web@bimsoluciones.com - My Trip to Ecuador

NoticiasSeptember 11, 2024October 8, 2024 By web@bimsoluciones.com

Who is Mario the tourguide?

Well, I am going to be honest, I never know how to start a blog, so I think I am going to introduce myself, Mario the tour guide.

I’m a 26 year old guy right now (just turned 26 two months ago), lived in Guayaquil-Ecuador my whole life. I have a degree in Business and Management with a major in finance, have worked as a server in a Mexican Restaurant in Williamsburg-Virginia, have been a taxi driver, mattress cleaner, food seller. In 2010 I started in a big Ecuadorian company as a Treasury Analyst and moved next year to a International company as a Finance-Tax Analyst. (that would be My resume).

Mario Fuentes from My trip to Ecuador

Now, what really matters. Since I was teenager I backpack around Ecuador, I just don’t have words to describe how much I love this country. I thank life everyday for letting me be Ecuadorian. The food, the landscapes, the people, the diversity, an endless list which I will talk about in a future post. Also, I love meeting new people, making friends, and show the country. So if you combine all this features, a person who loves his country and show it, who loves meeting new people, what would you think that is the dream job for that person? easy right? being a tour guide. So, that’s is what I am right now, a tour guide.

My first experience as a tour guide was when I was 17 years old, My mom’s cousin who lives in Houston came to visit her father and brought 10 friends with her, 2 families. She wanted to stay with her father but the rest wanted to travel around, they needed somebody that speaks English and know the country. March is summer for Guayaquil, so we are in school holidays, I was free so I could help them. We went to Vinces (great town in the countryside), spend time in the city and also went to Salinas beach. When we said goodbye they gave money I din’t ask for, then I thought: “so people pay for having a person to show them around and travel with them”. I dind’t want to accept the money because for me it was a great time, I had fun, they paid for my food and accommodation, so why would I take extra money?.

Dinner with the Votta Family, the first group I guided.

Years passed, I kept doing this informal guiding in my free time, I kept traveling around the country, I went to Virginia to work, I finished my career, got my jobs in Guayaquil, etc. But never got rid of the idea that came into my mind when I was 17, “What if i make my living from guiding?”.

By 2013 I had a pretty good job, good company, good salary, good environment, amazing friends, I liked what I was doing, and was pretty good at it, however, I was missing something, passion. I started to think? should I stay here? Should I start what I have always wanted to do? I needed a sign to help me take the decision.

On June 10th I got an email from a company called Tours by Locals that offers tours made by local people around the world, saying that they have tracked me, they know I travel around Ecuador and asking if I wanted to be a guide in Guayaquil for them. And you can guess what happened, same day I went to the Human Resources manager and told her I wanted to leave the day I get two years in the company, that means, September 5th 2013.

EcuadorSeptember 11, 2024September 11, 2024 By web@bimsoluciones.com

My trip to Ecuador, more than a start up, a dream.

After I left my job on September 5th I went backpacking for couple of months to Brasil, USA, Thailand, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia. I came back from that long trip with the decision of not looking for another job, but to start what I have kept in mind for years, a tour company in my beloved country, Ecuador.

My backpacking before starting the company

One of the first days of my arrival I went on a dinner with one of my best friends for a chat, we both wanted to start something, he was working but he was willing to quit. I talked to him about my project of the tour company and he said he liked the idea and was willing to join. That night started our partnership.

With Pipe, my friend and business partner.

December was a month for planning. I had already selected the name according to the concept I had in mind for the Company. The first name I had in mind was “Trip to Ecuador”. My idea for this was offering personalized tours according to every group. Whether if it was daytrips or several day trips, customize every detail with them before they come. For example, if they like fishing, include fishing on the trip, if they like adventure or hiking add it too, if they are more into churches and religion, put an emphasis into those places. Even in just a single day trip, try to get everything they ask and want. One of our differences is that we didn’t want to offer “tourist trips”, more real and local experiences. Taking travelers besides the highlights, also to non-touristic places where they won’t see any tourists at all, just locals. That includes the food too. I realized “Trip to Ecuador” was a name already taken, then, talking to a friend, Isa Cervantes, we came up with a new name. The concept of this business is that travelers can come back to their country and won’t say “I had A trip to Ecuador” but “I had MY TRIP TO ECUADOR”, so the perfect name was that, and I kept it: My trip to Ecuador.

Logotype of the Company

In January we rented an office! For getting the official permit we needed at least a 30m2 office. We got one in the main street of Urdesa neighborhood, excellent location and very nice office. Pipe, my business partner was still working by that month, so we had weekends to go shopping for desks, chairs, computers, etc. We wanted to be “Best Place to work” so we bought a fridge for water, sodas and beer, we bought a TV, one puff. We also got a meeting table and a board for the wall. We painted the office in a sunday, Pipe, his parents and me. We were so happy for our new company.

