Another bucket list trip! This trip to Ecuador started us in Quito, Ecuador, took us to Mindo and the Cloud Forest, and ended with a few days in Cuenca, but was mostly an 8-day cruise in the Galapagos Islands! I can’t put into words how amazing this trip was, but I’m gonna try!
January 18, 2026 – We started the day at 4:30am. We discovered that our flight was delayed by an hour but left home at 5:30am anyway as the Uber was preordered. After a few hours in the lounge, we finally boarded. The flight went smoothly (6.5hours), however about 45 minutes before landing in Bogotá, Colombia, our connecting flight started boarding. Usually we give ourselves a lot of time for a connecting flight, but this one was booked a bit too close and with our initial delay, it was gonna be super close. We landed in Bogotá 35 minutes before our next flight was to take off.
We literally ran through the terminal with our backpacks on, muscles burning and super winded, without really knowing why. Turns out we were at 2600 metres of elevation. We hit the security line which was thankfully short and caught our breath, and then took off again, in what seemed like the direction we had come from. We basically did a U-turn at one end of the terminal and ran back the way we had come but down a different hallway. I thought my lungs were going to explode but we kept running, Rich about a hundred metres ahead of me. Our gate was A15, pretty much the last gate, and Rich got there about 3 minutes before I did. He told me afterwards that they seemed pretty annoyed with us. We really did get there 5 minutes before take-off time, but we made it. As soon as we got on the plane, I started wondering if our luggage was going to be joining us. Out of the window of the plane was, I think, the plane we had arrived on. We really did run all the way back to where we started. I think I was looking at our luggage. When we arrived in Quito a few hours later, the air tags in our luggage told us it had in fact come with us. Love those airtags.
The company we booked with, Adventure Life, had arranged for a driver to pick us up at the airport in Quito and take us to our hotel. Leo was also to be our driver and guide for the next few days. As an aside, having a driver to pick you up at your destination and take you to your hotel is an extremely nice perk.
After about a 45 minute drive we arrived at the Go Quito hotel. We weren’t really expecting much, but man was it beautiful! It was in a great area and it was super shiny. Leo recommended a fine dining restaurant just a few blocks from the hotel, so we dumped off our stuff and headed there. We both felt the elevation right away just in the two block walk to the restaurant which was slightly uphill.
The restaurant was called Somos, and it was fantastic. Every bite just melted with flavour, and the bill came to $70! For fine dining! I couldn’t believe it. Ecuador uses U.S. currency so everything I’m writing about is in U.S. funds.
We crashed hard that first night, full stomachs and looking forward to the really starting this trip.
January 19, 2026 – We got up early as Leo was going to pick us up at 8am. The plan for the day was to head to Mindo, and the Cloud Forest which is a couple of hours drive from Quito. Rich had also realized that he had forgotten to pack his contact lenses, which was a HUGE disappointment. We both brought our contacts in anticipation of snorkeling in the Galapagos. So we needed to figure out a solution for that. We had breakfast in the Go Quito restaurant on the 17th floor. The view from up there was amazing, and we immediately made a dinner reservation for a few nights later when we would be back here. Leo had also recommended this restaurant and said it was really really good.
Our first stop on the way to the Cloud Forest was a spot to observe and feed hummingbirds! It was glorious! they gave us sugar water in screw top lids and the birds came right to us!
After the hummingbirds we went on to a Butterfly Conservatory. I can’t resist the butterflies. There were so many interesting Chrysalis’. There was “one” that wasn’t really one at all. It was several in a clump. Apparently, the butterfly lays the eggs in a group, and they hatch together, eat and live together, go into chrysalis’ together and eclose together and only then, after they are butterflies do they separate.
There is another one that has transparent wings and the prettiest pink chrysalis.
Anyway, we spent a lot of time here, because butterlies make me happy. Also, there are Monarchs here! They don’t migrate anywhere, they just stay right here where it’s warm.
