What’s the Weather Like?

:   December 11, 2017

The infamous question of every phone conversation I have with beloved friends and family, “what’s the weather like? Is it hot?”  As simple as these questions may be, they are surprisingly difficult to answer. You see the weather of Ecuador depends on where you are. Each of the 4 regions offers a different climate and sometimes each city within a region differs in it weather compared to its neighbor. And despite being named after the equatorial line, Ecuador is not always blistering hot. More times than not, it’s a comfortable temperature with a mixture of sun and clouds. So to give you an idea of the climate, here are the current temperatures of some of the most famous cities

Puerto Lopez – 72^o F (Where I live on the southern coast)

Puerto Viejo – 88^o F (Onehourfrom Puerto López)

Guayaquil – 75^o F (on the southern coast)

Canoa – 78^o F (on the central coast)

Esmeraldas – 81^o F (on the northern coast)

Quito – 62^o F (at 2,850m in altitude in Sierra region)

Otavallo – 63^o F (2,550m in altitude in Sierra region)

Loja – 65^o F (2,060m in altitude in Sierra región)

Cuenca – 70^o F (2,560m in altitude in Sierra region)

Banos – 46^o F (1,820m in altitude in Sierra region, also known as entrance to the Amazon)

Napo – 85^o F (in the Amazon)

Tena -85^o F (in the Amazon)

Tulcán – 59^o F (Northern Ecuador, known for being the coldest city in Ecuador)

GalagaposIslands – 73^o F

Chimborazo Volcano – 18^o F

As the numbers show, the variety in temps is enormous and answering that “simple” question of “what’s the weather like” is not so simple after all.

Now you think equator, you think sun, right? Wrong. Just how there are different seasons of  summer, spring, winter, and fall, here there are rainy seasons, and dry seasons. But again, when these seasons happen depends on where you are.  June – September is “winter” and is considered the dry season. While I agree with this because rainfall was minimum, there wasn’t a lot of sun and being a sun worshiper, I didn’t enjoy this season.  At least for us on the coast, June – September was filled with mild days, cloud cover, and slight drizzle. October – May is “Summer” or otherwise known as the wet season. Yes, rainfall definitely increased but I was ok with it because sun was plentiful. This season is also considered “la temporadaplayera” and many people vacation to the coast to take advantage of said sun. So basically to sum it up, it will be either be hot, sunny, and rainy, or mild, cloudy, and dry.  So depending on what you prefer, you can understand why the slogan for this amazing place is “All you need is Ecuador.” There is truly something for everyone.

**My inspiration for this post is the current weather of Puerto Lopez. It is now almost the end of November, which as I just showed is technically the summer with sun and rain. However, the sun has made a very slow comeback and I am a little sad and I can’t wait to be relaxing on the beach in my swimsuit once again. I am waiting for you Mr. Sun, we all are!