Principal is a tiny little town in a valley surrounded by beautiful mountains. I know about it because I met a Peace Corp volunteer who lives and works there and is trying to develop a sustainable economy and tourism. There is some magnificent hiking in the area. Some pretty spots are within 45 min - hour walk, but I guess the most beautiful waterfalls are at the 4 hour hike and the 6 hour hike. I’m not that fit or enthusiastic. I enjoyed just walking along the trail by the beautiful river for a while.

One of the tourism projects they are working on is the making of Panama hats. They have a farm to grow the crops, local people weave many different kinds of products and then they have a little store to sell their wares. If you just want to buy some weaving Chordeleg has many of the same types of things at about half the distance from Cuenca. If you are interested in going on a tour of the whole process and doing some hiking off the beaten path – this might be the place for you.

If you want to go on some of the longer hikes you have to go with a naturalist guide. I saw a sign that said you would get fined $15 if you didn’t.

How to get there from Cuenca

Take a bus to Gualaceo (60 cents) 1 hour. They leave every ½ from the Cuenca terminal

The bus drops you off in the main bus square and a bus to take you to Chordeleg will be waiting (20 cents) 15 minutes.

Go all the way to the end of the bus line where it turns around on this little side street and you can catch another bus that will take you to Principal (50 cents) 1 ½ hours. Principal is the end of the line.

The reverse trip is the same.

This is all fairly simple to do. The buses take you exactly where you need to go and they leave with regular frequency. You can always ask someone if you get confused.

Principal is a one horse town. There is only 1 hostel, so if you want to stay overnight there isn’t much choice in the matter.

Hostal Anabell
Price - $5.50 per person in a dorm style room. We had the room to ourselves, but in the unlikely event the hostel was full, I guess you would have to share.
Cleanliness – Everything was clean
Comfort – bed and pillow were a little stiff, but it was okay. The brochure said hot water, but we turned it on just to check it out and there wasn’t any. Since we only stayed 1 night we didn’t bother with trying to get it turned on, but if you were staying for a couple of days or went on a really long hike, I’m sure hot water would be important.
Character – Nothing special. It is really just a large home with the top floor converted to a hostel.
Amenities – They have a TV and DVD player, but only 1 DVD (Kangaroo Jack and no DVD store that I saw to buy another one. I think they will cook you lunch or dinner if you arrange it ahead of time.
Recommended? Like I said, you have no other choice. It’s a fine place to stay. The owner is nice, but since it is not hopping and she has her own life she is often gone. We had to just leave the money and key on the bedside table when it was time to go because she was no where to be found.

Chordeleg
We stopped and spent the morning in Chordeleg to go shopping. This town is famous for their jewelry stores. Especially their silver filigree. It is very pretty and seems to be reasonably priced. Jewelry stores surround the main plaza. Some have more expensive gold and gems, others have really cheap tacky stuff, and most have at least a little section of the jewelry they are famous for. If you like silver, it is worth a visit. They also have some stores with the woven goods and typical tourist souvenirs.

The stores closed for lunch at 1pm. That’s when we left, so I’m not sure what time (if at all) they open back up. The prices seemed more set to me at first than they normally do in souvenir shops, but we bought 2 things from one store and so we asked for a 2 item discount and he offered us a substantially lower price than the original quote (about 30% off) Honestly, I thought the original price seemed pretty fair, so we just took it and didn’t try to bargain any further.

Gualaceo
I don’t know how we could miss the famous Sunday market, but somehow we seemed to. There is supposed to be a market with all kinds of things including rows and rows of roasting Chancho. When we got to Gualaceo, we asked a guy at the bus station where the market was. He wanted to know what market because he said there were a couple of them. There was one that had the typical butcheries and a few veggie stands. Then there was another outside market a few blocks away filled with fruits and veggies (a cup of fresh cut watermelon, pineapple, mango with yogurt drizzled on top is .25 cents – delicious). But nothing like we were expecting. So, like I said, I’m not sure how you can miss something a town is supposed to be famous for, but either it isn’t anything too different from what we already have in Cuenca, or we didn’t end up in the right place.

This little adventure took place from late Sat morning to late Sun afternoon. I would recommend a tad more time if you would like to go on a long hike in Principal.

If you are just interested in going to Gualaceo and Chordeleg, that can easily be done as a day trip from Cuenca.

I read that it is possible to organize a visit to the Galapagos on your own. There is a whole webpage devoted to how to do Galapagos on a budget. (http://www.baseneelco.nl/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=197) His information is very helpful. The problem is I didn’t have 17 days to do it in. So, I booked through a horrible travel agent (see previous post) to do a land based tour that visited the 3 inhabited islands (Santa Cruz, Isabella and San Cristobal). The agency was a disaster and we ended up having to do almost everything on our own anyways. I discovered that the towns are set up with tourism in mind and because of that everything is fairly simple to organize on your own.

My opinion: I think the boats probably offer a lot that you can’t do just on the inhabited islands. However, as you probably know they are extremely expensive, small and if you are prone to sea sickness – uncomfortable. I don’t think I would want to be on a boat for more than 5 days, but I would have liked some of the opportunities the boats offer.

My suggestion would be to take a 4 or 5 day cruise and then go to Isabella and/or San Cristobal for 4/5 more days depending on your time frame. That way in 8-10 days you can see the best of what the islands have to offer.

