Ecuador

Visting the Galapagos only whetted our appetite for a return to Ecuador. On that trip, we arrived a day early in Quito, and carved out some time for a daytrip to the cloud forest near Mindo. I spent much of the next two years plotting a return that would allow for a visit to the Amazon rain forest, as well as another visit to the cloud forest.

In 2024 we returned with my daughter Rebecca and her husband Clayton and traveled first to Yasuní National Park and the Napo Wildlife Center. Although all of Ecuador was in the midst of a drought, which limited water travel in the Napo River basin, we were still able to enjoy much of the remarkable wildlife of the rainforest.

We followed up with an overnight to Choco Toucan Reserve with owner Hans Heinz. Hans is an accomplished photographer and understands what other photographers are looking for in a tour. He has close relationships with many of the small reserves in the area and went out of his way to make sure we had as many photo opportunities as possible during our brief stay, including getting shots of the incredible Cock of the Rock.

I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. But I’ll add a few observations based on our experience.

Personal Safety

In the months preceding our trip we were buried in news about the deteriorating crime situation in Ecuador, due largely to drug and gang violence. Following the media, especially the U.S. media, one could easily get the impression that Ecuador had become one of the most dangerous places on earth. I’m not going to minimize the challenges facing the country. I’m no expert, and can only speak to what we experienced and what we read.

At the risk of oversimplification, Ecuador is not a major source of cocaine or other drugs, but has for years served as a “transit” country for drugs that originate in Colombia and Peru. Ironically, the peace between the government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), removed the discipline that FARC formerly exerted over the drug trade. The result has been an increase in competition and violence involving smaller independent actors that has spilled over into Ecuador.

Additionally, demand for drugs has skyrocketed in Europe and Asia and the port of Guayaquil has become a major shipping hub for drugs bound for these markets.

Most of the drug-related crime seems to have been concentrated in Guayaquil as well as other coastal cities and along the borders with Colombia and Peru.

Looking at various sources, such as the U.S. State Department’s country information, we found that the warnings and recommendations for Ecuador mirrored those of most other countries in Latin America. Internet sites that track crime worldwide showed Guayaquil, even though it is ranked as the most dangerous city in Ecuador, as safer than Memphis. Quito is ranked safer than Chicago, Houston, New Orleans and St. Louis, to give a few examples.

In monitoring the local news coverage, I did not find stories of tourist kidnappings, a problem that many other countries have experienced. I’m not saying that they don’t happen, just that I did not see any news coverage if they were occurring.

Ecuador is a poor country in comparison to the United States. In addition, Quito is one of the oldest cities in the western hemisphere. Americans are used to visual cues that help us determine, sometimes incorrectly, if a neighborhood is safe. Those cues are harder to decipher in other countries, and in old town Quito it was hard to tell if an area that appeared sketchy to our American eyes was simply old. Upkeep of a centuries-old city is no easy task even in countries far more prosperous than Ecuador.

Our rule of thumb wherever we travel, whether it’s Chicago or Quito, is to not be stupid. We hired a guide to give us a tour of Quito and we rarely went out after dark. (keep in mind that Ecuador is on the equator so it has almost exactly 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night year-round, regardless of when you visit).

We stayed adjacent to the old town in Quito (a World Heritage Site) and when we explored on our own, we looked for families on the streets and in the squares, kids walking home from school, vendors on the sidewalks, etc. We did not carry our cameras on the streets, but instead relied on our cell phones. While ride sharing apps are not officially sanctioned in Ecuador, we found that Uber worked very well. When we did go out for dinner after dark the restaurant readily helped up secure a ride back to the hotel from a private driver.

One thing we learned from our trip to the Galapagos was that jobs in the tourism industry are highly sought after and workers are unlikely to risk losing those jobs by stealing from guests. Napo Wildlife Center is operated by the small and tightly knit local Kichwa community and are protective of their guests. That’s not a recommendation to be careless, just an acknowledgement that workers who steal will lose their jobs and find it difficult to be hired by others.

