How To Travel ECUADOR? Everything you need to know!

here we are in the Republic of Ecuador which is named after the equator and that's where we are right now to be honest when you were planning a planning put too much thought into originally we just thought it was the place you had to get to to get to the famous Galapagos Islands brought upon doing more research we realized that there is so much more that this country has to offer and in this video we're going to take you through an itinerary that will let you see the very best of Mainland Ecuador thank you as we hope you know by now we are marking ASA and we have spent the last few months exploring South America in our previous video we took a trip into the Ecuadorian part of the Amazon rainforest it was an eye-opening experience and it would highly recommend checking out that video after this one if you haven't already let's get into what there is to do in the rest of Ecuador then because we're going to show you that there are lots of other things to do apart from visits to the Galapagos the first spot we landed in is the largest city in Ecuador no not Quito Gaya kill this place is on the southwestern coast and is the country's main Port City we spend a couple of days exploring but in all honesty there isn't much to do there and we have heard that it has a reputation of being quite dangerous so if you fly in the guy kill like we did just be careful a four-hour bus journey is we'll take you to our first recommendation this stunning little city of Cuenca and walk around the Historical Center here is a great way to get introduced to the Ecuadorian lifestyle historico is actually a UNESCO world heritage site due to its many historical buildings the most impressive of which is the gorgeous blue dawned Cathedral called Cathedral Nueva if cities and historical buildings aren't your thing get yourself on a bus to kahas National Park located in the highlands just 30 kilometers west of Cuenca this Lake sits at 3850 meters above sea level and a hike around it takes about an hour [Music] and it actually reminded me a bit of some Lakes we went to back home in Ireland last summer minus the ancient castles speaking of Russian tourists there is one more place you'd recommend you to visit during your stay in Cuenca and that is a trip to see the biggest Inca ruins in the Hall of Ecuador in kapirkam unfortunately for us today is Monday and ruins clothes so we can't enter but luckily we can walk around and see them pretty close I would love to touch them because you can see much picture and like I want to see how they build it very closely you can put paper in between like this without modern tools and stuff like that but I'm still glad we came because here is a cool Village very authentic with a lot of llamas alpacas so kind of nice yeah day house we took a bus this morning from Cuenca to a town called canar and then just hopped on a connection the bus from Cuenca to canar was 250 and then the connection was one dollar so it's a nice place to come and see after spending some time enjoying the lovely city of Cuenca it was time for some Adventure we stopped in Rio Bamba and had planned on visiting Mount Chimborazo the highest peak in Ecuador but the weather didn't allow it which would be a theme of some of the places we tried to visit here this is something that we actually regret not getting the chance to do because ecuadorians believe that man Chimborazo is the highest mountain on Earth obviously Mount Everest is the most obvious for the highest mountain on Earth but ecuadorians think that Chimborazo deserves a show too because the peak of Chimborazo is actually the furthest point from the center of the earth and the closest point to the Sun so it depends on what where you want to measure it really anyway we still founded some adventure and there is no better place for adventure in Ecuador than Daniels Banos means toilet in Spanish is the adventure capital of Ecuador and attracts adrenaline thirsty tourists from all over one of the main activities to get up to here is white water rafting in Rio pastasa said to be one of the best places to do white water rafting in South America after a rigorous safety briefing from our expert that left us feeling a wee bit more nervous than we should have been okay just spent about half depending how to get rescued from the water on the Rapids [Music] we had never done rafting before and had an absolute blast our guide told us this Rapids were level 4 rabbits to put that into perspective the scale goes from one which is basically just some fast-moving River to six which is extremely difficult and dangerous water to navigate in around and is only for teams of experts we didn't quite know what to expect but we couldn't recommend it highly enough it must be one of the tough things to do in Ecuador even though we just got here it's definitely going to end up being one of our favorite things we've done loved it the company we met with is called geotours and literally couldn't find one fault at all sticking with the theme of fast-moving water Banos and the surrounding area is a hot spot for spectacular waterfalls that dominate the landscape to see the best of these waterfalls we suggest renting a mountain bike for a day in banyos we rented Ours from a company called wonderful Ecuador for just five dollars each so this can be a really cheap day out when you get your bike Head East along Ruta de los Cascada