Top Things to Do in Ecuador

Ecuador squeezes an entire continent into a strip no wider than Colorado. One week. Same passport stamp. You'll plant both feet on the equator, taste Pacific salt on your lips, paddle a dugout into the Amazon's green dusk, then drift past marine iguanas that couldn't care less you exist. Altitude swings from sea level to nearly six thousand meters before lunch. Roads work, buses run, and the place still feels like a secret. Quito perches at two thousand eight hundred meters, ringed by volcanoes that catch fire at sunset. The old town smells of incense and candle wax. Gold leaf glows amber under thin air. From here you branch south along the Avenue of the Volcanoes toward Baños and Cuenca, or west to mangrove estuaries and warm surf. Food is regional, stubbornly local. Ceviche on the coast arrives sharp with lime and ocean salt you can taste in the breeze. Up high, locro de papa thickens the spoon, topped with avocado and fresh white cheese. Markets reek of damp wool and wood smoke. Textiles blaze in reds and blues that belong to single villages. The Galápagos? Wildlife treats you like furniture. Plan more days than you think you need. Ecuador rewards the slow.