Banos Ecuador
Photography, South America, Travel

Feeling at Home in Banos Ecuador

Couchsurfing Ecuador

If you haven’t been able to tell by now, we have been on a very serious Couchsurfing kick. Not only are we having some of the most amazing experiences but are meeting incredibly rad people.

We mainly went to Banos due to a bazillion people talking about the rafting, rappelling, bungee jumping, and crazy things you can do there on the cheap. I mean, in Costa Rica we were trying to set up a rafting day but refused to pay $140 a person.

And while Banos is a GORGEOUS place in and of itself, some of my favorite times were spent with my Couchsurfing friends.

Volcano Tungurahua
The view of Volcano Tungurahua from our patio – you like?

I knew that I was going to love Banos the moment we arrived to Juank’s house to surf. The man knows how to greet a weary traveler.

Banos Ecuador

He is no stranger to hosting people. Juank has had the pleasure of meeting 400+ people around the world (and I’m convinced the people who own hostels in town must hate him due to taking all their business away) and has a million crazy stories to tell. Our first night in town he was hosting 7 surfers (some of which we are still currently traveling with) and I think at one point the count was up to 13! Bodies were found on couches, mattresses, hammocks, tents, sleeping bags and bean bags. Couchsurfers have serious a commitment to making travel affordable.

Hell, if I had that much extra room in my house to host people, you bet your sweet ass I would be doing it too! 😛

The house was always flooded with good music, good energy, and great people.

Ecuador BBQ
NOMNOMNOM

After all our great BBQs, beers, conversations, and new found friendships, I wasn’t ready to leave at the end of the week. For Juank, he wasn’t ready for us to leave either.

Couchsurfing Ecuador
Us and Juank.

So goes the life of the traveler and Couchsurfing host – perpetually losing people.

That would be the hardest thing for me when we host. Letting go.

Although, we did manage to leave a little bit of ourselves behind.

13 thoughts on “Feeling at Home in Banos Ecuador”

  1. Having worked in a hostel, I can confirm that they really don’t like the couchsurfing model 😉 Mostly because hostels can’t compete with free, and also because they feel it’s actually a bit dangerous and unregulated – hostels have to have things like insurance and comply with local safety laws etc.

    Personally I like the idea of couch surfing, and believe it suits a different style of travelling. I’ve never actually tried it though, but posts like these are encouraging me to do so 🙂 Oddly I’d always thought of it as more of a singles thing – how do you find it works as a couple?

  2. Got to love Couchsurfing experiences 🙂 Awesome photos. Making me think about Ecuador in addition to my Central American trip.

  3. @Laurence: Couchsurfing as a couple is really hit or miss. We’ve been hit up for a threesome before lol. But other than that we more often than not have our own room. It is really nice.

  4. @Harrison: You know, that is how we ended up doing our entire Central/South America trip. First it was just supposed to be Costa Rica… then we added Ecuador.. then I was like, “Well hell, we were planning on Peru anyway…” and here we are. You have been warned!

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