Ecuador
When still at home..
Language barrier
I mean when preparing for such trip you should be aware that language spoken in this country is Spanish. Me personally, I never studied spanish, watched multiple different series, I paid for a one month long course that I attended - so to sum it up my preparation language wise, was to be fair really poor.
Which, in fact, in my opinion is something very rude, if I go to country I should be able to speak at least un poquito.
But why am I mentioning this is that even with this I was able to survive, used hands and legs, sing language and English is mostly possible, but please of you have a chance either go there and stay at one place while attending spanish classes or come to prepared. Do not be like me.
Flight ticket out (little secret cheaper tip)
Please be aware, that you won’t be able to board a plane pr even check in your luggage if you do not have a ticket out. Please prepare this one as it caused me a lots of stress at the airport.
If you travel like me, very poor, no savings, living paycheque to paycheque (because I was only supposed to visit my friend there, in Quito, Cuenca tops - so you see EVEN if you’d think the circumstances are impossible YOU STILL CAN DO IT) AND + you do not know for how long you are going to stay there what helped me was a bus ticket I bought on busbud, which later you can cancel and get your money back. ;)
Small backpack
Oh my… I cannot emphasize this enough!!! Every single backpacker was so jealous, because they had way too much stuff and the 35+ liters big bags were way too chaotic, you need to be able to just grab whatever you need and go back to sleep when in room with 6 other people, or just take it and go to toilet. TRUST ME. I knew I will be gone for 4+ months and I only packed into the FJÄLLRÄVEN KÅNKEN LAPTOP 15". I travelled for 2 months with this bag around Thailand, and ended up discovering Ecuador and Brazil for 8 months all together in this and there are NO REGRETS.
Also, there is one piece of clothing that everybody laughed at me why the hack do I have that and I could and still can and will swore by it. Let me know if you want to know what it is and how the heck did I manage to pack into such small luggage for 8months of 4 different seasons.
Of course there are many options on how to volunteer and have stays for free, which however are only applicable if you actually do speak Spanish.
I do recommend checking your government’s webpage that informs you on the important events happening currently in your desired deatination and where to turn if something goes wrong.
Of course, please be insured in any case.
Insurance companies:
If you have revolut:
Also its good to check the Ecuadorian government page to double check the information you already have.:)
I will be adding to this guide every day little by little :)
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