Of course we would all love to spend more time there and for those who can – go for it! There is quite a demand for English teachers and volunteers if you have 1-3 months to offer. But, for the rest of us…

Some things to think about if you are organizing the trip yourself.

• Many of the guides and employees in the travel agents don’t speak English or don’t speak it well. I would suggest that you have at least a basic knowledge of Spanish if you are doing it yourself.

• It is very easy to go in by yourself or with 1 other person and become a part of a tour group on Santa Cruz. It is different on San Cristobal and Isabella. The boat captains generally charge between $200-300 for a trip, so to make it affordable 8-10 people are needed. That means you might have to spend some time finding other people who are interested in going on the same tour as you are. Not too much of a problem in high season. Might be difficult in the low season.

• We spent just under $1000 per person including everything I mention below for our 8 day trip in high season and an undeserved commission for the travel travel agent. I think we could have done it for more like $850 -900 without the travel agent.

Flights - Right now the airlines fly into Santa Cruz and San Cristobal from the mainland. They are working on building a small airport for Isabella and it should be ready in the near future.

If you are touring the islands on your own I suggest flying into one airport and out of the other. That way you aren’t wasting extra time and expense backtracking.

Santa Cruz

Arrival- The airport is on a little Island called Baltra. If you are not part of a tour there is a very simple process to get to the town of Puerto Ayora.

There are buses waiting at the airport to take you to the ferry – free 10 minutes

ferry across a little channel to get to Santa Cruz – 80 cents 2 minutes

bus into town - $2 40 minutes (there are taxis too. Not sure the cost). The bus takes you to the main harbor. The town is very small so you can easily walk or take a taxi to your hotel.

Hotel- There are many different kinds of hotels in town. They range from very fancy $200+ a night to cheap and very basic.

We stayed at Lirio Del Mar. It isn’t really worth writing about. Just a concrete block with a bed and a fan in it.

But in general $10-15 per person will get you a basic room with a fan and cold water shower.

$20-25 per person will upgrade you to hot water, air conditioning and maybe a TV if you are so inclined.

Organizing Tours – Santa Cruz is filled with travel agencies. The best way to find a good one is probably to ask people who just came back from something and ask them how the service was. A lot of times I think they merge their business to make the boats full.

From there you can organize local 4 hour trips ($15-40), full day trips to Islands like Plazas, Floreana etc. ($60-80), diving trips ($70-90), the boat cruises ($500-2000+) etc.

(On that note, I asked 2 different agencies how much they were charging for a 8 day cruise that I knew was about $1100. if you booked online One agent who seemed confused about a lot of stuff, so I don’t know how trustworthy she was, said it was $850. In the other agency she told me it was $1100. So, I’m not really sure how much you actually save by making the arrangements there)

Two popular local tours

• Highlands – walk in underground lava tunnels and see giant tortoises on a farm. About 3 hours at a cost of about $20

• Bay tour – The brochure says you go visit 6 places. Our guide only took us to 4, but I was pretty tired and cold from the chilly water, so I wasn’t upset about missing the last 2 places, but I still don’t like being told I’m going somewhere and then not go to it. $25 for a boat I thought would sink if the sea got rough or $35 with glass bottom boat and snack.

• Horse riding to the Sierra Negra Volcano. 1 ½ hours riding to the volcano. Then another hour or so of walking into amazing lava fields. Then 1 ½ back down to the mountain. Beautiful, fascinating, but painful on the way back. $25

• Boat ride, visiting the ocean lava tunnels and snorkeling. The trip lasts all morning. We saw hundreds of sea turtles on the boat ride there. The lava tunnels are some of the most fascinating scenery I’ve ever been to. There you can see more sea turtles, rays, birds, fish etc. from the bridges made of lava. Then you go snorkeling with penguins, turtles, fish etc. Not the greatest snorkeling ever, but good.

There are many places you can go on your own such as the tortoise breeding center, on the way to the center there is a stinky lake that flamingos and other interesting birds visit, on your right hand side if you are leaving the docks go down the path into the mangroves to a lagoon with some interesting snorkeling, the water at the beaches is a tad cold, but still very nice for swimming or lazing around for a while.

Food - Food is cheaper here than on Santa Cruz, but there is less variety. It is more along the fish/chicken and rice vain at around $5.

Leaving Isabella - The water taxi heads out for Santa Cruz at 6am. Your hotel should be able to organize a taxi to take you there in time for the departure.

When we were leaving I was surprised that a boat was heading out for Floreana. It may just have been a special charter, but you should ask around if you are interested.

San Cristobal

Arrival - We took a boat from Santa Cruz to San Cristobal. It was 2 hours long and arrived at 4pm. The tour company who was supposed to pick us up wasn’t there, but there is a giant map of the town at the end of the dock including the location of hotels, travel agencies etc. So, it is really easy to find your way around the small town. If you don’t have a lot of luggage walking shouldn’t be much of a problem. There didn’t seem to be taxi’s waiting there like they were in Santa Cruz.

Hotel - The place we stayed at here was again not worth writing about. Northia was another concrete box with a bed in it. This time there was air conditioning, but no hot water. I think it was about $30 for 2 people, but I wouldn’t really recommend it. There were fewer options of places to stay here, so it wouldn’t take too long to visit a couple of the places and choose one.

