Ecuador advice
 

Hello everyone -
We're planning a trip to Ecuador in June. We've booked our cruise to the Galapagos for Friday, June 10, through Friday June 17. We pick up and leave the ship in Quito. We'll be flying out the next day.

What we're trying to decide is what else, if anything, we should do. Because of vacation schedules and family events, the earliest we could get down there would be Monday (honestly, Tuesday would be easier). With just those few days, should we just focus on staying in Quito (with maybe a day trip to Otavalo) or should we try to see something more of the country. We're wondering, in particular, if we should try to visit Mindo and see the cloud forest, spend a few days at one of the amazon lodges in the Oriente or fly down to Cuenca. We hate being rushed on vaction and obviously would not want to do too much, so if we did anything in addition to Quito, it would be just one of those options.

Any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks

www.nuhousehotels.com Quito my fav in the Mariscal Sucre

www.haciendapinsaqui.com beautiful local hacienda in Otavalo

www.bellavistacloudforest.com Mindo best for me owned by

Richard Parsons top Galapagos Ecuador birder.

all less than 1-2 hours from Quito

Got discounts on all these last November of 30% using

best direct local provider www.guanguiltagua.com

Eva and Dennis were awesome to me and spoke perfect english.

Oriente a little too far in the time you have

www.huaorani.com best if you can make more time

or pick up a more touristic but nice jungle experience

by going via Cotopaxi to Banos nicest jungle town.

Make more time to see this wonderful country the

most eco-dense in the world... Happy Journey,

travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1106.html

sadly civil unrest not uncommon

due to mentally/politically unstable leader currently

www.insuremytrip.com always wise...

Usually go with Amex Global Travel Shield

from $1-2/day has saved my bacon on several occaisions.

Quito is a marvelous city and deserving of however much time you can give it. We explored the northern part of the city by ourselves on foot (our hotel was located near Parque Carolina) one day; we took a day trip to Bellavista Cloud Forest (same environment as Mindo but a bit closer to Quito); and we explored El Centro Histórico on our third day. All were wonderful. We could have easily spent several more days just prowling around Quito--so many interesting things to do!

You can read about our outings on our trip report; click on any of them under "Quito adventures" in the right-hand column.

Tina
trip report at http://galapagos2009.wordpress.com/

Not that it makes much difference to the question you're asking, but you don't cruise TO the Galapagos. You fly from Quito (probably with a stop in Guayaquil) to one of the two main islands. That's where you board the boat to cruise AROUND the islands. Then you'll fly back to Quito.

If you fly to Ecuador on Tuesday, you'll probably be on a flight that gets in Tuesday evening, too late to do anything. Realistically, that gives you Wednesday and Thursday. I would not bother with an Amazon lodge or flying to Cuenca. Stay focused on Quito and something close by, say a day trip to Otavalo.

On another forum the local expert who lives in Quito says everything's been quiet since the riot a few months ago. Some other people who traveled there recently agreed with her, that everything was normal. I've notice the State Dept. always seems to overreact and scare people for no reason.

I don't think Banos is in the jungle; it's still in the Andes mountains, isn't it??

Thanks very much everyone. I think we'll wind up staying in Quito and doing day trips from there or maybe an overnight to Mindo or Otavalo. Unfortunately, more time just isn't possible so we'll make do and return some day if we can.

Jeff, sorry for the confusion. I should have specified that I meant we'd pick up our connection to our cruise in Quito. (It would obviously be difficult to pick up a cruise ship in Quito given that it's so far inland and at such a high elevation.) Thanks for your input though.