Old Town Quito

As I mentioned, Quito is an UNESCO World Heritage site. It predates the Spanish conquest and in fact, even predates the Inca conquest. Ecuador was one of the last areas conquered by the Incas and the Inca occupation of what is now Ecuador lasted only about a half-century before they were displaced by the conquistadors.

The geography of Quito is interesting and important in understanding the city and its relationship to the rest of Ecuador and South America. It sits in a valley hemmed in by the Andes on either site. As such it is a long but very narrow city, only three to five kilometers wide, but 40 to 50 kilometers long. It’s also at a high elevation (9,000 feet above sea level). That’s quickly evident when you try walking around the city and find yourself gasping for air, especially as you trudge up and down steep streets and uneven steps in the old town.

Most travel sites recommend keeping activity to a minimum on your first day in Quito to acclimate. Good advice.

I was fascinated by the fusion of Christian and Indigenous influences in the art and architecture of the city. Ecuador is about 80% Roman Catholic, thanks to the Catholic missionaries who accompanied the conquistadors and were charged with saving the souls of the native peoples, by any means necessary.

The result is a religion that merged traditional native beliefs and deities with the new European faith. It’s evident in much of the artwork on display, not just in museums, but in restaurants and other public places, where native artists combined renaissance influence with native iconography.

We were delighted by the Basilica del Voto Nacional. With construction beginning in 1926 (and still technically unfinished) it is relatively new for old town Quito. Instead of the standard gargoyles that adorn the exteriors of gothic European churches, the Basilica sports carvings of native animals looking out over the city, including Galapagos turtles, jaguars from the Amazon, iguanas, boobies and frigate birds.

We also visited two other sites that aren’t on the standardized tours, Casa del Alabado and the Capilla del Hombre (Chapel of Man). The first offers an incredible collection of pre-Columbian and largely pre-Inca carvings and artifacts. (The World of Spirits in Pre-Columbian Ecuador offers a well-photographed catalog of much of the collection). The second is the creation of Oswaldo Guayasamín, possibly Ecuador’s most renowned modern artist. As its name implies it is a chapel, but not to a god. Instead it is a chapel to humanity. The artwork reflects the misery, suffering and exploitation that is so much of Latin American history, but the overall effect is to give the visitor a sense connection to our fellow human beings.

Yasuní National Park

For our stay in the Amazon basin, we chose the Napo Wildlife Center, which is actually located within Yasuní National Park. This ecolodge is owned and operated by the indigenous Kichwa community that resides within the park.

Getting to the lodge involves a flight from Quito to Coca, a boat ride from Coca along the Rio Napo and then, if you are lucky, a transfer to canoes for a brief ride to the lodge itself. I say, “if you are lucky” because drought conditions at the time we were there meant many guests had to walk from the Napo River landing to the lodge.

We were fortunate in that the water level was high enough on the day we arrived so that we could take a canoe to the lodge. But on our return trip we had to hoof it through the forest. Either way, there are opportunities to see birds and possibly other wildlife that will give you a taste of what to expect during your visit. Fortunately, the lodge staff will transport your luggage, so no worries about dragging a suitcase through the rainforest.

The lodge sits on the banks of Laguna Anangucocha. Watch for caiman floating lazily in the lagoon.

Napo Wildlife Center has professional guides on staff that you will share with a small group of other visitors, or you can do as we did and opt to have them arrange for a private guide for an extra charge.

Immediately upon arriving at the lodge we saw and heard both Yellow-Rumped Caciques and Oropendolas which nest in the trees at the lodge. Several mornings we were treated to Capuchin Monkeys foraging among the banana trees adjacent to the lodge.

One day the lodge grounds were visited by an anaconda, an unusual event that excited both guests and staff.

As the photos show, even with the limitations of the drought conditions, we experienced a wide range of opportunities to photograph rainforest birds and animals.