Organizing Tours - There are a couple different travel agencies in town that can help you. Good hotels should also be able to organize things for you or at least point you in the right direction.

These are the two tours we went on

• Snorkeling at Kicker rock and swimming with the sea lions. I don’t think I have ever had so much fun in my life. We were in the water with the juvenile sea lions all around us. One even grabbed on to my bright pink flipper and played with it for a minute. They were swimming, playing and dancing with us! Absolutely amazing. The snorkeling was cool we saw sharks, but very very cold and pretty deep. I think it would have been a better dive spot. 5 hours. $30.You can’t count on always being able to do this trip. You need to have a minimum of 6 people or so for it to be a go.

  

• Highlands tour. Drive up to El Junco lake. It is a beautiful drive and lake. Short hike up the mountain and around the lake. Go to the tortoise breeding center. This one is different than the others because the center is fenced in, but the tortoises can roam around anywhere in the area, so it looks more natural. Stop at a vista point of kicker rock on the way back. 2 hours. Not sure on the cost. It was included in our tour. My guess is $20. If I had to pay that amount, I think I would have forgone the trip. You might check on how much it would be for a group of 4 or 5 to just hire a taxi. I have no idea how much that would cost, but it might be less than with an organized group.

There are many places you can go on your own such as the interpretation center. An interesting museum that talks about history and ecology. Little beaches to swim in, and my favorite, the main beach in the middle of town in where the sea lions come up to sleep on every evening. You can easily spend an hour sitting on the bench watching all their antics in the evening.

We ran out of time, but my friend who lived there said the best snorkeling spot is La Tijeraretas.

Food - We kept picking bad restaurants, so I don’t have much to recommend. My friend also says La Playa has good sea food. This town has a mixture of local and tourist restaurants. You can easily get a cheap almuerzo or merienda for a couple bucks or pay the $5-10 asked at the tourist places for more variety. The breakfast place was really good. I don’t remember the name of it, but it was on the main street that runs along the ocean. It was next door to the chamber of commerce.

Leaving San Cristobal - Boats return to Santa Cruz at 8am.

There is an airport just outside of town. You can even check in early and then leave. We had a taxi driver take us to the loberia to see the iguanas. Then he took us back to the airport because it is all in such close proximity to each other.

The Galapagos Islands really are amazing and worth the money. Don’t allow the financial problems to prevent you from going. Just take some information I provided, prioritize and you should be able to have a great trip without feeling like you are missing out on everything.

My husband and I just returned from 8 days in the Galapagos. It was an AMAZING trip! Those of you who are contemplating it, if you like marine life, I would say this is the best marine adventure I’ve been on even without diving. I’m sure if you are a diver it is even better.

The islands were incredible, but the travel agency called GalapagosOptions was not. I think they were the most incompetent group of people I have ever worked with before on anything!

I don’t want to drag the story on and on, so if anyone has any particular questions you can PM me, but here are the basics of what they did wrong.

1. They caused a 2 day delay in our being able to leave for the Galapagos because they did not give us the correct documents we needed to travel with. Then they blamed the airline when it didn’t work. It was clearly not the airlines fault. We had to spend 6 hours the first day trying to sort out their 1st mistake.
Dayanna told us the problem was sorted out and we now had a new booking. It turns out all she had done was put us on a stand by list and we spent 5 hours in the airport the next day waiting and then once we figured out what had happened demanding an actual booking so we wouldn’t be on a permanent standby list during tourist high season when there aren’t a lot of available seats.
So 2 days and 11 hours of time in the airport later we were finally able to fly out.

2. The reason we booked the tour in the 1st place was because I didn’t want to be on a boat. This tour had some good ideas. You visit 3 islands. They arranged all the hotels and transportation as well as some activities.
Sounded good, but we were left stranded 3 out of the 4 times someone was supposed to meet us. So, we ended up having to find our own way.

3. Their website includes a great deal of false information. Including the following:
*It says the hotels have airconditioning. Only 1 of the 3 actually does.
*It says that there are 2 options for the day in San Cristobal. It does not mention that if you go on the highland trip, it is included in the price. If you go on the snorkeling trip, they will charge you $45 extra dollars. You don’t find that out until you get to the island
*It says all transfers are included, but then you have to pay for water taxi’s etc. by yourself. (a small amount of money that probably adds up to $3 in total,)They do not list this in the things you are responsible for paying for.
*The website includes Santa Fe in the islands you visit, but all it is in the end is that the water taxi between Santa Cruz and San Cristobal passes by the island at high speeds, so you can see it as you zoom by, but you don’t get a chance to appreciate or visit the island in any way.

4. One time, their contact on Santa Cruz hadn’t bought our boat tickets like he was supposed to. When we went to pick up the tickets, the lady called him to ask why. He said he didn’t have any money. So, we had to go get on the phone to talk to the travel agency to get them to give him money so he could buy our tickets. They did it in the end, but we ended up wasting another hour of our time trying to get that sorted out.

5. We ended up having to pay for something once because they hadn’t gotten around to it yet and we were out of time. They promised to pay us back, but still have not done so. I’m doubting whether we will ever see the money again.