Monday Feb 3rd 2014 was the first day we used the office for work. We went in the morning for an “encebollado”(a local fish soup that we have for breakfast) because one of the policies of the company was that: “Mondays of encebollado” and the other policy was “Fridays of beer”, that consisted in always drinking at least beer on fridays before we leave the office (I have to admit that some fridays was definitely way more than just one). Well, coming back to where I was, It was Monday around 9am when we entered to the office, I sat on my spot, and look around, I was so happy, so proud, it was my dream come true, finally I was running a tour company, finally I was going to be able to do what I wanted, meet people from around the world, and show them this beautiful paradise that we have as a country. I turned on my computer, smiled, and start working.

EcuadorSeptember 11, 2024September 11, 2024 By web@bimsoluciones.com

History of Cacao: From being a coin, to an Aztec drink and finally to chocolate bars!

Everybody knows what chocolate is, most people also know that the main ingredient for a chocolate bar is cacao beans, but… do you know where these beans come from and how they found out they could make chocolate out of it?

I am not going to discuss the origins of the trees in this post because for years it has been thought they are from the area of south Mexico and Guatemala, where 4 thousand years old trees were found. However, recent studies show that there are older trees in the Amazon rainforest, around 5 thousand years old.

Anyways, what we all know, is that all the history known of cacao beans are in the Mayas and Aztec cultures. Researchers have found out that the cacao beans were used as coins because there were very few of them, and the royals used them for trading.

With the production growing, the cacao lost its value as a coin and started to be used in a different way. They discovered that by roasting and grinding the beans, they got a beautiful shiny paste that had a lot of health benefits. Aztecs used this paste to make a hot drink, adding the ground cacao in boiling water, always with a spice or an herb (could be chili of course), and something to sweeten it up, like vanilla or honey. The name of this beverage was “Xoxoc Atl” in náhuatl (the Aztec language). “Xococ” meant bitter and “atl” meant drink, so the name was “the bitter drink”. There is another belief that the name was due to their god “Quetzacóatl” and that the drink meant “The drink of the gods”. What is true is that the Aztecs did think the cacao beans were a gift from their god to them, because it was so beautiful and with so many health benefits. This is actually why Carolus Linnaeus gave the cacao tree its scientific name: “Theobroma cacao” in 1753, which translates to “Food of Gods”.

When the Spaniards came to the “Americas” as they called it, they were offered Xococ Atl, and they changed the name to make it easier in Spanish, they called it: CHOCOLATE. Hernan Cortés was fascinated with the beverage. There are records of a letter he sent to the Spanish king Carlos V mentioning that one cup of this drink provided enough energy to his soldiers to be on foot the whole day. But it was not until 1528 that Hernan Cortés decided to send the first dried beans to Europe, designated just for the royals, for the short amount they had.

Cacao took a century to be accepted in Europe, because of its bitter flavor and the little quantity they got from the “Americas”. Then, the Spanish kingdom orders to the colonies to produce cacao for shipping to Europe. They realized that the quality of the Ecuadorian cacao beans was very good and they focus the production in the coast of Ecuador. The first record of exportation of the country was in 1780, out of the port of Guayaquil, but is believed it started way before that. The Ecuadorian cacao is called “Cacao fino de aroma”, “Cacao de arriba” or “Cacao Nacional”.

In 1880 the swiss Henry Nestle and Daniel Peter made the first sweet milk chocolate bar and it became so popular all over Europe causing the demand for cacao to explode. The cacao became the base of the Ecuadorian economy since Ecuador was the leading cacao producer of the world. Most of the farms were located in Los Ríos province, around Vinces town. These families became known as “The Gran Cacao” and were so wealthy that they used to hire a manager for their farms while they were gone to Europe for months, and their children were sent to French Universities. On their return, they would bring back a lot of the French culture, and build their farms with French architecture, that’s why Vinces is now known as “little Paris” with even an Eiffel Tower in the middle of downtown.

Cacao demand kept growing, and the production as well, however, in 1920 the South American plantations were hit by 2 diseases: “Monilla” and “Escoba de bruja” which reduced the production to a third of what it used to be, taking the country into an economic depression.

The scientists then developed hybrid seeds to prevent future disasters with new diseases and to increase the production. This is when the cacao CCN51 starts to be produced in bigger quantities. It took a while for the industry to recover because World War I came a little after and made it difficult to transport it. Meanwhile this was happening, Africa was growing in their production of cacao beans, Ghana, Nigeria and Ivory coast took the market.

