Cheap Ecuador – Travel Well on $43.72 a Day

I’m surprised by how much I like Ecuador. Much cleaner than expected, less beggars than I feared--and the awesome Andean scenery of volcanoes, lakes and green valleys deserves every accolade.

My colleague Lee Harrison once got an e-mail addressed to "the cheap guy from Latin America." So in an attempt to outdo him, I spent one day of my Ecuador trip paring expenses to the bone.

In the Northern Highlands, Otavalo hosts South America’s largest indigenous market. My accommodation here is Hostal Dona Esther. OK, a communal dorm in a proper backpacker’s hostel would be much cheaper, but please--there are limits to what your travel writer will endure.

Cheap Ecuador Tip #1: The $24 Room and $1.50 Breakfast

I’m paying $24 a night for a room with private shower. The room is small, basic, and up two flights of stairs, but the building itself is lovely--an old colonial house set around a central courtyard.

They do a tasty breakfast for $3.80--fresh juices, coffee, ham tortilla, rolls, butter and jam, but outside cafes offer the same for $1.50. So outside it is.

The Hostal doesn’t have WiFi or any internet access, but that’s no problem. Internet cafes are everywhere here--most charge 80 cents an hour.

I’ve bought so much from Otavalo market (more about that in another dispatch), I need to revisit the "leather village" of Cotocachi for a valise spotted a couple of days ago. Around eight miles away, Cotocachi is only a $5 taxi ride, but that’s wasteful. Instead, walk down to the Terrestre Terminal, Otavalo’s bus station. You can go by local bus for just 25 cents.

In Cotacachi, I have a worryingly-healthy papaya juice for $1.10 before acquiring more loot. Leather coin purses for 50 cents; larger purses for $1; patchwork leather scarves for $4.33 and capes for $12.50. (Very annoying. I paid $13 for a similar patchwork leather cape two days ago.)

Cheap Ecuador Tip #2: The 47-cent Lunch

In hot countries, I rarely eat much at lunchtime, so spurn the local $1.75 to $2 three-course offerings. Instead, I call into a bakery for a cheese empanada pastry (25 cents) and a mini-market for bottled water (22 cents.)

Depending on where I’ve shopped, a pack of Marlboro Lights varies between $2.20 to $2.50. I now discover a cheaper option--packs of "popular" Cuban cigarettes for $1.25. (Better than expected, but do bear in mind that I’ll smoke anything.)

Leaving aside the leather goodies, so far my daily spend on accommodation, breakfast, bus fares, lunch, drinks, internet and nicotine amounts to $29.42.

Trudging back from Otavalo’s bus station, the budget goes haywire on Calle Sucre. An ice-cream parlor with real artesania temptations and an irresistible aroma of espresso coffee. Unable to decide which flavor, I opt for a triple combination of strawberry, coconut and coffee--served in a glass dish--and a double espresso. In total, a wildly extravagant $2.50.

Cheap Ecuador Tip #3: Splurge on an $11.80 Dinner

Abandoning all attempts at scroogery, I have dinner in Dona Esther’s Arbol de Montalvo restaurant, complete with an authentic wood-fired pizza oven--$5.80 for a Capricciosa pizza; $5 for two glasses of Chilean wine; $1 for another espresso…bringing the total spend for the day to $43.72.

Lee Harrison will probably gurgle like a drain about my cost-cutting endeavors. However, Ecuador seems ludicrously inexpensive to me. And it probably will to you, too.

Steenie Harvey
Roving Travel Writer, International Living

To read more IL articles on cheap Ecuador, see:

Living Better (and On Less) Than Ever in Cheap Ecuador
Try a New Life in Cuenca, Ecuador - for $300 a Month

Cotacachi: Ecuador’s Perfect Getaway Spot (for Less Than $55,000)

Vilcabamba, Ecuador--Stunning Views, Shrieking Italians, and Magic Cacti

Salinas, Ecuador has Something for Everyone
Live Well on Less Than $600 a Month in Ecuador

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