hit with socialization and Wild Rover Mancora was spot on. I made so many good friends here over the course of my 4 days and 3 nights. The group chemistry was strong. I was proud of myself because I spent most of my time hanging out with a group of people from South America only speaking Spanish. It was very challenging at times because the conversations with the group would go so fast that I would barely contribute, but it was still good just to be constantly surrounded by Spanish. Let’s just say I was much quieter than usual. It was much easier to communicate when I would have 1 on 1 conversations with the various people.

The core crew was me, Caro (Colombia), Veronica (Peru), Sole (Argentina), Connie (Chile), and Remi (France). I loved Caro’s energy and we had some really solid conversations together. Veronica was also very lively and she was the only Latina in this group that spoke English well. Sole was a sweetheart but I really struggled to understand her at times because I wasn’t used to the Argentinian accent. I liked Connie but she spoke her rapid Chilean Spanish with lots of slang so I really had a hard time understanding her. It was always really difficult for me to answer when she asked me a question. Remi was kind of cocky but a nice guy who had lived in Spain a few years so his Spanish was strong. I also ran into Yoav, who was at my Spanish school in Medellin, and he was part of the core crew for the first day and a half until he left to continue further south in Peru. It was really awesome spending a few days with this group immersing myself in Spanish with people from all across the continent but it was also exhausting, especially when you throw in all the drinking.

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I also had my English speaking crew when I needed a reprieve from Spanish (and sometimes the two groups would mix). There was Nathaly from Lima who I spoke to in Spanish by the pool the first day, but she also spoke perfect English. I ultimately spoke more English with her and we had some really great conversations. I really like when I meet people my age from the country that I’m in that are traveling to other cities. The conversations we have are much different than the ones I have with European backpackers. There was also Alex (Germany), Daniel (New Zealand), Will (England), Tyson (Australia), and so many other familiar faces. Since every night was a party at the hostel it felt like I knew everyone.

I also met a guy from Ukraine which was interesting given the current state of his country. We talked a bit about how things have changed since the war but didn’t want to pry too much since it can be a sensitive issue; I would rather let him open up. He definitely had a different perspective on things which was cool to see. 

The staff at Wild Rover Mancora was also incredibly fun and friendly. I enjoyed going up to the bar and chatting with them or hanging out together by the pool. They interacted heavily with the guests and really added to the experience. I got along incredibly well with Flor and Mine. They were both wild and energetic Peruvian beach babes who knew how to have a good time. 

The Food

Just like Paracas, the food is pricey along the water but if you just do some searching for a good menú del día spot then you can get ceviche, fish of the day, and a juice drink for a reasonable price. Or the even cheaper option is to go to the mercado and eat their lunch specials. I went with my South American crew to do this one afternoon and then it became the go to for every other lunch.

The Nightlife

Every night the party kicked off at Wild Rover, and most days even before night time. We would usually start having drinks by the pool around 4 and this would continue for the rest of the night. It was 3 days of a lot of drinking, which was really fun because it was such a social hostel but I was absolutely dead afterwards. 31 year old me can party but man the hangovers are getting rough, especially when you start stacking the days. I felt pretty rough during the daytimes, but luckily my only obligation was to lie on the beach or by the pool at the hostel. Every night until 1am Wild Rover would have beer pong, a DJ bumping music with people dancing, and people hanging around chatting. This was the pregame before we would hit up the clubs. The first night we went to a place by Wild Rover which had a live band playing salsa music. Then we headed to some club which was supposed to be good but really wasn’t very crowded or fun. The second night was really fun, we went to a club which was playing Reggaetón and had people grooving on the dance floor. The third night I contained myself since I had the whale watching the next day and only partied during the pregame at Wild Rover.

