Tulcán is a chilly highland city steeped in grit and bustle, a narrow urban causeway linking with Colombia. The provincial capital of Carchi used to attract Colombians bargain hunting with the Ecuadorian sucre, but these days the best deals are with Colombian imports. The Sunday street market provides goods and clothing but few handicrafts. The main attraction for foreign visitors is heading overland to Colombia.
Hemmed in by luxuriant green peaks, blessed with steaming thermal baths and adorned by a beautiful waterfall, Baños is one of Ecuador’s most enticing and popular tourist destinations. Ecuadorians and foreigners alike flock to this idyllically set town to hike, soak in the baths, ride mountain bikes, zip around on rented quad-runners, volcano-watch, party and break their molars on the town’s famous milcocha (taffy). Touristy as it is, it’s a wonderful place to hang out for a few days, complementing outdoor-activity days with excellent dining out.
From the baggy shorts to the friendly, sleepy demeanor, surfer-dude culture is universal. The good surf at the beach here insures a steady stream of travelers, some you’ll see settling up their bills after weeks and months, or taking up trades like hair braiding and wristband weaving. The accompanying Rasta vibe and laid-back ethos means the end of the road for some. Most of the buildings lining one of the several dirt streets in town house a restaurant on the ground floor and either residences or rooms for rent above.
People come to Vilcabamba to relax – which is an easy task once you’re here, considering the tranquility of the village and its stunning mountainous surroundings. The slightly surreal peaks that practically engulf Vilcabamba make for some excellent day hikes from town. Furthermore, nearly every other building (and there aren’t many) has a sign out front advertising massages and facials, a trend started by a few hotels and later picked up by the rest of the resident population, a large percentage of whom are foreigners who couldn’t bring themselves to leave. Most of those who stayed, as well as a handful of locals, now own cafés, offer horse-riding tours or own rustic little hotels offering travelers ample opportunity to do what you do in Vilcabamba: kick back. The town offers access to remote sections of Podocarpus and is a good stopping point en route to or from Peru via Zumba.
As poetic monikers go, few can top the sound of ‘The Avenue of the Volcanoes, ’ the nickname coined by German explorer (and unwitting wordsmith) Alexander von Humboldt when he traveled through Ecuador’s central Andean valley in 1802. Not surprisingly, the name stuck. South of Quito the Panamericana winds past eight of the country’s 10 highest peaks, including the picture-perfect snowcapped cone of Volcán Cotopaxi (5897m) and the glaciated behemoth, Volcán Chimborazo (6310m).
average temperature in tulcan: 10°C (50°F)
Not long ago Coca was a cluster of lean-tos on dirt roads. Growth means concrete, lots of it, paved roads and ubiquitous hairdressing shops. The capital of the Orellana province since 1999 (and officially known as Puerto Francisco de Orellana), Coca embraces the fallout of oil exploration. Executives from ‘the company, ’ as it’s called (any oil company) are easily recognizable breakfasting in the best hotels in crisp shirts and leather boots. Throw into the mix the soldiers and sailors, urbanized indigenous and colonists. If you’re traveling on to a jungle lodge on the lower Napo or to Peru, Coca is a lackluster but strangely compelling stop along the way.
Otavalo has been an Andean crossroads since pre-Inca times, when jungle traders would journey here on foot. Today’s market is a hyperbolic version of the same tradition: buses arrive from Quito delivering droves of visitors from around the globe. While the tourists bargain for rugs and sweaters, the local artisans take their market earnings to fill up on staples such as rice and meat.
Debating the relative beauty of Cuenca and Quito is a favorite pastime in these parts, but an impossible issue to resolve. In terms of grandeur, Quito wins hands down. But Cuenca – that colonial jewel of the south – takes the cake when it comes to beauty. Its narrow cobblestone streets and whitewashed red-tiled buildings, its handsome plazas and domed churches, and its setting above the grassy banks of the Río Tomebamba, where women still dry clothes in the sun, all create a city that’s supremely impressive. Though firmly anchored in its colonial past, Ecuador’s third-largest city also has a modern edge, with international restaurants, art galleries, cool cafés and welcoming bars tucked into its magnificent architecture. It has a large student population and (unsurprisingly) is popular with foreigners.
Ecuador, land of lively Andean markets, Amazon adventures, gripping Galápagos cruises and … beaches? Nobody thinks of the coast when they think of Ecuador. It’s last on the list for most, and many – after seeing everything else – never actually make it here. It’s their loss. Ecuador’s northern coast (from the Colombian border south to around Manta) is a land of giant mangroves, Afro-Ecuadorian culture, incredible biodiversity and serious off-the-beaten-track travel. The southern coast (from Parque Nacional Machalilla to the Peruvian border) is justifiably famous for its seafood and has the country’s best beaches, including some fabulous stretches along the ‘Ruta del Sol’ (Route of the Sun). Admittedly, it’s no Caribbean, but it’s ocean nontheless. And if it’s the sun you’re after, time it right: June to November is the rainy season, but also the sunniest; the sun blazes both before and after the afternoon downpour. December through May is often rather overcast and chilly.