Keep in mind that you are in the middle of the rainforest on the equator (a sharp contrast to the high elevation in Quito), so be prepared to sweat. The rooms are comfortable and have both ceiling and floor fans to keep the air circulating. While you are at supper the staff will come in and lower mosquito netting around the bed to keep out most of the bugs during the night.

A visit to Yasuní is often bundled with a tour of the Galapagos. If you are interested in getting a sampling of both it might be a good option. I feel that each deserves its own visit and wanted to have time to fully experience the radically different wildlife at both destinations.

Mindo Cloud Forest

As Midwesterners, the buzzing of a single ruby-throated hummingbird in our garden can send us scurrying for our cameras while we try, usually in vain, to catch the little jewel in flight.

Thus, it was nearly impossible to wrap our heads around the fact that we were sitting on a porch eating lunch in the Ecuadoran cloud forest while dozens of hummingbirds in a variety of colors and configurations flitted about, often just inches away.

That experience alone is explanation enough why visitors flock to the many private refuges that dot the Andean highlands near Mindo, about a hundred kilometers outside Quito.

But hummingbirds aren’t the only attraction of the cloud forest, which is also home to brilliantly colored tanagers, toucans and toucanets and even the iconic Cock-of-the Rock.

Most of us are at least vaguely familiar with the idea of a rainforest. It’s what we envision when someone says “jungle.” Mostly flat, heavily forested land with highways of rivers. Hot, humid and with frequent rains that can flood the forest.

We may be less familiar with cloud forests, which exist at higher elevation, often dotting mountainsides. They are cooler but still with lots of humidity in the air. They are often shrouded in clouds that may or may not burn off during the day. Think of the Great Smoky Mountains.

Our one-day excursion into the cloud forest around Mindo when we traveled to the Galapagos left us wanting to go back for more. We arranged a last-minute overnight excursion at Choco Toucan Reserve. Owner Hans Heinz is a photographer and went out of his way to make sure we had great opportunities to shoot hummingbirds on his property as well as at other private reserves, along with tanagers and other birds. He also set us up at a nearby Cock-of-the-Rock lek and at another reserve where a Toucan was making regular visits to take food back to its nest.

My Ecuador Reading List

Wanting to have as rich of an experience as possible, I assigned myself a number of books on Ecuador and Latin America to read before our trip.

The following is my reading list, along with a few comments.

Lonely Planet guide to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands

There area a lot of guides to the Galapagos, but not as many that cover mainland Ecuador as well. This offers both.

Ecuador, The Essential Guide to Customs and Culture by Russell Maddicks

This little book is one of a series of “Culture Smart” guides that offer snippets of information about various countries and regions. If you don’t have the stamina for a deep dive into Ecuadorian history and culture, this guide offers a few essentials that are worth knowing about.

The Ecuador Reader, edited by Carlos de la Torre and Steve Striffler

An eclectic hodgepodge of essays covering the history, culture and politics of Ecuador. Compared to larger South American neighbors, there is a dearth of material on Ecuador and while this book contains a lot of useful and interesting information, I would have appreciated a more unified approach. Published in 2008, it could also benefit from an update when it comes to contemporary history. It is, however, a good book to use as a jumping off point to identify topics that you might want to explore in more detail.

The Small Matter of Suing Chevron by Suzana Sawyer

Since 1993, indigenous Ecuadorians have sought justice for the pollution caused by Texaco and its successor company, Chevron. In 2011 an Ecuadorian court issued the world’s largest environmental liability award, a $9.5 billion judgment against Chevron.

The book describes in frustrating detail how the oil company has successfully blocked the award and even turned the tables on the litigants. It is a gut-wrenching story of how a major corporation has used the court system to turn science on its head and advance a narrative that denies the self-evident toll that petroleum pollution has caused to native peoples. Reading this book is a reminder that the exploitation of native peoples in the new world, which began with the arrival of Columbus, continues today.

Unfortunately, the author’s well-meaning, but tortured attempts to weave the chemistry of petroleum into the narrative can be more distracting than illuminating. Despite its flaws, however, the book provides a thorough background to a story that continues today.