The Beach

There was a beach next to Wild Rover called Playa del Amor which wasn’t that nice but it was a good place to watch the sunset. The main beach Las Pocitas had better sand and was a great spot to just soak in the sun. When I first arrived off the bus I west and lied by myself on the beach for a few hours just relaxing after what had been an amazing stretch in Peru. It gave me an opportunity to think back and reflect upon my experience in the country.
The second day I went to the beach with the South American crew and we had a good time listening to music and chatting away (well not me too much since I had really run out of things to say in Spanish at this point).
But later that day Caro and I had a solid conversation while watching the sunset. I really liked talking to her because she’s good at bringing out the Spanish in me. Also I found her Colombian Spanish east to understand as well. It’s always nice when I talk about something new that I never had before and am actually able to hold down a conversation, even if it’s less detailed than it could be. While she was talking more, it was definitely still a 2 way conversation about some deeper things than I was used to talking about.

Whale Watching Tour

My bus to Cuenca, Ecuador wasn’t until 11pm on my last day so I still had time for one more full day in Peru. Sole and I signed up for the whale watching tour which required a 6am pickup. It was a rough awakening after a tamer night than usual here but I was still m drinking. It was going to be an interesting day because she knew absolutely no English and I always had a tough time with her Argentinian Spanish. It was about a 45 min bus ride to Vichayito where we took off on the boat for our whale watching expedition. I was definitely the only non native Spanish speaker on the bus. Sole and I chatted here and there throughout the day but there was many moments of communication struggles. She would say something that I wouldn’t completely understand or wouldn’t be able to come up with a good answer. There was also times I wanted to chat with her but couldn’t find the right words. It’s all part of the process and we still had a fun day together.

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The tour didn’t start out with much action and the guide was explaining various things about whales in Spanish. But finally after a little bit, we started to spot some whales. We were usually pretty far away but could still see them jumping off in the distance. It was highly entertaining to hear the sounds of the boat when we would see one. Mira! Mira! (Look! Look!). The energy of the boat was very high whenever we could see a whale. We ended up seeing 4 different whales. We also saw a group of dolphins traveling together all jumping out of the water in unison. Even if Sole and I had struggles with our verbal communication, we shared the joys of this experience together in an unspoken way.

It was a solid day on the water but it wasn’t done yet. The next stop was swimming with turtles! The water was absolutely freezing but still felt nice to hop in. Then the guides got out some fish and starting throwing it in the water to attract the turtles (a bit unnatural but I guess it’s a win win for both us and the turtles). All the sudden the boat was surrounded by these giant turtles and we were just swimming in the water right next to them. It was actually kind of startling/scary whenever you would accidentally bump into a turtle. One time I let out a girlie yelp thinking I bumped a turtle but it turned out to be this guy’s leg. Sole was dying laughing at me and loved telling everyone that story back at the hostel.

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It was really cool to put on goggles and get an up close look at the turtles under the water. They were all around us. Then the guide used his GoPro and took a video capturing different angles of each person swimming next to the turtles. We were probably in the water for over 30 minutes next to the turtles.

It was a really awesome experience. Then we hopped back on the boat and rode back to the dock. This day excursion only cost a little over $20, I’m really going to miss the Peruvian prices. When we got back into town, Sole and I went to the market to grab lunch and reminisce (as best I could) on a great day. This was a great final activity in Peru. Now I just had like 9 hours to kill until my night bus. Luckily Wild Rover was a great place to lounge the day away.

If there’s one thing Peru is famous for, it’s Machu Picchu. Most people probably don’t know much about Peru, but they have heard of Machu Picchu.

While the 4 day Inca Trail Trek is the more popular one for tourists around the world, the 5 day Salkantay Trek is more popular for backpackers because it’s cheaper and doesn’t require booking 6 months in advance (although read my Cusco Part I blog post for more info on my Machu Picchu scare as getting an entrance ticket to the site does require at least a few weeks beforehand). I booked with KB Adventures and the trek only cost $250 for 5 days and includes the guide, lodging, food (meals at camp, not snack/drink purchases along the way), entrance to Machu Picchu, train from Aguas Calientes to Ollantaytambo, and bus from Ollantaytambo to Cusco.

Getting In

It was about a 2 hour bus ride to get to the starting point of the Salkantay Trek at Mollepata. The pick up was at 6am so I slept for most of the bus ride until we got to our breakfast spot. The bus had multiple different  groups on it so it wasn’t until the breakfast table that we got to meet the other people we’d be hiking with. After breakfast it was about a 20 minute ride and then it was time to start the trek.

