There is one country in South America that contains a little bit of everything that the continent has to offer. That country is Ecuador. So, if you want to discover South America but only have time to visit a single country, we’d suggest you pick Ecuador. In Ecuador, you get to experience the Andes mountain range, the South American culture, the Amazon rainforest...
The city of Cuenca, Ecuador is a true colonial gem and some would go so far as to call it Ecuador’s most beautiful city. It’s elegant historic Spanish colonial buildings, mixed with its colourful indigenous culture and dramatic street art, make walking around Cuenca a real delight. There are bright colours everywhere in Cuenca! Not only is Cuenca a stunning city but...
After a month of travelling through Ecuador with the bare minimum of Spanish under our belt, we realised that we needed to do better. If we were going to travel through South America for at least 6 months, we really had to try and learn some more Spanish. We’d read that the small beachside town of Montañita was the best place to learn Spanish in Ecuador. In...
We recently spent five days in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The Amazon, the one place in the world that I swore to myself I would never set foot in, ever! Why’s that? It’s for one reason only; I am absolutely terrified of spiders, especially large ones such as ugly, hairy Tarantulas. We all know that many fears are totally irrational and Arachnophobia (the fear of...
After our awesome time in Baños, it was time to move on again. So, we hopped back on the Wanderbus to make our way to our next destination, Alausi. Alausi is a tiny town in Ecuador that is largely popular due to one thing, el Nariz del Diablo (the Devil’s Nose). The Devil’s Nose is a famous train ride that showcases some of the breathtaking scenery of the Andes...
We absolutely love wildlife, so if there was one place in South America that we wouldn’t have missed, it’s the Galapagos Islands. Everyone we’ve met who’d been to the Galapagos has always come back raving about it and telling us wildlife lovers that we just had to go there. With Ecuador as the first stop of our South American trip, we made sure that we booked a...
After an amazing week in the Galapagos, we flew back to Quito for the night and left first thing the next morning on the Wanderbus. The Wanderbus is a hop-on-hop-off bus that you can use to travel all around Ecuador, stopping at places that interest you for a few days along the way. In our case, we used their Colibri pass which runs from Quito down to Cuenca. Our...
After spending so many years dreaming about travelling through South America, landing in Quito was like a dream that had finally come true. The capital of Ecuador was the starting point for our long-awaited trip to South America. We couldn’t have been more excited! Although many people only visit Quito briefly, before heading to the Galapagos or other parts of...
After Tallinn and Riga, the next and final destination of our rapid tour of the Baltic States had us heading to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. We weren’t quite sure what to expect of Vilnius, neither had we done much research about it. Out of the three Baltic capitals, it seemed like Vilnius was the least well-known. Given that, we were looking forward to...
After spending three nights in stunning Tallinn, we hopped on a bus and four hours later we arrived in Riga, the capital of Latvia. Riga is a great city to explore if you love architecture because apart from its medieval Old Town, Riga also has a huge amount of Art Nouveau architecture. In fact, Riga is the Art Nouveau capital of Europe. Riga is also a university...