We empower women through solo travel.

All About Ecuador

Hi !The part of the team responsible for all the fab tours has just launched a new Meetup Tour to this South American country! I would love to see you all there, but first, let's take a look at some of the awesome adventures across the country and how to prep for the trip. To be super clear - we do not encourage travel right now. All our trips are months away giving that beaut of a vaccine some time to work its way through the world. All our tours your deposits are:✈️ 100% transferrable to any dates or countries✈️ Never expireSo you can plan your adventures without consulting your physic on when the pandemic will end.

Off The Beaten Path: Añangu Community

The only way to reach this 500 year old community is by canoe while watching for toucans, parrots, monkeys, and even sloths. Over the 4 days staying in this gorgeous corner of the amazon, the wise women will interpret your dreams, teach you traditional dances, and cook food that absolutely could not be fresher. You may also get invited to a wayusa ceremony (not to be confused with ayahuasca, this is just an herbal tea, not a hallucinogen). In his ceremony they make the highly caffeinated tea, sing sings, and meditate. It's a whole thing that I can not even explain to do it justice. You'll also get to see a parrot clay lick - where all the colorful birds go to eat - and experience a part of the amazon that so few people do.

Travel Better: Packing for Moody Weather

Sure, Ecuador is hot. It's also cold when you're in the mountains, and no matter what time of year you go, it's going to rain in he amazon. So, there's heat, cold, and rain and there's also natural hot springs right in the backyard of one of our hotels, so you need a bathing suit. It's certainly a dream trip...but a bit of packing nightmare.Whether you're going to go on the Ecuador Meetup Tour or any place with temperamental weather, I have two tips. I clip my rain jacket to the outside of my traveler backpack, so I am always ready. I also make sure to pack with cubes. I use packing cubes to organize by climate - warm weather clothes in one, cold weather clothes in another, and then I like to have one for dirty clothes. Eagle Creek are my all time favorite and worth a few extra bucks for their lightweight material and how much stuff I can cram inside.For a more budget friendly option, I used to use these Amazon brand ones. They get the job done, but they are definitely for suitcase packers, not backpackers, because they are more bulky.

Discounts and Free Stuff

We've teamed up with all these brands you see above. The prize is a load of travel stuff - seriously it's over $2k worth of gift cards to all these places. ⭐️ $200 Gift Card to Any of The Solo Female Traveler Network Tours⭐️ 2 Lifetime Subscriptions to Journo Travel Co. ($598.98 value)⭐️ $250 Gift Card to Carmen Sol⭐️ $250 Gift Card to Tiny Rituals⭐️ 2 Standard King Room Nights at Hotel Effie in 2021 ($600 value) ⭐️ $250 Visa Gift Card from Travel Trivia

Food and Beverages

As you might have guessed, there's really a plethora of unique fruits in Ecuador. There's banana passionfruit and blackberry jam fruit, plus peanut butter fruit, that has a pulp that supposedly tastes like well, like the name implies. There's also something called the ice cream bean, which has the consistency of cotton candy, but tastes like, you guessed it, ice cream. On the drink front, there's Horchata Lojana, made with a bunch of local herbs and flowers, for my tea drinkers out there. But if you want a bit more of a punch, there's Canelazo, a warm cocktail made from sugarcane spirits, cinnamon and sometimes Naranjilla, a local juice that's not found all that often outside of South America. While the name Naranjilla means "little orange," this fruit is more akin to a tomato or eggplant, so maybe there's a bit of a sweet Bloody Mary-feel here. I'm in!

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