The Group

Our jungle group wasn’t too exciting which served its purpose for that trip, but we had an incredible group for Salkantay and I’m so glad that Matt got to experience this type of group chemistry for the trek. Everyone clicked in the group and there was a lot of shared laughs, stories, and experiences. Fun, interesting people with good diversity of backgrounds and that were easy to talk to. The group bond was strong from the first day and continued throughout the entire trek.

We had the interesting couple pairing of Daniel from England and Carmen from Mexico who met at university in England. Then there was a couple from Uruguay, Falcunda and Alesandro, as well as another guy from Uruguay, Mateo. First time interacting with Uruguayans and really like them. We all got along great and this gave me motivation to spend a week or two in Uruguay later in my trip now that I have some local connections. There was a French couple Ali and Nicolas who kept a bit more to themselves. She was social but he didn’t know English too well. There was Augie, the classic friendly midwestern American who was from Pittsburgh but lived in New York. Me, Matt, Augie, and Mateo became the 4 guys that were always in the front of the pack. Then we had Isa, a girl whose lives in LA for awhile but is originally from the Philippines. And finally, last but not least, was our tour guide Rueben who was an absolutely hilarious character. He had a bit of a belly and looked like he was in his late 40s yet somehow was only 36. He’d been a guide for nearly half his life and was at the end of this career path.

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We had to come up with a group name and at first we went by Sexy Reuben in honor of our guide. We briefly changed it to ice bears because the first campsite had accidentally translated cervezas heladas to ice bear and we found it funny but it didn’t have quite as good of a ring as Sexy Rueben so we switched back.

The Food

Every meal on the trek was absolutely incredible and they gave such huge portions. Similar to the jungle tour, every meal contained a juice, soup, and 4 giant platters of food (well actually 8 on this one as each side of the table had 4). Usually it would be a veggie, some type of Peruvian potato (there are over 3800 in the country), rice, and a meat or fish. The chefs really crushed it in the kitchen and we never left a meal hungry which is so important when hiking long distances and burning lots of calories.

We would also do snack time around 5-5:30 whenever finished hiking which consisted of popcorn, animal crackers, and tea. Every morning we were woken up at 5:30am with a cup of coca tea. It was the perfect way to start a long hiking day.

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All along the trail when we stopped to take breaks, there are stands that sell snacks and drinks. Some of them even have avocado toast for $1 or other sandwiches. It was really convenient to know you didn’t have to go too far before the next stand. This is why doing Salkantay without a guide really wouldn’t be that hard. You don’t need to pack in all your food because there’s so many options along the trek. And then each campground we stayed at also sold snacks, waters and gatorades, beers, etc. so you could stock up on a daily basis. 

We no longer had our private chefs for the fourth day of the hike. We ate at a restaurant by the start of the hidroeléctrica that really wasn’t very good. Then that night we had our last dinner together as a group where I ate a delicious alpaca entree. 

On the final day before hiking up to Machu Picchu, Matt and I had some delicious street ribs. They were pricey by Peruvian standards but damn tasty.

The Lodging

We really lived a pretty luxurious life on the trail for both food and lodging. All the lodging was 2 person accommodations so it was nice to have Matt along for the trip to guarantee I had a good roommate. And it surprisingly never got that cold at night. 

The first night’s campsite was in Soraypampa and we slept in little miniature houses with a glass part in the rooftop for star gazing. We were in the valley with between the giant mountain peaks. This might have been the most beautiful campsite of them all.

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The second night our campsite was in Colpapampa and we slept in dome shaped eco huts. This area was actually a little town and the people that owned the property put the eco huts in their backyard. The surrounding landscape for this campsite was also incredibly beautiful. The property had showers where it was free for a cold shower and 10 soles ($2.50) for a hot shower. I was fine with a cold shower after the hiking. Plus I heard mixed reviews on how hot the shower actually got.

