Review of Montanita, Ecuador

I was expecting Montanita to be the kind of place that I wouldn’t want to leave. I had heard it was a young, fun, and cheap place and as I like to believe that at least two of these adjectives could be used to describe myself, I thought I would fit right in. Instead I discovered that really I’m only cheap. I am no longer young and fun, at least by Montanita’s standards.

The first disappointment was the beach. Since it is regarded as THE beach party town in Ecuador I was assuming that the beach would be a destination in itself with a large expanse of fine sand full of lithe, tan, mostly naked bodies. There were the bodies, as I described, but the beach was kind of blah. It had yellow, grainy sand, was actually kind of small, and lacked the high bluffs which make Canoa so beautiful. Also, it was really dirty and there were dead jellyfish everywhere.

The second disappointment was the town. It feels really artificial and forced with what looks like pre-fabricated tiki-style restaurants and hostels. Even worse, it wasn’t really that cheap. The restaurants were similar in prices to the US, but without really good flavor. Sure you could get pancakes and eggs or whatever, but for the same price as a night in a hotel anywhere else in Ecuador.

The third, and most disturbing disappointment was that I felt old. Everyone seemed like they were either in late high school or early college with the white girl dreads and hemp necklaces and gypsy skirts. People were braiding hair and offering massages and it was all a little too much for me. I felt like this was where I had fantasized about being when I was 13 and now that I was finally there, I was too old to enjoy it. You know what it was? It was Reggae on the River, or any of the other hippy festivals, except on the beach and without anyone over 25.

We stayed at Hostel Ricky, which was the cheapest place we could find with two big beds and a private bathroom and it was $15 per person. It looked into an interior lounge room without any natural light, our toilet broke, and people partied a few feet from our heads into the wee hours of the morning. Although, on a high note, the fan they gave us was so incredibly loud (seriously sounded like an outboard motor) that it did mostly drown out the shrieking of drunk young women and the laughter of young stoned men.

We didn’t stay long, but what I will say is if you are between the ages of 17 and 23 and fancy yourself a hippy, or want to sleep with someone who fits that description, you will have fun in Montanita. When we went out to breakfast at around 8am, half the town was still raging from the night before. I wish I still had it in me, but I don’t. I so don’t it’s sad.

Nightlife on La Ronda Street, Quito

La Ronda Street used to have a bad reputation and outdated guidebooks still warn tourists away from the street at night. Unfortunately, this also means they are warning tourists away from the only street in Centro Historico that has some good nightlife. Don't listen to them!




In fact, the best time to go to La Ronda is on Friday and Saturday nights at around 7:00. The pedestrian-only street becomes full of people strolling along listening to live music flooding out of trendy restaurants and bars, eating skewers of chocolate-covered strawberries, and sipping steaming cups of homemade canelazo (sugar cane alcohol) or blackberry wine sold in vats on every block.



The streets are incredibly well-lit, crowded, and have policemen on either end who will help you call a taxi when you want to leave, if you feel the need. We walk home. There are families with little kids, teenagers too cool to walk close behind their parents, kissing young couples, and cute grouchy elderly couples. Street performers pop up in intersections...

...and dancers twirl through the streets. Sometimes there are firecrackers and magicians.

Everywhere you look there is either a musician or a street performer.



All the art galleries and stores are open so be careful...




as the more canelazo you drink...




the more you just have to have one of these bizarre paintings of old people you see everywhere.

Like these.

Medical Care in Quito

I have a bone disease and need to test my blood every 3 months or so. In the USA the test is $529 or more depending on the lab I use. During a typical visit to the lab I often wait in the waiting room between 2 and 5 hours for my turn and then the doctor calls me with the results in about a month.

In Quito, I go to Hospital Voz Andes de Quito near the Y trolle stop. The same test costs $3.63, I normally wait about half a second for my turn, and get this, they email me the results of the test THE SAME DAY! It's pretty freaking awesome and saves me close to $2,000 per year. It would seriously be cheaper to fly to Ecuador from the US and do my big six-month checkups here.

I had some hesitations about moving to Ecuador since my disease is very rare and there are only 3 specialists in the entire United States with experience treating it. Fortunately, it has been very easy for me. In order to manage my disease while living abroad in a country where I don't speak the language I got a copy of a Universal Test Requisition from my wonderful doctor, a copy of a prescription for my medication, and just showed up at the hospital and mutely handed them the Test Requisition. 5 minutes later I was out of there! 2 hours later and I had already read my results myself and forwarded them to the specialist at Georgetown.

Next up I have to refill my prescription and get a bone density test. Once I'm finished I'll post the differences in cost.

Hospital Voz Andes de Quito
Av. Villalengua OE2-37 Y Av. 10 de Agosto
Tel: 226-2142

The Faces Of Centro Historico

This woman sits in front of Santo Domingo selling candles every single day.

