Category: Ecuador Q&A

It never ceases to amaze me…

…when I meet foreigners in Ecuador who come for a week or two, and don’t even visit the highlight of Ecuador… the Galapagos Islands.

Where else can you walk along the edge of the ocean and see enormous manta rays and sharks swim right next to you in the transparent water below.

Or turtles the size of cars, and lava tunnels on Santa Cruz Island.

Or scuba with whale sharks and hammerheads off Floreana.

Or see thousands of types of endemic birds, including the world’s smallest penguin, on Baltra.

But many say it’s too expensive, or too far (actually it’s part of Ecuador and only an hour flight from Guayaquil).

The key is you have to know how to see it, the way local Ecuadorians do it.

Most foreigners buy 5 or 7 day cruises over the net, often costing around $2-10,000 depending on the class of the yacht.

But there’s a much cheaper way to see the Galapagos.

Don’t make ANY reservations on the net.

Fly to Santa Cruz, the main island, from Guayaquil for around $350 round trip (seniors get a discounted rate).

Then upon arrival go to the port of the town of Puerto Ayora and walk around and look for one of the several simple, budget hotels, like the one I stayed at, the New Elizabeth Hotel which charges $25 per person per night. For longer stays you can negotiate a bit cheaper or even find a local willing to rent you a room in their home for $10-15 a night (look for “alquiler” signs and ask around).

Once accommodated, go to the port once again to one of the MANY mom and pops travel agencies where you can buy day tours starting from around $60-$80 per day per person right from the source with lunch included.

In other words, use Santa Cruz as your base staying in one of the cheap hotels in the port, and take day trips to the other islands.

Isabela is a must for the wildlife and Bartolome for landscapes like you’ve never seen before.

There are also cool things to do on Santa Cruz, like rent a bike and all day it from Puerto Ayora to the secluded, gorgeous beach of El Garrapatero, be sure to try the fresh breads and sweets in the bakeries in the small towns along the way! Tortuga Bay is the most impressive beach on Santa Cruz.

You could also make Isabela your base if you’d like to get even further off the beaten path on truly picturesque, white sand, turquiose water beaches (the only ones like that in Ecuador).

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Few new arrivals to Ecuador realize you can now pay your water, electricity and other bills online through many Ecuadorian banks.

For instance, Banco Pichincha offers the service “e-Key” for it’s customers which allows them to pay online with security and ease once logged in to their account online.

Beats waiting in line.

“What the f**k is that?” I thought as it rolled up to my B&B in Ecuador.

Baffled, my Ecuadorian friend with me at the time, had never seen one in his entire life.

After all, Mobile Homes are a VERY uncommon sight in Ecuador.

But there was one sitting right outside my place.

You see, as I mentioned yesterday, due to the high import tariffs on new vehicles and tight import restrictions on used ones, prices for jeep or cars in Ecuador even through the Jeep for Sale Near me service are often double those in the US. You can imagine the jeep or cars are really expensive. From my experience,  you can always get proper funding no matter what credit history you have. So, I didn’t think it could be such as issue.

One of the most significant innovations that Chrysler has introduced into the automotive industry and somehow made them popular was the use of the Pentastar V-6 engine in some of its car models such as the Dodge Grand Caravan, Jeep Wrangler, and the Jeep Grand Cherokee. Unfortunately, an error that was committed during the production of these Pentastar V-6 engines is expected to create delays on Chrysler’s operations. If you want to know more about Chrysler dealership, then click here. This is because the error committed requires immediate correction and this requires the company’s personnel to repair thousands of Pentastar V-6 engines. Based on the information provided by Chrysler, the existing problem was basically caused by an issue involving the engine’s cylinder head and this is expected to affect about 7,500 units of Pentastar V-6 engines that were produced for the last two years. Since the error on the cylinder head might cause the engine to stall or experience different types of problems, Chrysler was forced to perform the needed repairs on the engines affected by replacing the old cylinder head with a new and more robust version. Chrysler has also stressed out that they are only repairing the affected engines and the company did not and is not planning to issue a recall order.

Although Chrysler does not consider the engine problem as a major issue, this situation has actually caused a lot of inconveniences and headaches to owners of Pentastar V-6-powered vehicles. This is because the supply of the new cylinder heads is quite limited and this prevents the dealerships to complete the needed repairs on the affected engine on time. Due to this, a lot of vehicle owners were forced to leave their cars on the dealerships and wait for the repairs to be completed. The situation literary mentioned earlier has literally left a lot of vehicle owners “car-less” for a few weeks.

In fact, cars over 4 years old are simply not allowed in nor are cars over a certain engine strength (find details on this page). A definite negative to life in Ecuador. You can learn about how you can donate car junk and get money in return. Check out HospitalCars.ca and make use of your car junk.

Single women got cats, guys got cars we sometimes just can’t leave behind… I know, I get that.

So how’d these two young guys from Oregon get their year 2000 (approx) RV into Ecuador?

I mean you can’t just drive it down, there’s no road that connects Panama to Colombia.

Here’s what they did, and what you can do if you got that car you can’t leave behind.

They drove it down from the US to Panama. Then they put it on a boat from Panama to Cartagena, Colombia for $1200. Then they drove it down to Ecuador.

When you enter Ecuador with a car, your passport gets stamped saying you came with a car, and when you leave it has to be with that car.

But you can drive it around with US plates and your US license.

But you can’t sell it, or register it in Ecuador without passing through all the sticky vehicle import regulations Ecuador imposes.

It’d be for your personal use only during your stay in Ecuador.

You know, just in case you can’t leave your “baby” at home.

Ecuador is worth the hassle, believe me! Your new life is waiting!

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