Traveling Through Ecuador
During the summer of 2019, Audrey and I both visited my family’s home country of Ecuador. It was my first time visiting the small South American country in almost six years and some things had definitely changed since my previous visit.
As someone who both speaks the language and has family there to guide me, adapting to these changes was easy but if you are traveling down there without these advantages, these ten tips should help you during your time there.
Back in the late 1990s, Ecuador underwent a period of hyperinflation and the previous currency, the Sucre, became increasingly worthless. In an attempt to stabilize the economy, the Ecuadorian government adopted the US Dollar as its national currency.
As a result of the dollarization (yes that is a real term), Ecuador now has to import its currency as it is not allowed to print its own notes. That means that low-value notes like $1, $5, and $10 are not in limitless supply. Because of this you’ll find that if you go to purchase anything costing under $5, most places will tell you they don’t have change for anything over a $10 bill.
You’ll find that some places don’t accept credit cards and most don’t accept credit cards for purchases under $10 so you will occasionally be forced to pay with cash. Because of this, before going down to Ecuador, I would highly recommend you stock up on the 1’s and 5’s while you’re still in the United States or Europe.
Ride-sharing has indeed made its way down to Ecuador and Uber is making huge inroads into the local economy down there. Despite your feelings about Uber and their CEOs chummy nature with Donald Trump, Uber is safe and convenient way to get around Ecuador. More importantly, it’s a great way to not get ripped off.
Taxis in Ecuador are notorious for over charging people, especially tourists. Uber ensures that you know exactly how much you’ll get charged before your trip with no surprises. Uber also eliminates the need for you to carry the correct change in order to pay for your cab.
Trust me on this one, use Uber.
The last time I had been to the Galapagos was roughly 15 years ago at the age of twelve. Considering my age, you would be correct in assuming that I did not pay for that vacation so I had little understanding of how expensive going to the Galapagos would be.
Flights alone to and from the archipelago will end up running you anywhere between $250 - $400 a person depending on the time of the year you visit. Considering the flight only take a little under 2 hours, that’s a pretty steep price when compared to comparable flights in the area.
Once you actually get to the islands, things do not get any cheaper. Hotels and activities are all significantly more expensive compared to anything you’ll find on the mainland. Expect to pay more than $150 a night on hotels, $20+ per person per meal.
Galapagos is not the norm when it comes to Ecuador. Like the rest of Latin America, Ecuador is an incredible place to do some budget traveling.
Save money when eating out by looking for restaurants that offer an almuerzo, a fixed price lunch that typically includes rice, beans, a protein, a salad, and fresh juice for $2 - $3.
Every restaurant has their own different almuerzo and it is typically influenced regionally so make sure to ask what they are offering if you are a picky eater.
Take advantage of the overall lower prices and do things that may be cost prohibitive elsewhere. Things like SCUBA diving, skydiving, ATVing, and other extreme sports are considerably cheaper in Ecuador.
Flights in Latin America are not exactly cheap. There are no low-fare airlines and tickets can cost you over $100 a flight each way. Not exactly cost effective if you’re trying to travel on a budget.
Ecuador has an expansive inter-regional bus system with numerous different companies with routes between cities both big and small.
The bus is certainly a slower mode of transportation, however when you factor Ecuador’s small size, you can get from one end of the country to the other in less than 16 hours. When you factor the fact that a bus ticket will probably cost you $8-$15, it’s a hard bargain to pass up when considering the alternative.
Ecuador offers many incredible opportunities to step out of your comfort zone. In order to take full advantage of everything Ecuador has to offer, my advice to you is to not have a concrete plan of what to do and when to do it.
While we were traveling around the country, we rarely had our travel arrangements or hotels booked for our next destination more than 48 hours in advance. This offered us the ability to stay as long or as little as we wanted to anywhere. If we felt like we had needed more time in a city we would stay a little longer and if we felt we did everything there was to do, we booked our hotel for the next day in the next town.
Hostels are another great way to travel around the country on a budget. Most people think that staying in a hostel means that you are going to have to sleep in a room shared by a bunch of strangers but this does not have to be the case in Ecuador. While it is cheaper to share a room with strangers, several hostels have private rooms for couples for prices as low as $25 a night.
Ecuadorians are very fluid with their sense of time. Vague statements like “soon” or “in a couple of minutes” in reality mean “not right now.” Don’t be surprised to find that people are not usually on time for things either. Spending a few years growing up in Ecuador, I can safely say that when people make plans, agreed upon times are more of a suggestion than a rule and it’s not atypical to have people arrive 30 minutes or more late to various events.
Likewise, things also tend to close fairly early in Ecuador. There aren’t a lot of convenience stores open after 10 PM, so if you’re suddenly out of water late at night and stuck without a filter, you’re out of luck until tomorrow morning.
Regardless of your destination, a good rule of thumb is to avoid tourist traps. Living in the North End of Boston I have seen first hand the power of the tourist trap restaurant. Restaurants frequented by tourists are usually under little pressure to be anything more than mediocre. They do not care about return customers because they have a revolving door of tourists to fill their seats. These restaurants are in the tourist industry, not the food industry.
If you want to eat well, eat like a local. Talk to the people that live in the area and ask them what their favorite places to eat are, you’ll be more likely to find hidden gems and holes in the wall that you won’t find listed on Tour Adviser or Yelp.
Ecuador is a beautiful country and its citizens are friendly and welcoming people, however this does not mean that you shouldn’t take precautions to keep yourself and your possessions safe.
Tourists usually carry a lot of money on them which means that they can be targeted to be robbed, pick-pocketed, or scammed. Try to not make it super obvious that you are a tourist.
Most, if not all, hotel and hostel rooms in Ecuador come with a lock box or safe in each room. Use this to your advantage.
If you plan on being down in Ecuador for a long time, make sure to bring a few different credit or debit cards for redundancy. Keep one or two on your person while leaving the others locked in the lock box in your room. In the off chance you get pick-pocketed, you can cancel the card(s) and still have a way to pay for things.
Do not carry a lot of cash on you at any given time. As a general rule of thumb, you will never ever need more than $100 in cash per person per day, so don’t carry a bunch of money unnecessarily.
Make sure to also keep close guard of things like smart phones. I know of instances where people in bicycles drive past cars at stop lights and will snatch phones out of people’s hands through the open windows.