One of our favorite vegetarian restaurants- GOOD AFFINITY

We have a few favorite restaurants that we frequent for "almuerzo", which means lunch in Spanish. Lunch in South America is primarily the largest meal of the day, with a light snack for dinner. Most restaurants have a set price for lunch and a set menu. Typically, lunch is anywhere between $1.50-$3.00. It usually consists of a bowl of soup, fresh squeezed fruit juice, the main plate and sometimes a dessert. One of our favorite places to go for almuerzo is called "Good Affinity" which is a vegetarian restaurant owned by Taiwanese expats. The food is so tasty and healthy and only costs $2.75 for 4 vegetarian sides on your plate, soup and juice or homemade soy milk for $2.75. They also offer noodle and rice dishes,veggie burgers, spring rolls and yogurt parfaits for $1.50-$3.25.

Good Affinity is located on Av. Ordonez and Av. Americas. They are open Mon-Sat 11:00a.m.-3:00p.m.

This noodle dish is loaded with broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and carrots. The soup had pasta, cilantro, cabbage, potato,and carrots, along with a glass of homemade soy milk all this for $3.25.

Free architectural walking tour

Cuenca, Ecuador became a Spanish settlement in 1557. The city center is listed as a Unesco World Heritage Trust Site due to it's many historical buildings. The city lies in the sierra of the Andes mountain and sits around 2500 meters above sea level, with four rivers running through the city and mountains on all sides. This geographical position along with it's historical background makes it a wonderful background for some beautiful photographs. The streets and sidewalks downtown are cobblestone or tiled. Every few blocks you may find a plaza with a fountain. Many of the colonial structures have endured with their original craftmanship , some being restored to withstand time. I took a walking photographic tour with my boys as an extra curricular assignment. We walked and snapped anything that was interesting. This was free and it was fun. Here's a few of the photos I took.

Cheap food

Part of saving money when traveling is cooking alot of our meals at home. We do enjoy going out a couple times a week to experience authentic Ecuadorean food, but we also enjoy experimenting with Ecuadorean recipes as well. One of the best things about Ecuador is that it is home to many fruits and vegetables due to the ideal climate. We have been really taking advantage of easy access to locally grown organic fruits and vegetables. There are several "mercado's " in the area that are indoor and sometimes outdoor food markets. Each stall is owned and operated by a separate vendor selling fruits, vegetables, raw meat as well as dried goods like rice and quinoa.

These bags of tomatoes, avacados and onions, were $1.00 each. As you can see there are 10 onions in one bag, 10 tomatoes in the other and 5 medium sized avocados in the last bag. They were bagged, ready for purchase. What a steal!

I got ALL of these fruits and vegetables for $8.60! No joke!!!!!!!

Avacados,mangoes,papaya,plantains,bananas,tomatoes,carrots peas and green peppers oh my!

Our temporary home away from home

We've been in Cuenca, Ecuador for a few weeks now and feel quite at home. We are enjoying the pleasant weather, the beautiful mountain views of the Andes and immersing in the culture of Ecuador. As budget travelers, one of the most important decisions we make is concerning housing. Since we planned on staying put for awhile, we decided on a short term apartment rental. Because Cuenca, Ecuador has become one of the most popular retirement destinations as well as being a must on the tourist circuit, it was very difficult to find a rental to accommodate our budget. Typically you can find a short term furnished rental between $250- $500. When we were here a year and a half ago, we had no problem renting an apartment and we paid $500 for the whole month. This time around there was nothing available in our price range at the time we needed it. Needless to say, we had to go with what we could get and ending up spending a little bit more than we wanted to again. We ended up finding our rental on Airbnb.com. I highly recommend it as your first resource when looking for short term rental. The site is secure, trusted and easy to use. Owner's of properties have listings online with photos and amenities as well as price per night, per week and per month. You can communicate via email with the owner to ask questions or even call them. You reserve the property of your choice by paying for the full rate by credit card. We've used this site several times and have been very satisfied. The apartment we are renting is a colonial style duplex in a quiet residential area. It's in a great location and the duplex has an electric security fence and an alarm. Although Cuenca is considered a safe area it's still nice to have the peace of mind. It is Ecuadorean owned and the hosts are very hospitable and accommodating. Here's the link to the website and listing of our temporary home if anyone is interested : https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1252433?guests=4&s=0QAb

We negotiated with the owner on the monthly rate and ended up paying $900 for the month, which comes out to be $30 a day. Once again, for a family of five traveling, it's almost impossible to find a hostel at that price, so we took it. For our second month in Ecuador, we did find an even cheaper rental, but I will share that in the near future.