and take in the breathtaking scenery along the way there are loads of hair-raising activities you can get up to along this route including ziplining and bridge jumping hop on a gondola and take a Scenic ride over one of the many waterfalls so we're not sure if this is supposed to happen or not we're on this rickety old gondola hope you guys plan a joke on us he stopped it halfway over the valley and now we're just kind of suspended over there so we're kind of ready any minute for it to start again our favorite thing we did on this route was a hike to this amazing waterfall we took this rickety old Gondola over the river and ended up in the middle of nowhere in search of the waterfall are we lost we're trying to find a waterfall but the path is getting skinnier and skinnier and the grass is getting longer up over her ankles so I can't say anything because you're scared the we've seen a snake we've seen a snake well I didn't see a snake because she scared of me okay it was I know I can't take a step forward because I'm afraid it was a tiny green snake but it was so green like I've never seen like I mean it's not something you would usually see in a normal Forest I mean we are in the Amazon okay let's go back yeah back or forward forward eventually we find ourselves at the bottom of this waterfall all on our own and couldn't believe it wasn't a more popular thing to do there was nobody around [Music] after the type we made our way to the most popular attraction along the street the pione Diablo waterfall [Music] this road is blessed with amazing waterfalls but this one is really special it's genuinely one of the highest most powerful and most spectacular waterfalls we have ever seen there are a couple of different ways to access after parking your bike in the village it is just a short walk to the suspension bridge that will give you a stunning view from above the Falls if you're afraid of heights this will give you the heebie-jeebies but it is a very rewarding way of seeing this monster of a waterfall the other way to see it is to hike down for around 30 minutes to get a close-up view of the waterfall be warned by doing this route you're guaranteed to get wet and dirty as at one stage you're forced to climb through these narrow caves just to the side of the waterfall the other way might be scary for people that aren't great with Heights but if you choose this way you ought to be good at dealing with tight spaces we chose to go both ways and both are spectacular in their own way interestingly instead of having to cycle all the way back uphill there is a clever service that allows you to Chuck your bike on the back of a truck and will take you back to Banos this service costs just three dollars per person and is the perfect way to end your day out we even took the bus from Banos to tana and headed into the Amazon for the next five days as we said earlier I read the whole video about the Amazon adventures and it was one of the best experiences in South America so if you haven't seen it yet don't forget to watch it after this video but for now let's move on to Ecuador's capital city which was our next stop keto itself is a fairly average South American Capital City but a huge tourist attraction here lies around 20 kilometers to the north mitad del mundo or more simply the equator unsurprisingly Ecuador means a music Del munde is a novelty attraction that tourists love there is a debate over whether this line is actually the equator or not as there are reports that modern ways of measuring where the line should be place the equator 240 meters north of this point nevertheless it was equator is enough for us and it's a nice day out you can also test out the Coriolis effect by trying to balance an egg on a nail proper touristy stuff but kind of cool at the same time we're in the front of the monument is really busy and we just walked around the back and it's pretty much the same thing and there's nobody here so I don't know really I don't really know why are tourists too busy to walk around the ocean as with anybody any there are lots of things but in our now in the vicinity of Keto and we thought we'd share it with you another place we loved in Quito was Cathedral Basilica which gives you amazing views of the city after a quick stop in the capital we made the short journey to latakunga latakunga is the ideal place to base yourself for a few days to squeeze in both kilato Lake and Volcan Cotopaxi when traveling you're really at the mercy of the weather sometimes and it's happened that when we arrived to Ecuador the rainy season kicked in and it was pretty close yet the most places we visited on the day we went to kilato the weather changed rather quickly and we ended up with this view of the lake as we're running on a tight schedule we didn't have enough time to repeat this place but it's supposed to be really spectacular just not for us never mind these things happen and are all part of the experience as not everything is sunshine and rainbows and you have to take the good with the bad the next day we set off from Lara Conga to do something that was so high on our bucket list before coming to Ecuador hiking on Vulcan quarterpaxi kotopaxi is the highest active volcano in the world reaching a height of 5897 meters above sea level which is even higher than Kilimanjaro in Africa originally we planned on attempting to make it to the summit but authorities are worried about