So, as you can see this company is a disaster. They are completely disorganized, they don’t follow through with their promises, and even have blatant lies on their website. When I told them about these issues the director’s response was basically that they are an economy option. If I want more, pay more.

After having gone to the islands, I realize I could have done everything they did fairly easily on my own. The only thing would be I wouldn’t want to wander around looking for hotels. I would probably just suggest getting a good guide book and making a list of just a few places you are interested in or booking from home.

In the next week, I will write a very thorough explanation of how to do everything on your own on my travel log and I will let you know when I do that.

I hope this helps others from having to experience the stress and frustration we went through.

Emily

We had to get an intercultural visa so we could stay in Ecuador for longer. So, we had to cross the border from Ecuador to Tumbes, Peru and then back into Ecuador again.

Cuenca to Machala

There are 2 bus companies that leave every hour or every other hour.
The “Rutas Orenses” company has some of the nicest buses I’ve been on in Ecuador with air conditioning and foot rests.
$5 for 4 hours.

In Machala we caught the CIFA bus direct to Tumbes. They start at 7am and leave about every 2 hours. There are 2 different classes of buses. The special service is a double decker with air and foot rests. The others are more normal Ecuadorian style buses.

This is the order of what happens when crossing the border

Machala – >Ecuadorian border post (1 + hour)
Ecuadorian border post -> Huaquillas (15 min)
Huaquillas - > Peruvian Border post (15 min)
Peruvian Border post - > Tumbes (15 min)

So, as you can see this is not a typical border situation where the 2 borders are across a bridge from each other. There is quite a distance between them. This is probably part of why it is so easy to be taken advantage of while crossing this border. If you don’t have the proper transportation it is really easy for someone to try to “help out”

The BEST advice I can give is to take the CIFA bus across the border. It is really cheap. $2.50 and much more secure than trying to do it on your own.

Either the helper on the bus or someone at the border will wait with the people who are getting their passports stamped. That way someone is around kind of watching out for you.

We had a problem leaving Ecuador. The border patrol officer claimed that our extension stamps weren’t valid. We had to wait for his supervisor and make copies of our passports for them. The bus helper showed us where the copy machine was. The others got on the bus and left us at the border. He waited with us and once we were sorted out helped us get on the next CIFA bus that passed by.

On our way back from Peru the next bus that was available wasn’t going all the way into Machala. There is a giant round about 15 minutes outside of town. Buses both local and long distance pass by there constantly. They told us we had to get off there in order to get a bus to Cuecna. We were lucky to get on one almost immediately after we were dropped off, but a person could potentially wait for about 30 minutes for the next bus to come along depending on where they were going.

One other piece of advice would be to try and go before 11am. On our way into Peru there weren’t very many people hanging around trying to get you to change money, take a ride, help you out etc. On our way back at 3pm the place was hoping with them.

We stayed 1 night in Machala.

Hotel Mosquera Internacional
7/2931752
Price - $20 for a double (actually triple. All rooms have 3 beds) with a private bath.
Cleanliness – It is okay.
Comfort – The bed was okay. The pillows were hard and lumpy. Thank goodness it had air conditioning. It would have been torture without it.
Character – None to speak of.
Amenities – Unfortunately, no breakfast. We had to get up early and nothing was open to eat at before we left at 7am. No hot water either. Air conditioning. TV with limited cable. A fridge with drinks in the lobby. You can walk to the CIFA station from there.
Recommended? It was fine for a 1 night stop over, but without hot water, I wouldn’t want to stay there any longer than that.

Transportation
Bus from Guayaquil
2 options – The quickest and most comfortable way only goes 3 times a day. There is a direct bus that leaves in the morning, mid-day and late afternoon. If you can get on this one it is your best option 3 hours. ($5)
The other choice is to buy a ticket from Guayaquil to Santa Elena ($3). Get off there and change buses to Montanita/Olon ($1.50). This is a small local bus where the luggage goes on the roof and they cram so many people in a poor old man was actually hanging out the door for 20 minutes or so. We didn’t have a seat and had to stand for 1 ½ hours. You should be able to get on this route about every 20 minutes, so it is a lot easier if you just show up at the station and hope to leave asap.
The return trip is very similar.

Accommodation

This is a common website, but it has phone#’s and occasionally websites if you want them for popular hotels in the area.
http://www.livetravelguides.com/south-america/ecuador/the-coast/guayas-province/montanita/

Most of the clubs, bars, restaurants etc. are on the North side of town. It can be fun to be right where the action is, but the music is loud and pumping until about 4am and then starts back up again around 9am. So, it really is not good for sleeping. Some of the hostels in that area are the following: Funky Monkey, Hostel Papaya, Tierra Prometida, Casa Blanca, Hotel Tsunami etc. Many of them have some great island style funky character going on. They just don’t encourage sleep there. There are plenty of places off the main street, but still in town, that would be quieter. There are also some beach cabanas less than 1 km north that would be much more tranquilo.