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The third night our campsite was called Sahuayacu Plaza and we slept in an elevated and covered triangle and dome shaped tent. The views weren’t as nice here but the property itself might have been the nicest one.

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The fourth night we stayed at a hotel in Aguas Calientes and the rooms were actually pretty nice. 

The Trek (48.6 miles, 13268 feet elevation gain, 17000 feet elevation loss, point to point)

I did one long AllTrails recording because so the stats per day might be a bit of an estimate (my longest trek by mileage to date). And unfortunately AllTrails only calculates elevation gain and not loss so I always have to guess a bit on that one. It makes sense if it’s a loop or in and out but when doing a point to point like this hike then it’d be nice to see elevation loss calculated. 

Day 1 (7.2 miles, 2200 feet elevation gain, 1200 feet elevation loss, point to point)

There is no more magical feeling than hiking in the Andes. And I’m so glad that I get to share this experience Matt, someone I’ve hiked quite a bit with in the Rockies including my first 14er. It was a beautiful bluebird day with the sun blazing so we couldn’t ask for a better start to the trek. The trail started with a slight uphill and you could tell a lot of the group wasn’t acclimatized as they struggled with what I thought was a very easy start.

Rueben stopped a few times a long the way to give an explanation of the mountains (Salkantay and Humantay), the land, and the plants (muño and lupina). After the brief uphill, the trail was pretty much flat the rest of the way to our first campsite. I had a solid conversation with Mateo in Spanish. He did a good job speaking slowly and making it easy to chat with him. Without much effort the hike had gorgeous landscapes views with Humantay glacier in the backdrop and eventually Salkantay mountain. Man I just love hiking in the Andes, it is truly one of the most beautiful places in the world.

After a delicious opening lunch where everyone in the group was starting to get to know each other better, we had a brief digestion period before the real challenge of the day. It was a 1.25 mile steep uphill stretch to get to Humantay Lake, which sat around 14,000 feet high. The nice thing was we could leave our bags at the campsite and really only need to bring water, a spare jacket, and sunscreen. Matt and I headed up before the rest of the group since this part of the trail was a go on your time type of affair. This was a good readjustment to steep, high altitude climbing. I was not in my Huaraz shape anymore but still scampered up the mountain. I briefly waited on Matt a few times before saying fuck it and just zipping to the top myself. He was still acclimating but seemed to be doing a lot better than our Pisac hike earlier in the week.

Once at the top, Humantay lake was a stunning blue color at the top with the Humantay glacier in the backdrop. It was the type of view you could stare at for hours and never grow tired of it. Some guy proposed to his lady in front of the lake. It was a classy spot to do it. Less crowded than Machu Picchu and he didn’t have to eagerly await the response during a 5 day trek. Matt and I walked to the very top above the lake reaching 14,052 feet and had stunning panoramic views. We walked along the ridge line and soaked in the valley and lakes views. The landscape was absolutely stunning and this was certainly the highlight of day one. We went back down to the lake and met up with the rest of our group to hike down with the crew. 

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It turns out our fearless leader sexy Rueben didn’t even go to the lake. Oh well we didn’t really need him. We grabbed our celebratory post hike ice bear (beer). Then it was snack and tea time and dinner followed not too long after. Everyone went to bed just after 8:00 in anticipation for the long day ahead. 

Day 2 (13.3 miles, 2800 feet elevation gain, 6000 feet elevation loss, point to point)

Just like every morning, we were woken up at 5:30 with a coca tea at our door. After our 6am breakfast we got started on the hardest day of the trek because we go to the highest point and it’s super long. We started out in the valley surrounded by giant mountains and it reminded me of Santa Cruz trek except this time I had good weather. The uphill to start the day was tough on breathing as we surpassed 14K feet of elevation.

Then we snaked uphill into an intense set of switchbacks, which is known as the gringo killer according to Ruben. It was a challenging incline and definitely had me a bit short of breath and got the heart racing. I took a few quick stops along the way, but mostly powered through at my rapid pace. I’ve learned that I just need to keep going even when the breathing gets tough and use the brief pauses to catch my breath. Mateo and I were leading the pack way ahead of the rest of the group with Matt and Augie a little behind us.