recent volcanic activity and it's illegal to claim one quarter taxi without permission so we couldn't do instead we took a private tour for a 23 Euro each we hopped in the truck and drove through Cotopaxi National Park visiting a couple of lakes and a museum on the way to the base camp where we would start our hike the first part of the hike is pretty straightforward until you reached Jose River's Refuge point at 4864 meters above sea level I'm about 4 6 5 6 of the way up codopaxi so we're going to try and make it as far as the glacier we got caught in a bit of a hail storm seems to have passed a wee bit the breathing is getting a bit light so we're going to try and make it up now in the next 20 minutes or half an hour hopefully just do we tip when you get to the Refuge don't buy the hot chocolate even though it might be very tempting it's custom after the mango chocolate visitor for the glacier and eventually reached the height of 5200 meters we made it to the glacier 5 000 plus meters on codepaxi tough time from The Refuge but we're glad we kept going you're amazed it's raining and I feel sick on the way up we had the great view of his Summit even though the weather was changing with the minutes this part of the hike is quite challenging especially when you have to walk up steep inclines on the fresh Ash the fresh Ash does make it easier on the knees on the way back down though so we made it back to our track quite quickly so we know if I don't we're nearly at our truck but McDonald's overall this was a great way to experience called epoxy National Park and do the hike and to get there all you have to do is Hop on the keto bus from Lara cungu at the bus station and tell them you want to get off at Cotopaxi I think it was three dollars we paid so it's really not expensive they'll drop you off and straight away you'll see the trucks sitting at the side of the road and they're the ones that you get the private tours into the park with so yeah it's really easy One Last Stop on our Ecuador adventures and this could possibly be our favorite place out of all of them minda cloud forest probably not as well known as other places in this diverse country mindo is a Bird Watcher's dream and is well worth the effort to get to from the LA Ophelia bus station in Quito take the three-hour bus to mindo not San Carlos as it says on Google Maps mindo is situated in a cloud forest that's a thing we had never heard of before researching about this place but it is basically a lush green jungle with low sitting clouds constantly dominating the Treetops there are loads of activities to get up to in mindo and here are the three best in our opinion what you gonna do uh feed hummingbirds I think I hope oh there's one there hummingbird from the palm of your hand hummingbirds are native only to North and South America with the largest population found in Ecuador and Colombia how's your how is it I'm afraid to speak the noise I don't know if you can hear the noise on the camera but the reason they're called hummingbirds is because of the noise their wings make as they're making a figure of eight motion they're the only birds in the world that can make a figure of eight motion and hover in the air also the only Birds they can fly backwards we didn't expect to enjoy this activity as as much as we did but it was such a nice thing to do this lid there is some water and sugar mixed together and the hummingbirds seemed to like it there's a bird that's over there looking at me and he's heavier than the hummingbirds apparently the average hummingbird only weighs the size of like a five cent coin this guy it's so obvious that it's him because he weighs about twice two or three times a week foreign so calibers have a special place in my heart when I was a kid and my love we researched for a biology class at school and I was so impressed that I was so tiny about my class my experience really listening or something and I was like thinking why are you not impressed they're so small and so cool and now being able to hold them so close and their colors are so fascinating and this whole experience is five dollars and it has a lot of things to like plant here in mindo but it's already so worth it just because of this one thing we like did for 10 minutes it's incredible amazing a good tip when traveling in Ecuador and pretty much all South America is that a lot of restaurants have a menu of the day or menu Del Dia in Spanish yeah so if you just ask for their menu Delta it's usually three three fifty dollars and you'll get soup and the main course which is usually a choice between chicken and chips and salad or fish and chips and salad or something like that and then usually it comes with a dessert as well and a nice drink this one's three dollars so definitely Great Value and always keep an eye out for it when traveling the currency of Ecuador is US Dollars and uh if you're coming here don't carry notes I was going to say any larger than 20 but if you carry 20 you'll get change like this if you use it so if you come to Ecuador make sure to bring small money we had we had a hundred dollar bill when we came here and nowhere took it eventually then we went to a shop where we were buying something for like twenty dollars tried to use 100 and I had to sign something to say it wasn't fake and it he was looking at it for a few minutes and also just don't bother bringing any big notes bring small change and if you're