Hostel Papaya
www.papayamontanita.com
Price - $12 per person in a 5 person room. That was their holiday rate (We were there the week of NY). I think it is normally less, but it was the cheapest deal we found for the holidays.
Cleanliness – Clean when you first get there, but they don’t do a daily cleaning. Some places I don’t mind that, but in a beach town I think it is essential. You are tracking sand in all the time, so the floor needs to be swept and sheets need to be changed. It is a party town, so there can be puking involved. The boys next door who we were sharing a bathroom with did plenty of that, and we had to go ask for the employees to clean the bathroom so it was usable again.
Comfort – Not so much. The noise is probably the most obvious. Their website said they had fans, but the first room didn’t have a fan. The second had a little floor one, but it didn’t reach the people on the top bunks or in the sleeping loft, so it was pretty hot. The mosquito nets had holes in them, so we got quite a few bites in the night. The mattresses and pillows were a little on the thin side. Also, I saw in one of the doubles. It had shutters for windows. They could be opened to let in air, but there was not a net, screen or window in its place, so in order to be secure it had to stay closed, which probably means those people were roasting. The hostel also said they had hot water, but frequently we didn’t have any water. There was something wrong with their pump
Character – It was a fun, funky place. Lots of bright colors, bamboo railings, tropical fronds on the roof. Many of the hostels on that stretch had the same style. Some of them looked a little nicer. Others were a little more run down.
Amenities – hot water(occasionally), hammocks for every room, a little kitchenette with a stove, but no fridge, restaurant downstairs. Close to the beach and the main attractions. (It says TV on their website, but I never saw one, and even if they had one it would be impossible to hear it)
Recommended?Not really. When we first arrived it seemed like a fun place to spend a few days, but if you read about all the problems we had in the comfort section I think you will understand why I can’t recommend the place as a great place to stay – Oh, and the kicker was around 6am one morning my friend woke up and found a black cat sitting at the foot of her bed. It took quite a bit of effort to get it out of our room and we still have no idea how it got in. But, we told the hotel staff. Once they realized it was just the hostel cat they didn’t seem to concerned about the fact that we ended up sleeping with the uninvited guest.

Rosa Mistica
http://www.montanita.com/rosamistica/index.html
Price - $12 per person with a private bath. $10 per person with a shared bath.
Cleanliness – Clean when you first get there, but they don’t do a daily cleaning.
Comfort – The beds were fine. The mosquito nets had holes in them. The hotel was away from the hub of town, so it was really quiet.
Character – yes, but it is hard to describe. It looks like it has more potential if they kept the gardens and common area up a little better. As it is, the people who run it are really into surfing. That’s what they probably spend most of their time doing. It is fine though.
Amenities – hot water, garden with a little area to sit and hang out or eat breakfast (extra $2-3), they rent surf boards right there for a price of $6 for 2 hours or $12 for 2 hours of lessons and a board. Hammocks in front of the room.
Recommended? It is a nice chilled out place to stay in Baja Montanita. There is nothing luxurious about it, but it is fine for getting up early for surfing and sleeping the afternoon away in a hammock.
The only disadvantage of the area in general is it is a little far away from the town to return by yourself at 4am if you go out partying. I’m not sure if it is dangerous walking back along the beach.

Food
The food/restaurants are much more expensive than most other places I have been in Ecuador. Some of them had a varied menu and some tasty dishes, but be prepared to spend more like $5-7 for a meal than the normal >$2 for lunch and >$4 for dinner that I have grown accustomed to here.

Avoid the pizza place with the cool pizza oven and sea scene painted tables. It was pretty bad.

Surf lessons - $12 an hour. It is a pretty easy place to learn because you don’t have to paddle out too far to catch the baby waves.

Dreamkapture
http://www.dreamkapture.com/page2.html
Price - $32 for a double room with a private bath. It was quite a bit cheaper with a shared bath. I think it was around $22. There were not a lot of shared bathrooms available, so if the hotel was totally full it would be better to have your own, but if there are only a few guests, then the extra cost for the bathroom is pretty outrageous. Descent breakfast.
Cleanliness – Clean, but a little musty.
Comfort – Bed was okay, the room was a little stuffy. They have parrots and other birds which are kind of fun during the day, but makes it hard to sleep after about 5am.
Character – The hotel was colorfully painted and had some nice outside spaces for hanging out. The birds added some color and amusement.
Amenities – breakfast, hot water, TV with cable in their outside seating area, but the mosquitoes come out to bite making it a little uncomfortable, plunge pool, travel agency attached. Within walking distance of a mini mall and not to far away from the big mall with a movie theater etc. They charge $10 for an airport pickup, but is only a $3 cab ride. (They did forget to pick up one of the other guests who had organized a pick up.)
Recommended? It was fine. I would go back there, but I wouldn’t pay for a private bath again. I think there are some nicer places around, but the price for something better jumps up to $35+

Bus to Cuenca
There are 2 options for buses from Guayaquil to Cuenca. One goes through Cajas and lasts about 4 hours ($8). The other goes through Canar and lasts about 6 hours. They run every 45 minutes.

