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Ecuador

the centre of the world

By Heather & Pravin

January 7^th, 2018

Throughout our travels in South America, we had met very few people that had gone to or were planning on going to Ecuador. For some reason, it seems to be the one country that most people travelling north-south or vice versa happen to skip. Consequently, we didn't know a whole lot about the country before arriving! Usually we learn lots about places ahead of time and get tips from other travellers, but there was little information floating around about places in Ecuador other than the jungle, the Galapagos, and the high climbing peaks (all of these adventures were out of our budget - this just means we'll have to come back!).

After leaving Cali, Colombia, we took a 12-hour bus ride south to Pasto, Colombia where we spent the night near the bus station in preparation for an early start to cross the border into Ecuador. We took a 10-hour combination of 2 buses, 2 vans and 1 taxi in order to get from Pasto-Ipiales-Rumichaca-Tulcán-Ibarra-La Esperanza. In La Esperanza, we stayed at Casa Aida, a long-running guesthouse run by the owner, Aida, and her grandsons. The lodging was cozy and the resident dogs were cute, and Aida sat down with us by the fire to share some of the history of the place. Back in the 70s, La Esperanza was a hotspot on the hippie trail, and after allowing some Europeans to camp on her property, word got around and hippies started coming to the area to stay with her and many of them helped her construct the buildings that still stand today. Through the years, some of her guests have included Bob Dylan, Manu Chao, Joan Baez, and even members of Pink Floyd. Aida mentioned that she had a particular interest in Indian spices but that they were next to impossible to purchase in Ecuador, so when we were leaving, we gifted her a few Daksha's Gourmet Spices curry mixes that we had been carrying with us.

Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador

volcán imbabura

The main reason we decided to visit La Esperanza was to hike to the top of Volcán Imbabura, a 4630m tall extinct volcano, whose lower slopes are home to La Esperanza and a number of other small farming villages. We hired José, Aida's grandson, to guide us for the day as we had read that the trail was notoriously tough to follow and that the skies would often cloud over enough so as to obscure the way back to town. We hopped in a pickup truck to take us a few kilometres up the road to about 2900m, to save a bit of a slog up bumpy dirt roads. The top of Imbabura loomed a very steep 1700m above us, and since we had only been above 4000m once in the past two months, we weren't sure if our acclimatization had completely worn off and whether we would suffer from altitude sickness during our ascent.

Luckily, apart from some extra-heavy legs and the need for more breaks than usual, neither of us felt any ill effects from the height of the volcano. It was a very challenging hike, with the grade consistently about 30%. The best part of it all was Rambito, our guide José's dog, who hopped in the back of the truck with us first thing in the morning, and made it all the way to the last scramble - on 3 legs! The poor guy had gotten hit by a car some weeks before and had a broken leg which he wasn't using. You would never know by the speed at which he attacked the trail, and there was only one scramble section that he couldn't make it up by himself, and started howling in frustration as Pravin and José continued moving upwards. I gave him a little boost, and he beat us all to the top!

Unfortunately the weather conditions were far from ideal, and after scrambling to the top, we couldn't see more than a few metres beyond through the thick, misty clouds. We found a sheltered spot from the wind, and devoured lunch and snacks and even had a short siesta! Happily the clouds did part on the way down, and we got some incredible views of the farmland below. An eagle also appeared and put on a spectacular show for us, diving and taunting the agitated Rambito, who couldn't bear that this large, winged creature was to high for him to reach! José said that in all of the many times he had summited the volcano, he had never seen an eagle stay so close for so long.

*The cover photo for this post shows Volcán Imbabura from across the valley in Cotacachi.