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We weren’t done yet; there was another slow, steep uphill to Salkantay Pass. One breath at a time up was the focus of this section as we reached 15,203 feet once at the top of the mountain pass. There was stunning 360 views of the surrounding landscape for what made one of the most picturesque moments of my time in Peru. I was so grateful to finally have some good weather during a trek; there was barely any clouds in the sky. Perfect view of both Salkantay and Humantay mountains plus all sorts of other mountains looming in the distance. 

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The good thing about being the fastest in the group is you have more time to enjoy the views from the top. We had a photo op getting some good group and individual photos, then Ruben explained some of the history behind the mountain. Salkantay is an incredibly hard mountain to climb with a savage reputation for people disappearing or dying while trying to summit the peak. Salkantay comes from the word sallqa in Quechua which translates to wild, uncivilized, savage or invincible.

Then it was a long downhill section on crushed rocks, which was a total knee burner. Matt and I powered ahead of the group and were chatting about Lynx (his new start up) and software development things. It was nice to see my brain still remembers a lot about that world and can still talk intelligently about it. It did make me realize that I miss it a bit. Obviously I’d so much rather be traveling the world but there was something nice about using my brain to think in a software mindset again. There’s a possibility that I go work with him on this Lynx project when I return to America so it was good shop talk.

That day we had our most beautiful lunch spot with perfect views of both Salkantay and Humantay mountains from down in the valley. I could have lied there all day and stared at those mountains. We did have a solid 30-40 minutes of chilling before lunch and another 30 after. It seemed like the whole group could have easily taken a nap on the grass. 

Afterwards was another 3-4 hours of nonstop downhill as we worked our way down the other side of the mountain pass. As we got further along the trail we had started to enter the high jungle. It was crazy how the vegetation and landscape shifted from rocky and mountainous to green and jungly. Augie and Mateo walked with Matt and I in the beginning and the 4 of us had some solid convos. But by the end it was back to Matt and I in the front chatting amongst ourselves. Finally the rest of the group caught up and Rueben led us to the night 2 campsite.

We had nice little domes to sleep in that night. After such a long day of hiking, we did a much needed group stretch led by Alesandro and Mateo. I took a free cold shower before snack time and had a few post hike beers. Ruben had been talking about Inca tequila and finally that evening after dinner he gave us a coke bottle full of it. Inca tequila tasted like some sort of bathtub white rum. It wasn’t very good but I’ve also had worse. We ended up taking 2 group shots together. Everyone was a little loose after a few Inca tequila shots and beers and that evening we had some solid chats. Alan, a German guy from one of the other groups, was jealous of our group’s chemistry so he decided to hang out with us. From then on in the trek he would always gravitate toward our group.

Day 3 (5.5 miles, 400 feet elevation gain, 2500 feet elevation loss, point to point)

This was the shortest and easiest day and we hiked together as a group for most of the day. It started out with what Rueben called “Inca flat,” which just like Colombia flat, is a lot of small ups and downs. There was a few small steep uphill sections but it was mostly downhill. A good portion of the day was flat as we worked our way on the ridge line next to the Salkantay River.

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The hike along the river was super beautiful and peaceful and it was actually a shame that we were already done hiking by about 11. Instead of hiking all the way to the campsite, we got onto the road and took a short bus ride. I think it’s because there was a few people doing the trek in 4 days (the French couple and Isa in our group) and so they still had a long afternoon ahead of them. It was only 11am but Rueben busted out another coke bottle of Inca tequila on the bus. God I love this guy. It was a vibe setter for the day. It was only a 10-15 minute bus ride but we ended up passing around two coke bottles of Inca tequila during the ride. 

We get to camp and Isa buys a bottle of rum because now the day party had started. We were ripping shots with lunch which is when it really started elevating. Of course Rueben was joining in with us. Somehow Isa left to hike that afternoon. Not sure how because we were drinking pretty heavily at lunch. 