28 hours on a bus and we finally made it to Cuenca, Ecuador

The next stop on our itinery is Cuenca, Ecuador. We hopped on a bus and traveled north on a 15 hour bus ride. The bus company we feel has the best service and safety for the money is called Cruz Del Sur. The buses are clean, have a bathroom, and the seats recline "semi- cama", which is like a recliner chair. They also show movies and give you a hot dinner. It's very similar to traveling by plane, except it takes a lot longer. We paid $36 per person. We did look into flights to Cuenca and the best deal we found at the time was around $250 per person. Since we are budget travelers we decided to torture ourselves for a total of 28 hours via bus. We stopped in a town called Piura which we had been to before. We didn't love the city enough to pay $100 for a 2 star hotel for the night, so we kept going. We arrived in Piura at 7a.m. and got on the next bus at 9:00a.m. This bus was not as fancy, but it was fairly clean and comfortable. The tickets cost us $13 each person and took us over the Ecuadorean border in 8 hours. Ok, so five more hours to get to our destination. We arrive at the bus stop in Loja, Ecuador at 5:30 p.m. check the bus schedule to see when the buses to Cuenca are leaving. Unfortunatley, the last one is leaving in 10 minutes. We buy our tickets,which cost $4 each, grab dinner to go and literally run to the bus and jump on. We finally arrive to Cuenca at 11:00p.m. It's nice to be on our feet and off the bus. Which we never had to ride a bus again!

The best deal of our whole trip

After staying in Quito for a few days we continued north to Otavalo, Ecuador. I had been patiently awaiting our arrival and this was the one place I wanted to visit in all of South America. Otavalo is a village in the Andes of mostly indigenous people with a population of around 90,000. The Otavalos are known for their handicrafts and travel all over the world to sell their wares. Here in Otavalo is the largest handicraft market in South America. People travel far and near to come this market.The biggest market being on Saturday which spans several blocks with animals(chickens, roosters, cuy, llamas,goats), handicrafts , produce and meat. Because of the  popularity of the market, it is now present every day of the week with the handicrafts. The Otavalos can be recognized by their traditional dress. Woman wear a white,  embroidered blouse with bright colors ,dark skirt and colorful woven belt with black espadrilles and  long braided hair. Men wear white cotton pants, black poncho and long braided ponytail. I am completely fascinated by indigenous clothing. They are so talented in so many crafts and everything they wear is hand made. Whenever I see them with their traditional dress I just stare in awe. Their clothing is so beautiful and detailed with beading or embroidery. Their clothing varies by village and culture and so traveling through South America we've had an opportunity to see the diversity in traditional dress. What amazes me is the fact that their culture remains intact despite living in a progressive world. Here's a link to google images for Otavalo. Unfortunately, I was too busy shopping to remember to take photos. Here are the few I did take.

 

Here's the crocheted bag I bought for $12.00

Tagua necklaces for $3.25

Embroidered bags   $8.00

https://www.google.com/search?q=otavalo+market&hl=en&tbo=u&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ei=enWiUIigGOXEyQGXr4DYCw&sqi=2&ved=0CDQQsAQ&biw=1725&bih=850



We booked our hotel on booking.com which is our default source before anything else. Hotels are usually 50% off their usual rate. We have actually tried calling the hotels and asking if they could match the rate they have on booking.com and some of them couldn't do it. A couple times we wanted to stay longer at a particular hotel we had been at for a few days and found a lower rate on booking.com, so we just booked it online to guarantee the lower price. We just learned to work the system. The best deal we got was for Hotel Acoma in Otavalo, Ecuador. It had a high rating of  9 out of 10. I usually look at the reviews and price and try to find the best value for our money. If a hotel has a rating between 8-9 and is in our price range , then it's in the running. It's hard to find a budget hotel with a rating higher than 7, so when you do find a higher rating you jump on it. The ratings are based on cleanliness, comfort, location and staff. Hotel Acoma was priced at $17 for a double room , with free breakfast. The usual rate was $40 a night for a double.When we arrived the owner and her daughters came out to greet us at the curb and helped us with our luggage. The hotel was beautifully decorated, spotless and bright and airy. The room was not too small, clean and the bed was comfortable. The best part was the huge bathroom with an extra long bathtub. We were very pleased with a our bargain. After wandering around the hotel, we discovered that some pretty prominent people had stayed at this boutique hotel. There were photos of some famous people who had stayed at Hotel Acoma on the walls including Hugo Chavez! Here are some photos of Hotel Acoma .Unfortunately, I don't have the original booking page to show our $17 deal but at least you can see where we stayed.
http://www.booking.com/hotel/ec/acoma.en-gb.html?sid=cf64b6f7a795db29cb94c24a32e5c6c1;dcid=1;checkin=2012-11-13;checkout=2012-11-14;srfid=6b7ad0d092348563269d586190b523140953dfd5X1

