We began October in the lovely Mindo, exploring the cloud forest, birding, and searching for waterfalls. But we were soon headed south. We had a house sit to get to by October 15 in Cuenca. We took a bus from Mindo back to Quito where we stayed overnight near the bus station. The next day we had a long ride to Baños de Agua Santa, a nice tourist town where we visited some more waterfalls, drank some artisanal beer, but mostly rested. From Baños we went to discover some pre-Inca ruins in Ingapirca before we finally landed in Cuenca. We had 3 days before our house sit started and spent them in Centro Historico. Our house sit, which lasted from Octovber 15 to November 6 was for a cat named Charlie in a neighborhood called El Vergel, less than a mile from the city center.
We got out and did a few tourist things while we were in Cuenca, but mostly we studied Spanish. There were language exchanges almost everyday, sometimes more than once a day. We ate and drank out a lot at the language exchanges. We visited some ruins we could see from the balcony of our house sit. We made some young Ecuadorians friends and went on an excursion with them.
The only bad thing about Cuenca were the apogones (blackouts).
Ecuador is experiencing a drought and because its power grid relies on hydroelectric power, the government has created a schedule of mandated power outages of up to 14 hours a day. This schedule changes every week. The outages have been an extreme hardship for people in the country. Almost every business downtown in Cuenca had a brand-new generator running outside their door at some point during the day. Some business are trying to get by in the dark. We got locked out of our Airbnb late in the evening once because the battery had run out on the electric lock. The 6 flights of stairs we had to climb to our house sit when we had a load of groceries was exhausting (but hopefully made us stronger). The cat Charlie didn’t seem to understand why his heating pad would turn off. We always had to make sure we had a book or a Netflix option downloaded to our tablets for those dark nights.
Expenses
* A few notes about these expenses. Because Spanish classes are not a “normal” travel expense, I am presenting this expense separately from the total of everything else. In the past, I report exactly what actually comes out of my bank account each month, but since we may book one or two months of accommodations, transportation, or Spanish classes ahead of time, I’m now reporting not when I spent the money but what month the money was spent on.
Learning Spanish: $12.99
Everything Else: $1,906.98
The Grand Total: $1,919.97
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So I’m pretty pleased that we were able to keep our expenses under $2000 despite eating out lots. It was a good month overall.
Learning Spanish
We spent $7.99 on a new Spanish app, ConjuGato and $5.00 for a language exchange at a Spanish school. But honestly, I probably should transfer a lot of the money we spent eating and drinking out to the Learning Spanish category since we always spent something at the many language exchanges we went to while we were in Cuenca.
Communication
We paid $18.69 for my four-country phone plan with Latin American service provider, Claro. And $34.01 for Greg’s American cell plan with text and calls with Google Fi. Fi charges .20 cents a minute for international calls.
Consumables
We spent $371.44 on food, $35.06 for a few beers, $2.35 on toilet paper, and $20.13 in the medicine cabinet category – which included cough medicine (I caught my second mini-cold since being in South America), bug spray to go to the cloud forest in Mindo, toothpaste, and hairbands for Greg’s new ponytail.
Entertainment
– Drinks and Eating Out
Once again we did a lot of eating and drinking out while we were traveling.
We bought our first pan de yuca from a vender on the bus traveling back from Mindo to Quito. Pan de yuca is a bread made from the ubiquitous root vegetable called yuca. It was really good!
We cooked some meals in at our cottage in Baños, but had no option but to eat out every meal in Ingapirca.
We did a lot of eating and drinking out at Language Exchanges in Cuenca. Most of the language exchanges were hosted at restaurants and we were encouraged to spend some money and since the exchanges were always around dinner time, we often ordered a meal and drinks.
– Museums/Attractions/Music
The $56.00 we spent on other types of entertainment in October included a teleférico ride at a park and a visit to a bird sanctuary in Mindo. We visited two waterfalls in Baños and a sculpture park of elves. In Ingapirca, we toured pre-Inca ruins with a guide. And in Cuenca we went on a free walking tour and tipped generously.
Personal
– Gifts
We went on a hike with friends we made at one of the language exchanges and sent all of leftover snacks home with one of our new friends for his daughter since he wouldn’t accept money for gas ($7.60). Later that same night we went to a language exchange Halloween party and brought candy for the kids ($5.45).
– Gear
When we bought a couple of specialty beers in Ingapirca we realized we would have no way to open them when we got back to the Inn where we were staying. So we bought a bottle opener keychain, $3.00. And when we started loosing power in Cuenca we needed a lighter to light the stove, .71¢.
– Subscriptions
We subscribe to Netflix, Abode Photoshop, The New York Times, and Michael Fox’s (A freelance filmmaker, journalist, podcaster, and musician reporting from the road in Latin America) Patreon account. Our number this month, $82.41 includes the extra expense of this blog’s domain hosting.
Traveling Life
– Storage
We pay $76 for a storage locker back in the US.
