Xentum Xperience- Ed’s holiday to Ecuador
April 12, 2019 - 2 minutes read
Posted by James Spencer
Where did you go? | Ecuador – Guayaquil, Montanita, Salinas and Olon |
The date you visited: | November 13th – 25th |
Type of experience (special occasion, day trip, holiday location, eatery) | Not a place that was on my bucket list but I was there for the wedding of one of my close school friends.
He met an Ecuadorian girl on his year abroad at Avignon in France and she insisted on a wedding in her home country, understandably picking the beach town of Montanita over rainy England. |
On a scale of 1-10, what overall rating would you give? | 10 – I’m not sure I’ll go to a wedding quite like it again. |
When you got there, what were your first impressions? | It wasn’t what I was expecting really. It was my first time in South America and I didn’t quite realise how poor it was in parts. The people with wealth lived in large gated communities with electric wire running round the top of the walls. Only when they said that one of their daughters had been kidnapped for ransom before did I realise it was there! |
Was it what you expected or did it exceed your expectations? Were there any wow moments? | The wedding certainly exceeded my expectations. The church was in a small coastal village with multi coloured small houses and the wall looking out over the ocean was floor to ceiling glass, with a large Christ on the cross in the middle of it. A pretty incredible church and view.
The bride’s family own a beach house nearby which was something out a film, with the dancefloor in the middle of the garden and a swimming pool overlooking the ocean. We may (or may not) have ended up in the swimming pool in our suit trousers at 2am for a late night dip. |
And what about the things that could have been improved? | The weather! The equator runs through the capital of Quito and so everywhere in Equator is close to the middle of the earth. Unfortunately this didn’t seem to translate to the tropical conditions that I was expecting. Most days were 26/27 and overcast, nothing to complain too much about I know but not quite meeting my high expectations. |
Looking back on your experience, are there any hints and tips you would give for someone wanting to go? (e.g book early, visit a specific place, ask for a booth) | Whilst I’m sure not many of our clients will end up in Guayaquil, there really wasn’t too much to do at all so don’t book more than a day or two if it does somehow end up on the schedule. My sister has visited Quito (which is the gateway to the Galapagos Islands) and says there’s much more to do. |
And finally, the magic question, would you go back again? | I would definitely like to go back to South America, in particular one of Brazil, Argentina or Chile. I’m not sure I’d go back to Ecuador, or only if it was a stop off on the way to the Galapagos Islands. That said, the wedding and the people I met there made the trip unforgettable. |