The valley of longevity

We arrived by bus (16 hours) to Vilcabamba, Ecuador. This is an Andean village in southern Ecuador that lies in a historical and scenic valley surrounded by Mandango Mountain. It's known as the Valley of Longevity because there were claims of it's many inhabitants to have reached over 100 years old. Much research was done on the reason for such a long life expectancy in Vilcabamba. Researchers attributed it to medicinal qualities found in fruits, roots and herbs near the equator, the mineral rich local drinking water found in Vilcabamba, healthy lifestyle and good treatment of the elderly in the community. Unfortunately, as time went on  and Vilcabamba's international popularity grew many researches fell skeptical and continued to study the reasons for longevity. Two particular scientists discovered that there were errors in the data. The errors were that villagers were exaggerating their age and as they grew older the greater the exaggerations became. The other error was the use of identical names in the village. The two researchers concluded that life expectancy in Vilcabamba was actually  a little less than  in the U.S. Despite these findings, Vilcabamba has attracted many tourists as well as expats from all over the world. The quiet , beautiful landscape, the abundance of fruits and vegetables, the relaxed way of life and the low cost of living has actually brought  expats in droves and hiked up real estate prices. There are gated communities in Vilcabamba with $3 million  homes. Prime real estate are lots in the mountains with 360 degree views of the mountains.

 

 

 

 

 

We arrived in Vilcabamba on a Friday night. The small town square is surrounded by cafes and restaurants , some owned by local Ecuadorians, some owned by expats. There are a few stores and boutiques as well as bakeries. The faint sound of big band music playing in the background, gringos sitting at street side cafes, everyone speaking English. It was like a scene from the "Twilight Zone". It was very surreal after traveling through  many countries in South America. It felt like a small rural town in America trapped in 1970. The presence of ¨"hippy backpacker" types was evident. Not that there´s anything wrong with" back packers", it´s  the dread locks and the Bob Marley hat along with the hand woven man-purse you're wearing and brightly colored striped pants that identifies you as a "hippy backpacker".

We hopped into a pickup truck cab and went to our hotel, Hosteria Izhcayluma. It was a property on a hill overlooking the mountains and the valley. Our room was very rustic , like a cabin in the woods but nicer, on the level of a hotel. It was rated high on Trip Advisor. The room cost $35 for a queen and a bunk bed with a shower made of big stones. It was night when we arrived so we had no idea how beautiful the property was until we awoke to the breathtaking views.Our hotel had a restaurant, swimming pool, a pool table, ping pong table , lawn chess, a book exchange, board games, spa for massages, mani's and pedi's and laundry facilities. This was the kind of place where you could stay and just relax and not have to go anywhere. We decided this was finally the opportunity to do just that. For the last 3 months we have been on the go trying to see everything we could see. We really needed some  R&R from our travels. We stayed for  a week. We had planned on just staying 3 days and then moving on to Cuenca but we kept postponing our bus tickets. This place has been known to suck people in. I was reading some travel posts on the internet and other people have said the same thing. An interesting thing that also attracts people to Vilcabamba is that it is considered a"spiritual " place. Every hotel, cafe or store that had a bulletin board was covered with flyers for reiki massage, metaphysical healing ,meditational meetings, and sweat lodges. So not only are there hippy backpackers but many new -agers seeking something that they will never find.

one of many paths at Izhcaluma Hosteria

View of the restaurant and common area

View of private rooms where we stayed, 4 rooms to a building



View from a bench on the property overlooking the valley

Another great view from the property, see some of the million dollar homes in the distance

Lawn Chess




 We went horseback riding into the mountains.I could only spare two hours because we left the baby with the older boys.We rode on trails in the woods and around the village. I have not been on a horse for about 20 years and my anxiety was kicking in . I finally got comfortable the last 15 minutes of the ride. The husband and kids went on a four hour ride to a waterfall and onto the top of mountains and down. They said it was terrifying but exciting climbing down steep cliffs on a horse. They made it back safe and we were all sore the next day.