Map of Cuenca
http://www.exploringecuador.com/maps/cuenca_city_map.htm

Hotel Macondo
http://hostalmacondo.com/
Price - $18 for a double room and a shared bath. We had a private bath one night and I think it was $25. This also includes a good breakfast of hearty and varied bread rolls, juice, coffee/tea and you can pay a little extra for eggs etc.
Cleanliness – Very clean
Comfort – Nice mattresses and pillows. Good water pressure and temp in most of the showers. The one in the back on the right wasn’t so great, but all the others worked really well. It is on a busy street, but the rooms are set back, so you don’t hear any street noise. The only problem was the curtains were a little sheer. I always felt like people could see in the room.
Character – This is a beautiful relaxing place to spend a few days. They have a wonderful garden area outside and an inside courtyard type thing with lots of plants etc. too. The staff are extremely friendly and contribute to a positive atmosphere.
Amenities – breakfast, hot water, shared kitchen, free wireless Internet (no computers available). They had a tv in the dining room with access to local channels, but no cable. Board games and a well stocked book exchange were available Close enough to walk to a popular dining and bar spots.
Recommended? Yes! It was so relaxing and friendly.

Some Good eating/drinking spots in Cuenca

Cafe Eucalyptus – A restaurant/bar that definitely caters to foreigners but the mid-upper class locals are there too. Great decorations, International food. Ladies night on Wed ($3 cover for 4 drinks) Live music and dancing on Sat nights. (Gran Colombia)

El Santos – A bar with snacks. Ladies night on Thursday ($3 and drink all you want from a list of 5 choices). Min of $3 for men too. Good music, but not a lot of room for dancing. (Benigno Malo y Mariscal Lamar )

Mama Quinua (I’m spelling it completely wrong) - A set lunch for $1.75 that includes soup, main dish, juice and mini- dessert. It is run by a group of women who have projects going to improve the lives of local women. The profits help to support their work. Next door is a great artesian market as well as street vendors selling some cheep clothes etc. (General Torres y Mariscal Sucre)

El Paraiso (spelling again) – a vegetarian restaurant. Another great set lunch place. Divine juices and amazing desserts (San Blas plaza)

Zoocieodad Cafe (spelling again) – a cafe/bar with a fun atmosphere. The food is just average. They have blow darts upstairs. (½ way down the Benigno Malo ramp)

Pizza/ice cream place (it has a real name, but I don’t know what it is) – right next door to the San Blas Church. It has a great weekday special. A individual pizza, juice and ice cream for $2. They have other similar specials too with burgers and salads etc.

Panchos a brand new cafe that serves interesting burritos and other snacks like chips and guacamole.  The owner designed and made all the furniture.  It is really interesting and a great atmosphere.  The mora margaritas are delicious and strong!  (Calle Larga and the escilanatas)

Moliendos a Colombian restaurant.  A Cuencan favorite.  You can get vegetarian meals there too. (Honorato Vasquez)

BA – Iguazu
We flew to Iguazu and took the bus back due to time and money constraints.

We checked the prices of flights from BA to Iguazu with our hostel travel agents, 1 real travel agent and the airline websites themselves. The cheapest deal we could find was for $155 one way on LAN Argentina’s website. Then, I used kyak.com just in case and we found the same flight as LAN had for $133. So, we bought it.

Taxi from down town to national airport $7

We saw signs that said we needed to pay an airport tax, but we never could figure out where to pay it and no one asked us for any kind of proof. But, if you do actually have to pay it, then it is important to add that amount ($12 I think) into the cost analysis of bus vs. plane
The plane ride was a little over an hour.

Both the airport and the falls are a good 15-20 minutes outside of town. A private taxi ride from the airport would be pretty expensive. They do have a shuttle for about $3 per person that will drop you off at your hostel, so it is a good deal. There is a little booth right outside the room where you pick up your luggage and before you leave the airport. You pay and get a ticket there.

The ride is pretty and there are yellow butterflies everywhere.

We tried to book a room at The Hostel Inn Iguazu http://www.hostel-inn.com/realindex.php?lang=en
It looked great from the outside, although it was a little outside of town, meaning more complicated to go in to grab a bite to eat. There were no doubles available, so we had to find something else.

We stayed at Residencial Uno
http://www.hostelworld.com/hosteldetails.php/ResidencialUno-PuertoIguazu-16107 (this is hostel world’s website)
Price - $20 for a double with a bath, small breakfast, and weak air conditioner.
Cleanliness – It wasn’t dirty, but it didn’t feel clean either.
Comfort – Not much. The bed wasn’t so hot, the shower was weak. There was no a/c in the lounge areas. It was too hot to be in there in the afternoon. It only had hard wood backed chairs to sit in, so it wasn’t really a comfy place to chill out and watch a movie at night or anything either.
Character – Nothing much to speak of. They are adding on some additional rooms. Maybe those will be nicer.
Amenities – TV and DVD player in the lounge, really slow internet wireless and 2 computers, an uninviting swimming pool, breakfast, luggage storage
Recommended? Not really. I do recommend getting a/c or at least a fan unless you just love the heat. Some of the dirt cheap places don’t have those options, but there were many other places of a comparable price that looked nicer.

The town itself is small enough with quite a few hotels, that this is a place you could go check out a couple once you got there to see which one you liked. The only problem would be availability.

You can get to the falls by bus or taxi. The bus costs $2.50 round trip. It leaves every half an hour from the terminal. Not on the hour though. More like 10 and 40 past.

We ended up having to take a taxi back from the falls because we ended up staying late and we would have missed out bus back to BA if we waited for the next return bus. The taxi cost about $14 – sucky for us (I’ll explain why later).

We went to the falls at 8:10am and left at 4:45 to catch our 5:30 night bus to BA.(at least 15 minutes from the falls to the town)

We used up every second of out time there. Some of the night buses left at around 3pm. I don’t see how you could possibly see all the falls have to offer in less time than we spent.