The Last Days of the Incas by Kim MacQuarrie

Quito 1599 by Kris Lane

I’ve grouped these two books together because they illustrate the dizzying pace of change that occurred in Ecuador during the 16^th Century.

The Inca empire in Ecuador was short-lived, lasting only about a half century. Their conquest of Ecuador began in 1463 and by 1500 most of Ecuador had been incorporated into the Inca empire. Of course, the Inca had no idea that beginning in 1492 events had been set in motion that would lead to the collapse of their empire.

The Inca emperor Huayna Capac made Quito a secondary capital and lived there until his death around 1527, setting off a war of succession between two of his sons. Meanwhile, Francisco Pizarro was making his first contact with the Inca empire in Peru.

By 1599 the Inca empire was no more and Quito was a Spanish colonial city.

It’s possible that in the course of a single lifetime, a resident of Quito could have seen a city transformed from an Inca capital to a completely Europeanized Spanish colonial city.

The World of Spirits in Pre-Columbian Ecuador

For centuries before the Inca and Spanish conquests the people of Ecuador fashioned intricate and fantastical art reflecting their own culture and beliefs. Quito’s Museo de Arte Precolmbino gives visitors a taste of the creativity and skill of these people before they were “civilized” by Europeans. This catalogue from the museum provides hundreds of beautiful images from the collection.

Bolívar, American Liberator by Marie Arana

For Glory and Bolívar, the Remarkable Life of Manuela Sáenz by Pamela S. Murray

Nearly 200 years after his death, the shadow of El Libertador Simón Bolívar still looms over much of South America. While Ecuador was a relatively minor player in Bolívar’s efforts to end Spanish rule in the Americas, the country contributed one of the most significant and fascinating figures to the revolution, Bolívar’s lover and collaborator, Manuela Sáenz.

Known as the “libertadora of the liberator,” Quito-born Sáenz was an unflinching supporter and advocate for Bolívar, who literally saved his life by foiling an attempted assassination plot. But, her influence on the revolution cannot be relegated to a single incident.

Both Bolívar and Sáenz were complicated figures that don’t fit neatly into modern-day political stereotypes. They’ve been mythologized and exploited by Latin American leaders of both the right and the left. These two books help put their lives into perspective; while also helping North Americans understand why they remain such potent symbols today.

Trekking Through History, The Huarorani of Amazonian Ecuador by Laura M. Rival

The Napo Runa of Amazonian Ecuador by Michael Uzendoski

The Ecology of the Spoken Word, Amazonian Storytelling and Shamanism among the Napo Runa, by Michael Uzendoski and Edith Felicia Calapucha-Tapuy

How Forests Think, Toward an Anthropology beyond the Human, by Eduardo Kohn

If you really want to take a deep dive into the culture of Amazonian Ecuador and you are a bit of a masochist, these anthropological studies might be of interest. At the least, they can help those dealing with insomnia.

I do think it is beneficial to have a respect for and curiosity about the culture of the people whose lands we visit, especially when we are visiting the lands of indigenous peoples who have suffered greatly both by the exploitation of their traditional environment and by the imposition of western standards on native cultures.

Trekking Through History focuses on the Huarorani, who have sought to keep their own culture alive and have largely rejected western “civilizing” efforts. The Napo Runa of Amazonian Ecuador and The Ecology of the Spoken Word, both focus on the Kichwa of the Napo River. The Napo Wildlife Center is owned and operated by one group of Napo Runa (People of the Napo), so these books do offer some valuable background into the traditional stories, life and culture of your hosts and their relationship to the land.

How Forests Think explores the relationship between the Napo Runa and the Amazonian forests, encouraging the reader to think of the forest as a living entity that “thinks” in a non-human and non-traditional, but nonetheless legitimate, way.

While these books are certainly not necessary in order to appreciate and enjoy the Napa rainforest, they do offer a deeper dive and possibly greater insight into the importance of the environment to those who live there.