Boutique Tour - Ecuador - Slow Food Experience

Arrival in Quito. Welcome at the airport and transfer to the hotel.

Enjoy a sightseeing tour through the old part of the city and visit the church of La Compañia. Continue to the Equatorial Line Monument and visit the museum "Inti Ñan" to learn about the customs of the ancient cultures of Ecuador and the way of life of the indigenous in their traditional straw huts.

Experience the flavours of Ecuador during a market visit and cooking course. Get an insight into the typical Ecuadorian cuisine by Slow Food principals.

Drive westerly from Quito to the small subtropical town Mindo. While visiting a butterfly farm, you can see the colorful diversity of Ecuadorian butterflies and can also observe different kinds of hummingbirds and discover subtropical flowers. The following chocolate tour makes you familiar with the product and production of chocolate and of course a tasting. Overnight at a hostería.

Enjoy the drive with a cable car over a gorge in the middle of the Ecuadorian cloud forest, before you take a short walk to reach the first waterfall. Continue to visit a coffee plantation and learn the whole process from the cultivation to the production of this popular beverage.

Drive to the well known spot Otavalo. On the way you stop to meet a slow food organization. You will get an introduction to the nutrition and the origin of the elements. Enjoy a cultural lunch. Continue to visit the famous handicraft market with its central square “Plaza de los Ponchos”. Overnight at a hacienda.

Today you will visit a Kichwa family, where you will cook typical Andean meals made with natural products coming from the Kichwa speaking region around Otavalo. Afterwards you will visit Laguna Cuicocha, which is a crater lake on an altitude of 3000m above sea-level.  

Go southwards along the “Avenue of the volcanoes” and visit the Cotopaxi National park. Walk along the shallow lake “Laguna de Limpiopungo” in an altitude of 4.000m. Overnight at a hosteria.

Visit the emerald green crater lagoon of Quilotoa. Continue along the “Avenue of the volcanoes” to Riobamba. Overnight at a hostería.

Towards Cuenca you will visit Quinoa farmers and a micro-enterprise, a family farm in a community, which produces products from the Andes like physalis, blueberry, chilli and aromatic herbs. Get in touch with the association of apiculturists and visit the botanical garden in Turuco, where different types of Andean cultivations like quinoa and medical plants grown. Overnight at a hotel.

Explore the cobblestone streets, handsome plazas and churches of Cuenca, declared “Cultural Patrimony of Mankind” in 1999 due to the special atmosphere and early 19th century architecture. Finally you will visit a panama hat factory.

Transfer to Guayaquil. 2,5 hour city-tour through Ecuador’s largest city, you will get to know the most interesting parts of the tropical and busy pacific-metropolis. Overnight at a hotel.

Transfer to the airport for homebound flight.