My latest adventure took me to Ecuador. My childhood bestie, Kristin (as seen in my Norway posts!) invited me to join her family at her brother’s wedding in Quito and of course I could not turn down a reason to visit a new country. I may have semi-invited myself but I like to think she was also happy to have me. 🙂
Traveling to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands was a trip of a lifetime. I am so lucky to have a best friend who invites me to join things like this family celebration. Our initial plan included the two of us continuing on to travel after the wedding, but due to extenuating circumstances Kristin had to head back to the US. I, on the other hand, decided to take advantage of my company’s “unlimited” vacation policy since the wedding was in July and that happens to be one of our slowest months. Plus, there’s no way I’m flying to Ecuador and not exploring! When else would I have a reason to buy a flight down there?
I always had the Galapagos Islands on my radar as a bucket list trip, but I never thought I’d be crossing it off my list so soon! Once I knew that I’d be venturing out on my own after the wedding I started researching how to travel throughout Ecuador and how to get myself to the Galapagos Islands. One of the biggest challenges I quickly realized would be standing in my way – I don’t speak Spanish. I took about 6 years of French so that doesn’t help and despite living in California the extent of my Spanish does not go far beyond “Yo queiro Taco Bell” (I had to google the spelling of that) and huevos rancheros, no queso – which is delicious. In parts of Ecuador very minimal English is spoken. I’m all about immersing yourself in a new culture, but realized that it would be safest for me to join a tour group. My concern was that this would make the trip too “touristy” but as you’ll come to see this was not a problem at all!
The next major problem was traveling solo. When I book my own solo travel I just have to account for the fact that I’m not splitting any costs. When you book with a tour company, especially the ones running through the Galapagos Islands, they were charging me based on a double room. This means that I would have to pay for myself and depending on the company up to 90% of the cost of the other person who would have shared my room. That alone could make the trip over $6,000!
Hours of research later, I discovered Contiki. They’re a tour company geared towards 18-35 year olds and solo travelers. They organize everything and assign roommates so you can join a trip without having to find people to come along. I was very skeptical, but watched many youtube videos and read some other blogs that spoke highly of Contiki. They were hosting a trip that left the day after the wedding traveling through mainland Ecuador and out to the Galapagos Islands over the course of 12 days. I took advantage of their customer service and called to ask questions about missing part of the first day because of the wedding, etc. and after speaking with my contact for about 25 minutes I was already giving her my credit card for a deposit.
So that’s how I ended up on a 17 day trip to Ecuador! We fit A LOT into this trip so there will definitely be a post dedicated to each day… and maybe more than that because this trip was jam packed with amazing sights and experiences.
First up – Quito and Mindo!
xx
Nicole