Rain or shine.

Faces in the crowd.

When it's warm he sells ice cream and when it's cold he sells cotton candy.

Candied apples - only to be found during holidays.

A bag of oranges for $2!

4 avocados per $1

La Policia

Restaurant Review Hotel Real Audiencia

A few blocks from my house, in the lovely Plaza Santo Domingo, is a fairly nondescript building which encloses Hotel Real Audiencia and its upstairs restaurant with spectacular views.


It's a pretty low-key dining experience as my boyfriend and I and two old ladies who arrived halfway through our meal were the only patrons on a Tuesday night.


However the views are absolutely gorgeous. It is one of the best spots in old town for watching the day turn to night.




We each had filet mignon, beer, and a dessert and the bill was around $20. Another plus is it's literally blocks from La Ronda street so after dinner you can take a stroll down there to peek in the galleries and have some hot canelazo or blackberry wine.

Los Animales de Ecuador

Running from Tourists in Guapulo

Surfing in Canoa

Hanging with the laundry in Mindo

Sleeping on the Stairs in Mindo

Guarding the Gate in Peguche

Sunday services

Ziplining Through Cloud Forests in Mindo

The road to Mindo from Quito winds through the northern parts of the city and then through dry mountainous cliffs and then finally verdant dense forests until you reach the tiny town. Full of charming bed and breakfasts and backyards that have been transformed into small orchid gardens, the town’s main industry is clearly tourism and the locals don’t waste any opportunity to offer their knowledge about the unique cloud forest climate in which they live. In addition to visiting the myriad of local orchid gardens and the butterfly garden, visitors can also hike outside of town in pretty much any direction for a spectacular day hike.




Our group went to the ziplines outside of town which were AWESOME and only $10 per person. I thought I would be slightly terrified as zooming along a large expanse of small cable suspended above a cloud forest sounds like something that might make me cry a little bit, but it was much less scary than I imagined and the views were much better.




The zip lining itself is very easy and there are just two things to avoid: Don’t put your hand in front of you on the wire as you will cut off or crush your own hand from the momentum, and do not brake while in the middle of a zipline as you will then either have to drag yourself across to the other side with your hands or a guide will have to fetch you by wrapping his legs around your torso and dragging your sorry ass across.

The most difficult thing was hiking up to the zipline platforms. There are ten ziplines and you do have to hike up hills to reach them and I was sweating and panting. Although you should keep in mind that I have a bum leg and could hardly walk for a year and have had two surgeries. In other words, I think most people could do it no problem.

The guides offered for me to go in tandem with them to try “the butterfly” and “the superman.” While performing “the butterfly” you face your guide, jump up on to him so your legs are wrapped around his waist, and then throw your torso backwards so you are upside down and then zoom across the cloud forest like that. I declined that one and went for “the superman,” which is actually more awkward if you can believe it, but so worth it.

You stand in front of your guide facing the same way as him, hold on to the wire and swing your legs backward so your legs are wrapped around his waist and you are more or less crotch to crotch, then you drop your torso so you are hanging forward and down, arch your back, spread your arms, and then when you zoom across you feel like you are flying. We tipped our guides at the end because they were so much fun and did things that felt dangerous like bounce the wires while we zoomed across so we bounced up and down about 20 feet.

I highly recommend visiting Mindo, but like most places in Ecuador Mindo is small, rural and beautiful with plenty of daytime outdoors activities, but not very much night life to keep you busy after dark. There is something called the frog garden which is a just after sunset walk where a guide shows you the animals that glow in the dark or fill the wet air with their various forms of music. We saw one pool hall filled with locals and there is a disco which was closed when we were there. I suggest going for an overnight or maybe two nights.

We stayed at a hotel called Caskaffesu which was really charming, with a great interior courtyard, delicious restaurant, and helpful owners. It was a little pricy at $15 per person, but we really enjoyed our stay. Try the homemade plantain chips as a snack and they also sell organic coffee from Mindo which is really quite good.




Tips for Mindo:

Bring bugspray and use it. We walked to the butterfly garden from town (really cool by the way) and I got bit up badly by giant sand flies. Really painful and the bites itched and swelled and didn’t go away for weeks.

Bring cash. There is no ATM in Mindo and the closest town with an ATM is an $8, hour-long roundtrip cab ride and when we got there our cards didn’t work. Bummer.

I feel I should pass this along although I can’t verify whether or not it’s true and I don’t want to negatively affect tourism in Mindo, so heed the warning and do what you think is best. We were all set one morning to go tubing down the river, which is a really popular thing to do in Mindo. We were strongly advised against it and warned that five people had died doing this in the last two years. So we opted not to do the tubing and went for a hike instead.