We had lunch in Mindo, and the headed for the last stop of the day, a chocolate factory. We saw the whole process of how they make the chocolate from bean to bar, learned about the different types of cacao pods, how they make the nibs, and how they add flavour to the bars that come in flavours. And we got to sample lots of chocolate, all while we were painted with chocolate. Apparently it’s good for your skin. I didn’t even know Ecuador was a chocolate producer. Also, shockingly close to black face. We were not totally comfortable with this situation.
After we had eaten and purchased our weight in chocolate, it was time to head to our hotel for the night. We stayed at the Terrabambu Lodge in the Cloud Forest. And we really were in the clouds. We had a two floor cabin the overlooked the mountains. One wall was all glass, and there was an outdoor jacuzzi which was completely private and out of sight to any other cabins. And, there were no bugs! Hot humid weather, perfect for being au naturel in an outdoor jacuzzi, and no bugs! We had a great dinner in the indoor/outdoor restaurant and a nice long bubble bath and crashed early.
January 20, 2026 – We got up early and went for breakfast in the hotel restaurant, but not before seeing so many animals! There was a Toucan, just hanging out eating, and a worker was cutting up a yucca root near the entrance to the restaurant and we didn’t know why until we saw all the agoutis! An agouti looks like a cross between a rabbit and a squirrel, but they are about the size of large’ish raccoons. They are super cute, and apparently they really like yucca root. And of course there were hummingbirds.
Leo picked us up after breakfast and we headed for the waterfall hike we had heard about. We took a fun sky cable car to get into the mountains, and once we got over there, our guide pointed us to path and told us we would get to a nice waterfall at the end and that it was about a 50 minute walk each way.
IT WAS NOT A 50 MINUTE WALK. First of all it was muddy, slippery, rocky and steep. And all of that is fine, but I like to be prepared. I realized pretty quick that i really should have brought my trekking poles, and I should have worn contacts. It was so humid that my glasses were constantly fogged up. Fortunately i had a fan with me that as long as I kept it pointed sideways under my glasses kept the fogging down. The trek itself was great and we saw so many cool/weird plants and insects, and a lot of little lizards, and heard a lot of different birds but didn’t really see them. There was what looked like a tree, but which I think was actually a fern. And a creepy millipede that definitely looked poisonous, but which Leo told us later was completely harmless.
We actually hiked for long time and we were starting to get worried that we had veered off the path and were going the wrong way. There were not many signs, and we had passed a small waterfall, and I have to say that I was a little bit concerned that we were basically lost in a jungle in Ecuador. But eventually we got there. It turned out to be a 3.25 km hike in each direction. My phone said that I had ascended 77 floors. Also, I found a machete along the way. 🙂
After we got back from the hike, we went for lunch (we earned it!), and then headed back to Quito. But we stopped at a terrific museum just outside the city. The Equator Museum. I never really thought about it but most of the equator isn’t super accessible. Most of it is in the jungle, in the ocean, or in the desert, so this museum is pretty unique.
You go through with a guide, and teach you about the indigenous tribes as well and the weird physics of going back and forth between the northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere with just a few steps. We watched the Coriolis effect in action – meaning we watched the water drain straight down while on the equator itself, but go counter-clockwise or clockwise just a few metres off the line. It’s weird. Also, we balanced eggs. And we have certificates that say we have done it – so it’s official, I am an egg balancer! And there are all sorts of physics experiments that you can participate in. Plus there is a sundial that is actually more accurate then a watch. It shows the perfect time whereas watches are all a little bit off. We make up for the amount that they are off with leap years.
We were dropped off at the Go Quito and said goodbye to our driver and guide Leo, but not before he confirmed that Rich’s contact lenses had arrived at the hotel! Wow, this was amazing. Leo had managed to procure new contact lenses for Rich (thankfully he knew the numbers), and have them ordered and sent to the hotel while we were in Mindo. So amazing. And they are perfect and even more comfortable than the ones he has at home.
We got ourselves all cleaned up and went to our dinner reservation in the hotel. Man, the food here is amazing. Also, people don’t seem to close their blinds and they all have really big windows you can see into everyone’s living rooms.
