Ecuador
Adventures
Ecuador
“Expansive Ecuador"
Expansive Ecuador
“The Middle of the World”
After 8 months of often intense travel through Mexico, Central America and Colombia, we were ready for a bit of a breather. Soon after we crossed the border into Ecuador, the roads changed from the poorly paved, treacherous, two lane roads through the mountain ranges of Colombia to well paved, relatively safe, roads through the Avenida de los Volcanoes of Ecuador. We started to breathe more deeply and ease into what would be a more relaxing month in Ecuador.
Perhaps the hardest thing about traveling in Ecuador is deciding what to do and where to go. Despite its small size, Ecuador has a lot to offer, from birding in cloud forests to exploring jungles to hiking up huge volcanoes to scuba diving in the Galapagos Islands to surfing on the coast. The combination of these adventures with beautiful colonial towns, friendly locals and indigenous communities makes Ecuador, in our opinion, one of the best countries to visit in the world. However, we recognize that over the past few years, things have changed in Ecuador so do your research and determine which regions to avoid. For example, as of February, 2025, we heard that Guayaquil and areas along the Colombian border are good places to avoid if you can.
The Paramo
After a few days of R&R at a well organized campground outside of Ibarra we headed to Otavalo, an indigenous community in northern Ecuador.
Otavalo is a great base from which to explore the surrounding indigenous communities and to hike up the nearby volcanoes. We chose to summit Fuya Fuya. But Cerro Negro (close to Fuya Fuya) and Imbabura are also worthwhile ascents. One of the most fascinating aspects of these hikes is they are located in the Páramo, an unique alpine tundra ecosystem full of unique endemic plants.
The indigenous communities surrounding Otavalo are authentic and, in general, open to foreigners. In one of these communities we visited the house of a family that weaves fantastic tapestries using traditional techniques. Of course, no trip to Otavalo is complete without a trip to the Otavalo market where we stocked up on gifts for ourselves and others. This is not a great place to buy traditional weavings. But it is a place to buy good quality Alpaca and wool blankets, ponchos, scarves and sweaters for super cheap prices.
Mindo
Ecuador offers some of the most amazing birding in the world.
And Mindo is perhaps the best place in Ecuador to do it. We spent a few days exploring the amazing trails at the Bellavista Cloud Forest Reserve, a birding lodge deep and high in the cloud forest to the east of Mindo. We were in search of the blue-colored Plate Billed Mountain Toucan, which we heard, but did not see. But we did see some amazing birds including numerous types of Hummingbirds, Parrots, Tanagers and even a few harder to see “target birds”, including an amazing Crested Quetzal and Yellow Crowned Quetzal. We’ve had some amazing bird experiences on our trip, including in Belize and Costa Rica. But Mindo was as good and perhaps even better than these other destinations.
La Avenida de Los Volcanoes
As we made our way south through the Avenue of the Volcanoes, we explored some of South America’s highest volcanoes.
One of these was Chimborazo which at 6,262 meters (20,564 feet) is Ecuador’s highest mountain. What’s cool about Chimborazo, in addition to how beautiful it is, is the fact that you can drive to the 1st refugio which sits at 4,800 meters (15,744 feet). For us, this was a test of the high altitude capabilities of our overland vehicle. We had to move relatively slowly up the windy road past small herds of wild Vicunas and Andean Foxes. But at 15,744 feet we still had plenty of power. From the First Refugio you can climb to the second refugio at 5,000 meters (16,400 feet) and have a glimpse of the amazing summit, covered in a huge glacier, almost all to yourself. If you have some technical skill, this would be a great mountain to summit since it would only involve a day of climbing from the 2nd refugio. Unfortunately, though, our ice axes (and other mountaineering gear) were sitting in a box in Boulder.
The Middle of the World
Before moving onto Peru we spent some time in Vilcabamba, a day of driving away from a remote part of Northern Peru.
We wished we had had more time to explore Ecuador, and the month seemed to fly by in comparison to other countries. But it’s always a good idea to leave one or two adventures for future trips. And in the case of Ecuador, we left many. It’s definitely a country we will return to someday. And it’s a country that we’d recommend that everyone visit at least once in their life.
Here are a few of Our Ecuador Favorite Adventures.