We hung out at camp for a few hours before heading to hot springs around 2:30. Every time any of us would buy a beer, Rueben would also give us a small cup of Inca tequila. This guy is crazy! We took a 40 minute van ride there and I was already drunk at this point after the party late morning/early afternoon we had. They were super nice hot springs with big pools. All the other groups doing Salkantay trek were there too. Everyone else also seemed like they had been drinking throughout the afternoon. Who knew day 3 of Salkantay trek was such a party?! Matt bought another bottle of rum and even though we weren’t supposed to drink by the hot springs he jumped in with it. Of course he got yelled at. The ending of the hot springs is a bit blurry but I ended up getting so many bug bites. None of us had put on bug spray while we were there and even if we had it probably would have washed off in the hot springs. Needless to say everyone got super bitten. It ended up being the most bug bites I’d ever gotten, which was miserable a few days later. Dinner is a haze and I woke up in middle of night not even using my sleeping bag or remembering going to bed. Oops. Definitely didn’t expect to party this hard in the middle of a 5 day trek.

Day 4 (15.5 miles, 3800 feet elevation gain, 3500 feet elevation loss, point to point)

It was a rude awakening for the typical 5:30 wake up with coca tea. I was paying for the debauchery from the day before. And I realized how many damn bug bites I had; my entire body was covered.

Eating breakfast helped but it wasn’t enough to prevent me from having a rough morning. The day began flat along the road for 30 minutes then it was nonstop uphill for 3 hours. It was beautiful but given my hangover I was struggling to enjoy that aspect, just trying to survive. In spite of feeling like absolute shit, I was still toward the front of the group; although Mateo and Augie were the true leaders this day. It was a tough uphill stretch for day 4 even if feeling 100% let alone after the day we had before. All that being said I still made my way up the mountain. I wish I could have enjoyed it more because the hike itself was the type of uphill I normally love but it took the entire 3.5 hours to kick my hangover. The beauty of hiking is that eventually you do start to feel better, and I finally was when we finished the uphill. 

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Once at the top, we had incredible views off in the distance including our first spotting of Machu Picchu from afar. We could also see Salkantay and Humantay mountains and it was crazy to think how far we’d come in just a few days. Rueben provided some more stories and info about Machu Picchu as we stared at the famous Incan site off in the distance. We were so close yet still so far.

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Then it was a steep downhill all the way to the river. An absolute knee killer. Me and the Uruguay couple did that stretch together trying to keep a quick pace to avoid too much knee problems but it was unavoidable. We did our best to run down when we could and it was crazy how much elevation we lost over the course of the next 45 minutes. 

Then we waited on the group and all walked together another 15 minutes to have lunch at a restaurant that wasn’t too great. I was also too exhausted to even eat much. I survived my hungover morning but still wasn’t feeling amazing. And at this point my knees were hurting after multiple days in a row of downhill and that last super steep stretch. 

After lunch and chilling for 30 minutes, I thought we were taking the hydroelectric to Aguas Calientes but instead we were just walking along the railway. Supposedly it was only 11 km but it ended up being way more than that. It was flat the entire way along the railway but at this point in the trek and after the party day it was long and arduous. The views weren’t too special either so it was quite rough. It felt like it would never end. Me, Matt, Augie, and Mateo did this stretch together with minimal conversation as everyone was exhausted at this point.

Even when we got closer to Aguas Calientes it was like where the fuck is this place. Of course we had to walk uphill to get into town, and then our hotel ended up being all the way at the top of the hill. To add one less kick in the groin, mine and Matt’s room was on the 6th floor with no elevator. Everything hurt at this point. It was so nice to take a real shower and have a hotel bed to lie on. Me, Matt, Augie, and Mateo went out for beers and pizza to celebrate. Aguas Calientes is a pretty town on the river but it’s also very touristy so all the food and drinks are overpriced compared to the rest of Peru. Not super surprising since it’s the entry point to Machu Picchu, but still not a town I would spend more than one night in. 