Ecuador

loma wasi

From La Esperanza, we headed down across the valley floor to the indigenous community of Tunibamba, where we stayed a few nights in Loma Wasi with an indigenous family and explored the area and learned about their lives. Mercedes had saved up during her teenage years and managed to buy the land on which their house now stands. Once she married Mario, they gathered the necessary building materials and all of their neighbours helped them to construct the house. This is how all the houses in the community are built - everyone helps each other out through communal efforts. It was incredible to see how hard everyone in the community works, but also amazing to understand how self-sufficient they are. They have cows, pigs, and a massive garden where they grow all kinds of fruits, vegetables and legumes. All of the food we ate at the homestay was raised organically and harvested from their property, and it was fresh, delicious, and all vegetarian. Isabela, Mercedes and Mario's daughter, works hard all day around the property, farming and cooking and looking after her 4-year-old son, and then late in the evenings, she starts to work on her homework - on Saturdays and Sundays, she attends university in a nearby city on a condensed schedule of 7am-6pm. The weekends are also the only time her husband is at Loma Wasi, as he works in Quito Monday through Friday, so they have very little time together. Mario also works all day on the farm, and makes art and handicrafts in the evenings and often buses to nearby cities on the weekends to sell his goods. Mercedes is up at the crack of dawn every single day to take the family's cows out to pasture, about an hour's walk from the house. We went with her one evening to fetch the cows and gather bundles of grasses to feed the family's guinea pigs, which they raise and sell for food, or to be used in Mario's traditional healing ceremonies.

Our time at Loma Wasi was incredibly unique, and we were so glad that we had come across the opportunity online! It's hard to believe how hard this family works, but really inspiring to see how they are continually innovating, such as with their homestay business. An Ecuadorian organization was offering tourism and hospitality courses in the area a few years ago, and Mercedes, on top of all her other duties, took it upon herself to complete the 8-month courses and obtain certifications in community tourism. Now the homestay business is a big boost to their income, and their grown son Rolando, who is fluent in English and lives in a nearby town, manages all of the online communications and bookings with guests.

Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador

laguna cuicocha

Ecuador

From Loma Wasi, we took a day trip to the nearby crater lake of Laguna Cuicocha, which was created the last time the volcano erupted, about 3000 years ago. The Kichwa name Cuicocha comes from the shape of the islands in the middle, which people believe looks like the back of a guinea pig. There is a beautiful trail circling the rim of the crater, and we spent a few hours exploring the rolling hills and admiring the views from all around the lake. It was neat to see different views of Imbabura, but almost painful to see how clear the summit was from time to time compared to the misty day when we climbed it!

Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador

Quito

We tried hard to like Quito, but found that it wasn't quite the city for us. Aside from Cali, Colombia, it was really the only city in which we felt quite unsafe at times. The whole metropolis has quite a grimy, dingy look to it, with ugly graffiti tags covering every building and most areas dead quiet as soon as the sun went down. The hostel we stayed in was right next to the central market, at which we ate many times. The food in Ecuador was incredibly cheap, and each day for lunch we would have a heaping plate of llapingachos for $3 - potato and cheese patties, avocado, fried egg, pickled beets and salad. Breakfast was an even better deal, with a plate of green plantain patties, a fried egg, delicious spicy salsa and a cup of coffee all for only $1!

Ecuador

The historical centre of the city is quite beautiful, and in much better shape than some of the outlying neighbourhoods. Of course, it's where most of the tourist dollars end up as well, so it's easier and there is more incentive to keep it looking pretty.

We did manage to find some excellent craft breweries in Quito, and paid several happy hour visits to Bandido Brewing, which is run by some Oregonians, so it satisfied our deep cravings for hoppy IPAs!

I don't think it's possible to visit Ecuador without heading to one of the equator monuments, so in spite of the fact that we expected it to be a) cheesy, b) overpriced and c) crowded, we did spend a day hoofing it out to La Mitad del Mundo on Quito city buses. The attraction was all of those things and more, but they also had excellent ice cream and the wide open plazas were nice for escaping the crowds of downtown. In spite of the fact that the actual equator is located a couple hundred metres away from the monument (which was discovered once GPS technology came around), we took some cheesy photos and pretended to straddle two hemispheres along with everyone else there that day!

Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador

One sight in Quito that we really did enjoy was the Basílica del Voto Nacional, which is a Catholic church that you climb to the top of for a panoramic view over the city. While the view was pretty cool, the best part was the journey to the top. After climbing a couple of staircases, the next step is to walk across a wooden walkway perched over the ribs of the arch below. It was eerie and neat to venture through this unfinished section, and then emerge onto the roof outside. After a couple more ladders, you found yourself at the top and could spend some time admiring the 360° views of the city.

Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador

Footnotes

Next up: Quilotoa Loop & Chimborazo

FootNotes

Next up: Quilotoa Loop & Chimborazo

© 2026 Heather & Pravin

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