Ecuador Travel Tips - Ecuador Travel Guide

When I saw Cotopaxi perfectly reflected in Laguna Limpiapunga I was ready to go home. I figured there was nothing that would compare to it and in fact all else would pale. And perhaps that one instant was the highlight of the trip and quite possibly as I grow too old to backpack I will look back on the walk around the mighty one as the highlight of Ecuador. But overall and possibly due to surprise the Galapagos Islands seems to have taken the front seat. The surrealistic terrains, the variety of easily photographed wildlife, and swimming with sea lions was just tough to top.

I’ve never been a great compromiser but I am learning or should I say my wife is quietly teaching me. Prior to our recent trip to Ecuador I did all the planning as is generally the case. She doesn’t mind this set up and in fact likes that I do all the work and trusts my judgment. It had been quite some time since we had done any proper backpacking or wilderness travel and I wanted to get as much of this in on this trip as possible so I could be forgiven for planning three multi-day hikes that would involve carrying “our lives” on our backs. We trained diligently and my wife was resigned to a physically draining trip. For me, Ecuador, like all Andean countries was about hiking and camping in the mountains. Though the Galapagos Islands interested me I assumed they were just too expensive to be included on a six week trip. But as I planned I read some articles about independent travel in the islands and it became more of a possibility much to my wife’s delight. Once in the country we tackled our first backpacking in years quite well but it became apparent that unless we had perfect weather I had better back off some of this planned trekking if I wanted to keep my marriage intact. The weight of the pack and the elevation (walking mostly over 4000 meters!) were wearing her and to be honest me to some extent down. So, I succumbed to the Galapagos Islands trip and when our final backpacking trip fizzled due to awful weather I even gave into my wife’s deep desire to go to the jungle. (concluded below in Fondest Memory)

Ecuador General Tips

Ecuador General Tips

Visiting Ecuador?

Visiting Ecuador?