Then we had our last group dinner together which was quite sad. Some of the group would enter together tomorrow but not all of us. The way Machu Picchu ticketing works is weird with all the different circuit entrances and mountain tickets. Read my Cusco Part I article for more on the stress of getting Matt and I an entrance ticket but we were doing it unguided the next day at 2pm. It would have been nice to have Rueben give his last spiels because this is where he would really shine. Also it would have been good to complete the main event of the trek with the group but oh well such is life. I had another dank alpaca for dinner and Rueben coming in the clutch once again got us a round of this delicious hot Pisco drink. He explained what to do tomorrow and gave Matt and I our Machu Picchu and train tickets. After dinner we had one more beer on the rooftop of the hotel then said our goodbyes to the group.  

Day 5 (7.0 miles, 2000 feet elevation gain and loss, in and out)

Matt and I didn’t have Machu Picchu until 2pm unfortunately and no guide so we had some time to kill in the morning. At least we had a guaranteed spot because the line every morning to get tickets in Aguas Calientes was ridiculous.

A quick history lesson on Machu Picchu. No one knows the true purpose of Machu Picchu although it is believed to have been a royal estate or sacred religious site for Inca leaders in the 15th or 16th century. For hundreds of years, until the American archaeologist Hiram Bingham stumbled upon it in 1911, the abandoned citadel’s existence was a secret known only to peasants living in the region. Bingham was looking for another Incan stronghold called Vilcabamba when he accidentally discovered Machu Picchu. The site stretches over an impressive 5-mile distance, featuring more than 3,000 stone steps that link its many different levels. Today, hundreds of thousands of people tramp through Machu Picchu every year and is South America’s most famous ruins.

It was nice to be able to sleep in and not have another early morning starting at 4:30-5. But we still woke up early around 7:30 because our  internal clock was used to it. At least we didn’t have to rush out of bed and could eat the free breakfast. The hotel check out wasn’t until 10 but for some reason we decided to start walking around town at 9. Aguas Calientes is a pretty town, but there really isn’t much to do, so we got some coffee and street food to kill time. The ribs we got on the street were actually delicious. 

We walked from town to the entrance at the bottom of the hill and tried to enter at 11:30 but it was too early. The hike up is only supposed to be about an hour but it was worth a shot. They let us enter at 12:00 and said to go slow. The hike was straight up steps in the heat. It was hard for day 5 plus at that time of day. Matt was dying. At least it was mostly through the forest and shaded by the trees. It was certainly the least exciting hike of the 5 days.

We got up at 1, and they had a strict no entrance policy until the time on our ticket of 2pm. I could see why they wouldn’t let us in an hour early, but the fact they wouldn’t let us in when we tried a second time 10 minutes before seemed a bit extreme. We sat around waiting while guides tried to sell us on a tour. At this point we just wanted to wander around on our own. If the tour isn’t from Rueben then we don’t want it.

Finally 2pm rolled around and we waited in line again for about 10 minutes before entering. By the entrance there was so many tour groups to push through. They were all walking so slowly up the steps and constantly stopping to catch their breath. Clearly these people hadn’t been hiking for multiple days to get here, they could barely make it the small staircases. 

But once I got past the initial crowds by the entrance and could finally see Machu Picchu city all stress vanished. It was such a magnificent site that words really can’t describe. It’s crazy how complete and intact it looks. After all these years and this high up in the mountains, it’s still in perfect condition. It really is such a beautiful work of engineering and the fact that it was done so many centuries ago. I mean how did they even move those insanely large stones this high in the mountain to create such a pristine city. The Incans really were something else. The walls, terraces, stairways, and ramps blend in perfectly with the nature behind them. The display of stonework in the city is absolutely incredible along with the sophisticated terrace system used for agriculture. The stones were somehow cut to fit together without a mortar.

We got our initial glances of the city from up high but decided to walk toward the Inca Bridge. It wasn’t part of our circuit ticket but we just paid the guy a few bucks and he let us go through. It was a slightly sketchy walk with steep drop offs. No wonder they made us sign in at the counter with an entry and exit time. It was less than a 10 minute walk to where you can view the bridge. It was absolutely insane to think people used to walk across it, and even crazier to think about where they walked afterwards. I wonder how many Incans fell crossing that bridge.

