Ecuador

Ecuador is the beautiful unknown among South American countries. Many overlanders only use the country for travelling through. Ecuador is the country with the greatest biodiversity and, due to its size, the distances from the sea to the mountains and the Amazon jungle are very small.

Ecuador is the second smallest country in South America and its history was characterised from the 15th century by the expansion of the Incas from Peru and 100 years later by the arrival of the Spanish. Ecuador gained its independence under the leadership of the liberation fighter Simon Bolivar in 1822.

Ecuador is a relatively stable country economically and has had the US dollar as its currency unit since 2000. After chaotic Colombia, we were greeted by great tarmac roads, almost western-style relaxed traffic and very friendly, calm and pleasant people.

We hadbeen particularly looking forward to this country, as we were finally going to reach the real high altitudes of the Andes. Extensive trekking tours awaited us and we had the ambitious goal of climbing a 6,000-metre peak – the Cotopaxi volcano. The high altitudes were not only a challenge for us, our camper also got to know its own limits for the first time.

Then there are the Galapagos Islands, one of the magical and mystical destinations that are high on almost every traveler’s bucket list. However, we were not yet sure whether our budget would allow us to travel to the islands, which are 1000 kilometers from the mainland. We would definitely cross the namesake of Ecuador, the equator. Another milestone on this trip.