Nowadays, cacao is still one of Ecuador’s biggest exports, and the country remains in the Top 10 largest world producers. However, if we focus on the highest quality beans “Cacao fino de aroma”, Ecuador is still the leader producing nowadays 60% of the world supply for that type of bean, considered the best in the world.

I hope you enjoyed reading a bit of the cacao history as much as you enjoy your chocolate bar. I wish I could write more, but you have to excuse me for a second, my hot chocolate is ready.

Author: Mario Fuentes

EcuadorSeptember 10, 2024September 11, 2024 By web@bimsoluciones.com

10 things you should know before traveling to Ecuador

1. BE READY TO EAT

Food in Ecuador is exquisite and delightful, we have an incredible diversity in our gastronomy, but you do need to know we like to eat a lot, specially carbs. Throughout the country, rice is the most important part of the plate, we eat rice with mashed potatoes and beef or chicken, rice with pasta, is always rice with something else. Then you will find some differences by region: The highlands of Ecuador tends to consume more potatoes and the coast leans a bit more for plantain. Anyways, we like big portions, so if don’t eat that much, you should say that in advance in local restaurants or to the person you are staying with.

Foto de Juan Carlos Rodríguez

2. BRING SUN BLOCK

Since Ecuador is by the equator, the sun is strong here, no matter in what part of the country you are. You should apply sunblock every morning and re-apply every 4 hours, even if you don’t see the sun brighting that day, you can still get burnt so is always better to prevent. The good thing is that you can get a nice tan here!

3. DON’T DRINK TAP WATER

Even though Ecuador has potable water in all it’s cities and towns, is not recommended to drink it right from the tab. The potable water will be good enough for you too cook with it, take showers and even brush your teeth. For drinking most of the hotels include bottle waters, and you can also by in any shop for very cheep. The 500ml will be around 50 cents and the liter around one dollar. The most known and safe brands are: Vivant, Splendor, Dasani, All Natural, Pure Water and Cielo.

4. WE USE DOLLARS!

One of the good things for international travelers that visit Ecuador is that we use american dollars as our local currency, so it’s easier to exchange your currency at your hometown, and brin dollars from there. If you are form the United States you don’t even have to do that, just bring your same money!

5. BRING CHANGE

Now that you know we use american dollars as our local currency, I have to tell you that is very important to bring change. In Ecuador, a bill of $20 is considered big for small shops and they may not have change for it. $50 and $100 bills are not accepted in most of the places. Singles are important as well, most of the street vendors sell everything for $1.

6. DON’T FORGET YOUR ALTITUDE PILLS!

In Ecuador, the altitude can change dramatically within 2 hours of driving. This applies just if you are going to the Andes, because the coast, including Guayaquil and the Galapagos Islands are sea level. But for example, if you start your trip in Guayaquil and have planned to drive to Cuenca, keep in mind you will go from sea level to 4400m (14000 feet) high and then back to 2500 m (8300 feet) which is the altitud of Cuenca. Quito is 2850 m high (9350 feet).

7. BE READY FOR THE WARMTH OF ITS PEOPLE

Ecuadorians are very warm people, you will notice it since the moment you say hi. Specially if you go to visit a friend in Ecuador you will see how they regular way to say hi is a kiss on the cheek between women and between men and women, between guys is a hug. For saying goodbye is a hug most of the times. Now woth COVID this has changed, but be ready just in case!

8. TIPPING

In Ecuador, tipping will depend on where you eat. If you eat in a nice place, they will probably include the 10% service charge in the bill, you can check if at the end it says “Servicio”, that means they have included it. If the service was really good, you can leave an extra 5%, is always optional. In small restaurants they don’t include the service in the bill, you can leave a 10% and it will be fine, is not mandatory, but if you do it they will appreciate it. If you take an uber we also tip since the fees in uber in Ecuador are so low.

9. CLOTH WILL DEPEND ON THE AREA YOU VISIT

Ecuador is known for having 4 different regions: The coast, the highlands, the Amazon and the Galapagos islands. Every region have a different weather. If you will visit the highlands, bring cloth that will keep you warm. If you go to the Amazon, bring long pants and long sleeve shirts but light and cool, because you will need protection for bugs is going to be humid. Finally for the coast and the Galapagos light cloth is fine, shorts and tshirts are enough, just don’t forget your hat!

10. BE OPEN FOR ADVENTURE, FUN, GOOD FOOD AND LOVE!

Finally, when you come to Ecuador you have to be ready to have fun, enjoy its places, go exploring, try it’s delicious food and recieve the best treatment by its people. Ecuadorians will provide a lovely service no matter where you go, and I can guarantee they are being authentic, they are very truly happy about visitors coming and we all work very hard to provide the best experience while you are here.

If you are planning to come down here, do it, you won’t regret it. We will be waiting with open arms.

Author: Mario Fuentes, tour guide in Guayaquil.