Entrance fee - $10. The food was all a little expensive, but not outrageous. We actually ate at the fancy restaurant in the hotel. The buffet was recommended by LP as being a good splurge. Well the buffet was almost $25 per person, we couldn’t do that, so we just ate $7 sandwiches. I loved it though because the wait staff treated us like royalty despite us still being damp from our dunking in the waterfalls and having completely messed up hair etc. The view was also very pretty.

I was really excited to go on one of the rafts that take you into the falls. What I couldn’t decide was whether to pay $15 for a 10 minute raft ride into the falls or $30 to go on a 8km trip though the jungle on a big truck, a longer raft ride down the river and a dunk under the falls (1 hr total).

We decided to go for the whole package in the end. I don’t regret it because my feet and legs were exhausted and I really needed to just sit down and take a break for a while, but we really didn’t see anything of great worth and I felt a little silly riding around on the top of that monster truck. So, my advice $15 for the raft ride is definitely worth it. The other half of the trip wasn’t.

We booked our ticket in a local travel agency in town. They charge the exact same amount no matter where you go. You can also book it once you get to the park if you aren’t sure what you want to do.

The falls were beautiful. The best view was from the raft. The second best view is from the island in the middle. I had read that it was more of an intense hike. True the stairs were steep and long, but I’m not very fit, and I was fine although a little breathless. It was worth it.

The devil’s throat falls are amazing too, but you normally have to ride on their little train to get there. The walk from the train to the falls is very beautiful. We were told to go in the later afternoon because you have the best light without the sun blinding you. It takes a good 15 minutes to walk from the train to the falls. We were supposed to catch the train back and head straight for the bus so we could catch the big bus back to BA. Our plans were thwarted when a tree fell on the train tracks and we couldn’t continue on. They had to bring people in with chain saws and all that to remove the tree. That extra time caused us to miss the bus back to town and so that’s why we ended up taking a taxi.

The bus we took didn’t have the full sleepers or alcohol on board, but I’m glad we took the later trip because we really enjoyed our time at the falls and wouldn’t have wanted to leave earlier. I think it would be great to spread it out over 2 days, but then you have to pay another $10 to get back in the next day, so we didn’t, but I would recommend that if you aren’t on a tight budget.

The bus from Iguazu to BA cost about $45 and we arrived the next day around 11am.

I know many people think the long overnight buses are a great way to travel. I agree for the most part, but every time we did it I needed at least 5-6 hours after we arrived at our next destination to recuperate. I’m just pointing that out because everyone raves about them all the time, but I see my exhaustion – almost like jet lag – as a big disadvantage, and a good reason to fly if you can afford it and are short on time.

We did not go to Brazil because we are Americans and were told that we would have to pay $100 each just to cross over for a few hours.  One travel agent said if we went on an organized tour we would not have to pay for the visa, but I did not have that confirmed by anyone else.

We arrived from Buquebus and took a taxi from there to our hostel in Recoleta. It cost U$S8. I have a sneaky suspicion the meter was going up faster than it should have been, but I can’t be sure. It seemed like it was flying, but it was our first taxi in BA, so I didn’t have a good comparison level. But, I never saw a meter go that fast before or since in BA or elsewhere.
Who knows…?

Hotels: It wasn’t hard to find a place to stay for 1 or sometimes 2 nights, but it was challenging to find a place to stay for more than 2 nights in a row. If you have your heart set on somewhere specific, then I might suggest making a reservation before you come.

Southern House BA Hostel (Recoleta)
http://www.southernhouseba.com/index2eng.php
Price - $35 for a double with a private bath and descent breakfast ($9 for a dorm room)
Cleanliness – clean
Comfort – Nice firm bed, good small shower, There were no curtains in the room and the shade thing was broken, so we had to hang a blanket over the window. A little traffic noise, but no hostel noise.
Character – It had a modernish feel to it. Especially in the lobby area.
Amenities – breakfast, wireless internet, but no computers for those without, travel agent (we found a better deal online than they quoted for a flight), discounts and passes to clubs, restaurants etc. a board with announcements about the going ons around the city. Large screen TV and DVD in the dining room.
Recommended? Yes, I liked the place, but we decided to leave because we thought $35 was too much money and they don’t have any shared baths outside of the dorms. The employees were nice. It had a lot of amenities and things going on for visitors to participate in. Good location (4 blocks from a subway).

We didn’t want to waste money on a taxi, so we took our luggage on the subway. It was a little bit of a pain getting up and down the stairs, but doable. The subway costs 70 centavos (22 cents American) much cheaper than taking a taxi all the way from Recoleta to San Telmo. I would just caution not to try this at rush hour.

Our next step was not totally logical, but there is a hotel recommended in LP for a splurge. We looked at their website and it sounded amazing and barely any more expensive than what we had just paid the night before. So, we thought, what the heck…unfortunately, it wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be.

