Ecuador - So Much to See... So Little Time...

Originally, I planned my trip for 10 days thinking that that would be enough to see Ecuador, when in actuality I barely sort of skimmed the surface, Ecuador like many countries has a lot to offer, you just have to have an open mind and a propensity to try Spanish!  jajajaja (my new Spanish laugh)

Edu... yes he's petting an iguana...

When people ask me, is it worth it, I never understand how to correctly answer the question... Example, I'm talking about Baños and then someone asks me, is it worth it...  To be honest, sometimes, I'm on the fence, to me having an experience (even bad ones) are part of traveling and what shapes you as a person... but for the purposes of this blog.  Ecuador is worth it.

On this short trip, I managed to make a couple of friends in Guayaquil, party like a rockstar in Porto Lopez and do a lot of adventury-thingys in Baños... (yes, I just took an overnight bus from Baños to Guayaquil and waiting to check into my hostel, so if I'm making up words - you know what I mean...)

Ms. Adriu and moi...

Guayaquil is a pretty cool city, its mostly a business district with access to great boardwalk along the water, lots of cheap foods and hotels you won't find online.  For example, if you walk along Malecon (the boardwalk on the water) food is rather expensive, by expensive I mean cheap by US comparison ranging from $3-$6... where you can just walk inside the city and find many many many restaurants ofering breakfast, lunch or dinner ranging in the $1-$2 range... and they're complete meals with drinks, a salad and even soup to satisfy your hungry tummy...Thanks to Adrienne and Eduardo for showing me around Guayaquil and introducing me to cheap eats!!

In addition to finding cheap foods and cheap hotels (see tweet - Me encanta! Hotel Casa Blanca en Banos, Ecuador por $10 a noche! Un cuarto privado! http://twitpic.com/5lay8d)... It's possible to even find cheaper rooms... I would almost suggest not booking online (unless you're in a time crunch) as 90% of the hotels are not online!

Porto Lopez is a cool place!  Thanks to my Couchsurfing host, Patricio for dragging me along and allowing me to experience the city, an awesome party, great people and good food... did I mention caña?  Everything is just along the beach, this quiet town has a lot to offer... Maybe next time I'll stay a wee bit longer...

Baños was an adventure!!  See my previous posts... In addition to the small quaint city with lots of adventure, I was lucky to make a new friend... yes, we did a couple of activities together, such as rafting (CLICK HERE), canyoning - both a first for me and jumped off a perfectly good bridge... lol... Other than that, just hanging out, a little shopping - you guys know of my bag obsession... as well as lots of food and a half day of treatment! bwah hah hah... Sort of well needed as the overnight bus right from Baños to Guayaquil was somewhat brutal... A quick 5 hour bus ride at night, 7 on my way to Baños which was during the day..., sleep was hard... swerving through the mountains and the temperature change of the cold, mountain breezes of Baños to the warm, humid weather of Guayaquil...

New buddies!

Weird part is, I almost didn't go to Baños... My mind was set on Galapagos or Cuenca... But a $400 ticket and a $100 entry fee knocked Galapagos out of the equation... so spacial thanks to Patricio who told me of Baños... a city I've never heard of!!  Also, best of luck to Hueling in Lima - Macchu Pichu (consider me jealous!)!!




Thanks to all of you for making this trip so awesome!  and yes... I didn't forget about you Fernando, for which I probably would not have had this awesome opportunity...

Mahalo for reading.

Until next time.