The Purple Culture Guide to Ecuador

Chapter 1: First Impressions

The first thing that hits you about Ecuador is not a sight. It's the altitude. If you fly into Quito, you step off the plane at nearly 2,850 meters above sea level, and your body notices immediately. You feel it in your lungs when you carry a bag to the taxi. You feel it in your head — a low, slow throb — and in your legs when you walk up the first hill. Locals will tell you to drink water, chew coca leaves, or just take it easy for a day or two. They're right, and you won't listen. Everyone underestimates the altitude until they're winded after one flight of stairs.

But the altitude is just the visible symptom of what's really surprising about Ecuador: nearly everything operates on a different rhythm than you expect. This is a country that doesn't hurry. Things happen when they happen. The bus leaves when it's full, not at 2:30. The person you're meeting arrives ten to twenty minutes late, and no one apologizes. The official who's supposed to help you might be at lunch for an hour and a half, and that's just the way it is. If you come from a culture where time is money, Ecuador will frustrate you at first. But if you give into it, you'll notice that people here look less stressed than you're used to. That's not an accident. It's a choice — and it's one of the first real lessons the