Boquitas Pintadas (In LP) now Youkali Hotel (The vicinity of San Telmo)
http://www.youkali.com.ar/
Price - $40-80 for a double with a private bath (1 room has its bath outside the room) and delicious breakfast
Cleanliness – clean, but it was in an old building and so there was some wear with age that was obvious.
Comfort – The bed was okay, but I had a neck ache when I woke up. The water went off around 9pm and didn’t come back on until around noon the next day, so I didn’t get a shower. I asked for a discount to compensate for the fact and they gave us 10% off.
Character – It reminded me of San Francisco/Berkeley area. Lots of old Victorian stuff mixed with more modern styles. Each room is decorated differently according to the description (part of what we thought was cool), but it turns out that really means everything is pretty much the same except for 1 item hanging on the wall and ours happened to be a giant blue bow. I wasn’t really impressed with that. I did kind of like the disco ball in the stair well though.
Amenities – breakfast, wireless internet, TV with cable in the room.
Recommended? - It was a funky place, but not nearly as cool as it was made out to be in both LP and the website. So, we looked for somewhere a little more affordable to stay.

Our next hostel wasn’t our first choice, but it was the 1^st place that had room for more than 1 night at a time.

El Firulete Downtown (We stayed in the Center, but there is a Palermo location too)
www.el-firulete.com.ar
Price - $28 for a double room and shared bath
Cleanliness – clean
Comfort – Nice firm bed. The baths were shared, but there were plenty of them, so I never had to wait in line. The showers were in private cubicles, so you could have some privacy. There were soap dispensers in the showers and soap and paper towels by the sinks.
We stayed in 2 different rooms. The wireless connection didn’t reach to the 3^rd floor, so we switched to the second. The 3^rd floor was really quiet from all hostel noise, but there is pretty heavy traffic there and the noise carries. The room in the second floor was windowless, so no traffic noise, but all the music, people, activity from the common room could be heard easily and I felt very claustrophobic being in a room without windows.
Also, the list of amenities includes air conditioning. The common room has air, but none of the other rooms do. I would hate to be there in January.
Character – It was pleasantly decorated.
Amenities – breakfast until noon was great after the late BA nights, wireless and 2 other computers, TV in lounge, laundry, if you get the right person, they can help you to make travel arrangements, but it took them a day to get back to us with the answer.
Recommended?-Yes, it was reasonably priced compared to some of the other places. It seemed like they had thought about some things like the soap and breakfast that other places don’t. It was also in a perfect location to catch almost any of the subway lines.
I wouldn’t stay here in the summer though. The traffic makes it too loud to open a window and without air or even a fan, it would be miserable.

We left to go to Iguazu Falls and we returned to a different hostel.

Posta del Barto Hostel (Downtown near the congress building)
http://www.postadelbarto.com/indexpopbarto_ing.html
Price - $15 for … well we reserved a double room, but they double booked so we ended up in a dorm room that had 6 beds, but only us in it. Shared bath
Cleanliness – ok, but not super clean. For example, there was a table in the room that still had something sticky like dried orange juice left on it. The drainage in the showers isn’t good, so the whole shower area is covered in water.
Comfort – Not much comfort here. The dorms had bunk beds with really thin mattresses on them. I took the mattress off the other bed and put it on mine to have 2 and I could still feel the wooden slats digging into my back. There weren’t any comfy couches or chairs in the common areas. The bathroom was down a narrow winding staircase. Not the most convenient for a midnight bathroom run. Especially, if you are still a bit tipsy from a night out.
Character – Just eclectic furniture. It looked like they just assembled what they could find at a garage sale.
Amenities – small breakfast, 2 computers and a cord for lap tops to plug into. They provided sheets, but you had to pay extra for towels $1 and pay a key deposit. TV and broken CD player. There are no lockers in the dorms. I’m not sure what they expect their guests to do with their belongings when they go out, but that seemed ridiculous to me to expect people to share a room without a way to keep their things safe.
Recommended?Not unless you are on a really tight budget. It did cost a lot less than everywhere else, but we left the next day because it was not my idea of a place I wanted to be.

Thanks for Jorge from the TT for providing a list of hotels. That is where I found this place.

Hotel Marbella (Downtown)
Price - $33 for a double with a private bath and breakfast
Cleanliness – very clean
Comfort – Nice beds, good, but slightly strange shower with a spout that shot water up too. The window opened to a courtyard, so there was no hotel or street noise! Even though it was on a very busy street.
Character – The room and hotel was simple, but pleasant.
Amenities – breakfast, air conditioning/heater, 1 slow computer in the lobby, TV with cable in the room, helpful front desk, wake up call. Airport transfers
Recommended? Yes, I wish we had stayed here the whole time. It was the best nights sleep I had the whole time we were in BA. The only disadvantage is that it is not set up to meet up with other travelers really. I felt like we got the most for our money here.

I wanted to buy some clothes while I was there. We went to Palermo on Saturday and found an amazing market there full of fun, funky, cheap clothes. The only problem is that they are all made for really tiny body sizes. I had to forgo a lot of things because they didn’t fit.

Other than that, I think we were pretty typical in where we went and what we visited. So, I’ll leave you to form your own opinions. I will say though, that I loved BA. We spent 8 days there and could have spent another week at least. There is so much to see, do, eat, everywhere. It is all still fairly affordable. I went to Paris for one day when I was in college, and had to leave because I couldn’t even afford to eat lunch there or ride the subway. This was like getting to luxuriate in the lifestyle of Paris, but I could actually afford to stay and enjoy myself.