– Accommodations
We spent the first few days of the month in Mindo. You can see my review of where we stayed in last month’s report, here.
Quito, Ecuador
October 3-4, $33.09 per night (1 night) two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment. (Booked through Airbnb)
This was just an overnight stay to break up the long bus trip from Mindo to Baños. We wanted to stay close to the two bus stations we would be arriving and embarking from in the north of the city. Our options were limited. This place didn’t look great on Airbnb and it was even worse in person. It was dirty. The floors hadn’t been swept, the trashcans were filthy and dirty dishes were left in the sink. But it was convenient. We could walk from our arrival bus station and were able to walk to the grocery store to get food for dinner. But I didn’t sleep well that night wondering what else wasn’t cleaned (like the sheets).
Baños, Ecuador
October 4-9, $8 (without our credit of $155 it would have been $39) per night (5 nights) two-bedroom, two-bathroom cottage. (Booked through Airbnb)
This was a bit of a splurge because Airbnb had made me mad and gave us a credit of $155! It was outside of town which was nice for peace and quiet but bad for the long walk up the hill every time we returned from an excursion or going out to eat. But other than that, the place was great! It was spacious and clean. The hosts left us a big garrafón of water. It was first private freestanding place we had stayed in. There was a big yard shared with another house (possibly a full-time rental) with friendly neighbors, chickens, and 3 adorable dogs.
Ingapirca, Ecuador
October 9-12, $52.33 per night (3 nights) one-bed, one-bathroom room in an inn. (Booked through Booking.com)
In Ingapirca we stayed at an inn, Posada Ingapirca, which overlooked ancient pre-Inca Cañari ruins.
This was another splurge since we were saving money with the credit and would be saving money with a house sit. But apparently, we also got a deal on this place for booking in October. When I checked other months, prices went up to $130 per night!
Our room was basic but very cozy. It got cold at night, but we were provided with a space heater – which was great when we weren’t having blackouts. We were the only guests that first night, but when other guests started arriving they decided to fire up a generator so we weren’t left in the dark and cold.
The inn had a lovely dining room. Breakfast was provided. We ate dinner there as well as the options in town were limited and we didn’t have access to a kitchen. Because of the potential power outage every evening we had a light lunch every day and an early dinner around 4 pm.
There was also a rec room with a pool table, foosball table, books, and an occasional warming fire.
Cuenca, Ecuador
October 12-15, $38.80 per night (3 nights) one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment. (Booked through Airbnb)
This place was in the heart of Centro Historico in Cuenca. It was really hard to understand from the pictures on Airbnb of how it was laid out. But it looked interesting and had good reviews. Turns out it is upstairs from a restaurant. You actually go through the restaurant to get to it. The apartment is built around an open courtyard with a structural glass floor and a glass ceiling that lets in lots of light. A low wall surrounds the courtyard. If you were to look over this low wall, you’d see the restaurant below.
The bedroom overlooked the street with a small balcony. From the bedroom you could see across the courtyard to the dining area. The kitchen was nice and there was a brand new washer.
This place was a bit noisy. We could hear the music of the restaurant workers every morning. And being right near a street corner we heard the beeping of the crosswalk signal. And then there was the alarm that went off constantly down the street. Still, I loved this place. I figure after a while you’d either get used to the noisy or it would drive you crazy.
The only problem we had at this Airbnb was getting locked out due to the power outages. The entrance to the building had an electric key pad lock (which we love). But if the batteries aren’t kept charged up, and there is a blackout, you end up getting locked out. Luckily, when this happened to us one evening when returning from dinner and drinks, our host came right away to fix the situation. And lucky for him – as he was having trouble getting the door open manually – the power came back on soon after.
Cuenca House Sit
October 15-31, one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment.
So far while we have been in South America we have applied for 4 house sits through our Trusted House Sitter’s app and have been accepted for two! (we have one coming up in Lima at the beginning of the new year). This sit in Cuenca worked out great because it corresponded with the time we were going to be in Ecuador anyway.
For 3 weeks we stayed at a penthouse apartment in the El Vergel area of Cuenca, a short walk from downtown and the grocery store. The view was great and our charge, the cat Charlie, was easy to take care of. Originally, when we started the sit we weren’t having blackouts because the apartment was located near so many medical centers. But perhaps someone was bucking for a raise and decided to fine-tune the system to isolate our block and turn the lights out for us too. Luckily, the stove was gas, we only had to go buy a lighter when we couldn’t use the electric ignition. Charlie on the other hand I think didn’t quite understand why his electric blanket was no longer warm all the time and we were sure he blamed us.
– Transportation
We spent $90.70 on transportation in October. We traveled in taxis, buses, and private cars for approximately 466.5 miles. About 438 of those miles were on buses from one town to another at a cost of $47.70 and 28.5 of those miles were for taxis at a cost of $43.00. Based on an average price of gasoline in Ecuador in October of $2.57 per gallon, if we had been driving our van (which got approximately 15 miles to the gallon) we would have spent about $80.05.