It started to lightly drizzle as we walked back to the main area of Machu Picchu city. Luckily it didn’t last long and the grey clouds actually added an even more mysterious feeling to the city. Plus we still had clear enough views of what was in front of us.

The city has this incredibly powerful energy to it and is absolutely beautiful with the mountain backdrops. But the crowds make it feel like Disney Land. People were stopping every 2 seconds to take photos. Not that I’m going to act high and mighty (although I kind of am), but we worked our asses off spending 5 days to trek here going over a mountain pass 15K+ feet high and hiking more than 40 miles; exhausted, sore, bug bitten, and accomplished. Whereas most people just got straight off the bus from Aguas Calientes to the entrance at the top ready to take their latest Instagram photo. Oh well such is life. We definitely earned it more than them, but then again everyone deserves to visit this gem of a place no matter how they get there. I think the 2pm entry time is probably filled with more tourists than the early times which have more trekkers. Although I don’t actually know that. I’m sure Machu Picchu is just always crowded no matter what.

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We walked down into the actual city and it was so amazing to walk the streets of Machu Picchu. It’s a really big city and fun to stroll through at a leisurely pace. Of course without a guide we didn’t really know exactly what we were looking at but it was still such a cool experience. Huayna Picchu mountain in the backdrop is beautiful and it seems like a crazy steep hike to get to the top. Those people who did Salkantay Trek and finished by also hiking that mountain peak are quite impressive. I think my legs might have been able to power through one last steep stretch and pull it off but there’s no way that Matt could have.

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The whole thing was a very magical experience. I get the hype of Machu Picchu. It really is the type of place you have to see to believe. Not only is the city an architectural and engineering work of art, but the views of the mountains are incredible and the energy you feel here is unparalleled. I wish it was slightly less crowded but it’s that popular for a reason. So glad to hike 5 days to get here. This was the best prize at the end of a long hike that you could ask for.

After a few hours of roaming the city, Matt and I started the hike back down. About halfway down the steps it started to rain on us so we picked up the pace. Then as we almost reached the entrance at the bottom of the hill, it just started absolutely dumping rain. Luckily we were able to wait it out underneath the roof the ticket check building. The hard ran continued for another solid 20 minutes as it even started to hail. Wow we got so lucky this didn’t happen a few hours before. It would have been so shitty if we had been at the top of Machu Picchu when it was raining this hard. I doubt you could see much of anything at this point. Although it probably would clear out the crowds…

Finally after a little over 20 minutes the rain was lighter and we continued the walk back to Aguas Calientes. Our clothes were absolutely soaked by the time we got back into town, so we stopped at the first bar we saw and drank a few hot pisco cocktails to warm us up. We still had a few hours to kill before our train at 9:30. We got an overpriced dinner that really wasn’t very good. Matt tried cuy for the first time and it was such a tiny portion. Since we still had time, we then went for a second shitty dinner for him where he ordered another bad pizza. Aguas calientes is expensive and doesn’t have great food. We couldn’t wait to get out of here. The train ride really wasn’t very comfortable as we had to share leg space with the people across from us and there wasn’t much room to put your bag anywhere. It was an impressive shit show getting off the train in Ollantaytambo and getting the bus. People were standing there with clipboards calling names and funneling you into different buses. It was actually very efficient all things considered. When it was all said and done we didn’t end up getting back into Cusco until nearly 2 in the morning. What a long fucking day. Overall it was an absolutely incredible trek that I cannot recommend enough. Each of the 5 days had different landscapes that were all beautiful throughout the trek. You traverse over 40 miles of the Andes with Machu Picchu being the prize at the end. Can’t beat that! It’s crazy how much ground we covered in those first 4 days when you look at a map. I didn’t think it was too hard although the length really got to me by the 4th day. The partying the night before didn’t help either, but my legs were really feeling it that day. It is certainly doable without a guide although it was nice to have all the campsites planned and the incredible meals. The price was low enough to make it worthwhile. I would certainly do it again sometime in the future, or I would also love to see what the Inca Trail is all about. Rueben said there is a way to combine the first few days of Salkantay with the Inca Trail. Now that would be the ultimate!