using 20s expect to get this back the next thing we recommend doing in mindo is a nocturnal walk if you watched our last video over the Amazon you'll have seen that we went on a nocturnal walk there and to be honest this walk-in window was surprisingly every bit as good as that one [Music] we've seen lots of spiders again and this time we've seen lots of stick insects and frogs and [Music] can you try [Music] come on [Music] [Laughter] [Music] we also seen some sleeping Crimson toucans and we were tempted to try to wake them up but we didn't want to disturb them they looked too cute and comfy lying on the branches the most exciting part of our nocturnal walk was when our guide put his hand into a tree and emerged with a huge tarantula in his palm it actually wasn't scary at all as the tarantula was in its natural habitat and minding his own business just as long as he stays in his home and doesn't come near ours will be fine it made the walk really special as spotting Wildlife is really what this place is all about which brings us to our final recommendation for mindo as we said earlier this place is very famous for bird watching but the tours into the cloud forest with bird experts can be a little bit pricey it's like 60 dollars per person so we decided to do something cheaper and that's where the yellow house comes in at the homie this is purple house and it is uh this is yellow hose believe it or not and um this is where you enter Bungie this is where you enter the forest the jungle whatever you want to call it to see the birds uh you pay six dollars here to be able to enter their Gates pretty much um you could stay here for 35 dollars per night and that includes all of the trails through the jungle as well we had a full access to all of their bird Trails but all they were really after was the opportunity to support the native tokens which can be quite difficult to spot if you aren't looking in the right place we're on trail three of the yellow house trails and we have seen some birds but not that many we've seen some birds fighting there are green Paris Flatline okay we've seen some birds fighting I think in the trees and we've seen a massive big vulture looking bird flying through the air and just behind me right now there's some green Parts unfortunately no two cans yet but uh we're still only halfway through so fingers crossed and to be fair even if we don't see toucans the view of mindu and the surrounding jungle is incredible as you can see so yeah it's worth it we were about two hours into the hike and kinda lost hope of spotting a token but then so I was moving at the coast mark it doesn't sound like and all of a sudden the two can appears coincidence we're actually kind of resigned to the fact that we weren't going to see two guns and we're nearly at the gate where we came in and then Asia looks up and there's this black black and yellow beaked beautiful bird with the biggest nose we've ever seen we've just seen a flock of tokens flying all above us and we got some nice shots but we're here doing the yellow house trails and you start here and we actually went to do the trail 3 which actually says two cans on it to try to find tokens we didn't see any tokens on that trail and then we're on the way back and we're actually almost at the exit again when we looked up and there were three or four or five tokens flying all above us literally just before any Trail starts at also you might get lucky it's currently half eight in the morning we start a little bit quarter past six and we're literally nearly finished and we were like oh we can't see any tickets so don't give up keep looking up sometimes when you see pictures of birds they're taken with like these Mega lenses and we don't have a great zoom camera so like what you see now is just potentially what you would see as you're looking into a tree so it's not like they were 60 meters away there those pictures and videos are literally like just in the tree really cool also some other times when you see exotic birds you're in a reserve or some Sanctuary this is completely the Wild and it's an amazing experience to see tokens in their own environment there you have it those are our recommendations for Mainland Ecuador we know that the Galapagos are still going to be the main attraction when coming here but we just wanted to point out some other amazing places that you can go to when coming to this little tiny beautiful country if you enjoyed this video don't forget to leave a like and let us know in the comments which place is your favorite and maybe you have any other recommendations for those who are coming to Ecuador our next video is an exciting one as well because we're going to Colombia and we've heard a lot about Colombia so we're very excited to go there and if you decide to come to Ecuador we are sure you're going to have something to remember just like us thank you

Channel: Something To Remember

Views: 11,729

Keywords: ecuador, how to travel Ecuador, things to do in Ecuador, South America, Latin America, travel guide, travel tips, quito, guayaquil, mindo, mindo cloud forest, Latacunga, Cotopaxi, Quilotoa lake, Cotopaxi volcano, banos, amazon, white water rafting, waterfalls, banos waterfall, cuenca, Ingapirca, Cajas National park, pailon del diablo, humming birds, birdwatching, toucan, wildlife

Id: F2UHopXGsj8

Length: 23min 45sec (1425 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 11 2023