Buses are super cheap. Taxis add up.
Transportation is the hardest thing about this journey. There are plenty of buses and plenty of different ways of getting from one place to another, but figuring out schedules and what bus goes to what destination is a chore. I’ve mostly been relying on web searches. For instance, “How to get from Quito to Baños.” This will either come up with web services like Roam2Rio that find schedules online and present them in one place, or websites like Busbud or redBus which sell tickets for bus companies that have an internet presence. The problem with all this is that not every bus line has an online schedule and services like Roam2Rio, Busbud and redBus can’t supply information about those buses. So I’m often relying on blog posts from other travelers which can either be a good source of information, incomplete or outdated.
Although I tend to start stressing about how we are going to leave a place once we arrive, we have had good success with taking buses. Well, except for that one time…
The bus to Baños
There are 3 bus terminals in Quito. Two are in the north of the city, Ofelia and Carcelén, and one is in the far south of the city, Quitumbe. The bus from Mindo only went to Ofelia (in the north). When I started my search to figure out how to get to Baños from Quito all the buses I found left from Quitumbe, the southern terminal. I really didn’t want to take an expensive taxi ride 17 miles from the north of the city to the south, so kept searching hoping to find evidence of a bus leaving from one of the northern terminals.
I eventually found the information I was looking for online. There was a bus line, Pullman Carchi, that ran Friday, Saturday, and Sunday leaving from the Carcelén terminal at 9:30 to Baños. A second bus left at 1:30. I felt confident about this bus because I found online ticket reservations for the bus. In retrospect, perhaps I should have bought tickets online, but after being on many buses and seeing how they operate, I didn’t think it was necessary.
We got to the terminal around 8:30 that morning to buy our tickets. At the ticket office for the bus line there was some confusion. I don’t know if the brusque woman selling tickets didn’t understand us, but we really couldn’t understand much of what she was saying. Instead of selling us tickets, she told us to come around to the back of the office and wait inside. This was super unusual.
We sat on a narrow bench in the office with all of our bags waiting. The ticket seller yelled out the ticket booth window trying to attract people to buy tickets for her bus line, “Amiga, amiga,” she’d yell, “Donde va?” (Girlfriend, girlfriend, where are you going?) Across from us was a big shelf loaded with boxes to be shipped. A quiet guy sat in the corner across from the ticket seller. I’m not sure what his function was – perhaps not pissing off the yelling ticket seller?
When I’m not being stressed out about the possibility of being at the wrong place at the wrong time, I try to go with the flow, figuring that everything will work itself out eventually. We sat and waited. People asked where we were going. A man came and stood in the doorway and had a long conversation with Greg in Spanish, some of which he understood and lots he didn’t. The brusque ticket seller demanded that Greg break a $20 bill for two 10s. A bus helper showed up. We told him we were going to Baños. An older man showed up and stood on the dock outside the office. I got the impression he was going to Baños too. We waited and watched. Around 10 pm I saw our bus. It stopped at the edge of a sidewalk a good ways away from us and people started boarding. The helper guy told me to stay where I was and he went to the bus and got on. Then the bus started pulling away and leaving. All of a sudden, everyone is telling us we need tickets. Greg goes to the office to buy tickets. I run up to the bus as it is moving. The helper guy tells me we need tickets. We were flummoxed. The bus pulls away. Greg is pissed.
Someone decides to be nice and directs us to other ticket booths for bus lines to Baños that I had no idea existed. We stopped at the first one, and they kindly directed us to the next one, which had a bus leaving imminently. A very nice guy helped us to buy tickets and told us where to get the bus. Luckily we needed to hurry to catch it because Greg wanted to go tell off the brusque ticket seller at the other place.
We soon arrived in Baños, and Greg went and bought himself a really big beer.
Right Now
We are in Vilcabamba in southern Ecuador. We leave on a bus for Jaén, Peru on Friday. It is a little unusual for a bus to take us across the border. But if we are successful in taking this bus we will be saving ourselves a lot of time. Before I discovered this bus, we would have needed to take a bus, a ranchero, and two colectivos to reach Jaén.
Yesterday, I asked our Ecuadorian host where we are staying to call the bus company and confirm what time and where they will stop in Vilcabamba. If only my Spanish was good enough to have a conversation with someone on the phone! Tomorrow we will go to the station and see if we need to buy tickets and try to arrange for a cab to pick us up at our Airbnb at 7:30 Friday morning.
To see all of our expense reports, click here.
If you are interested in reading other expense reports from nomads who really know how to live cheaply while still having a good time, check out the blog from our friends Mark, Liesbet, and Maya who are traveling in their truck camper in South America at Roaming About.
If you are interested in becoming a Trusted Housesitter or having a Trusted Housesitter take care of your pet, use our link for 25% off!
