Ecuador was one of the calmest countries in Latin America until about three years ago. Today, criminals prowl relatively wealthy and working-class neighborhoods alike: professional hitmen, kidnappers, extortionists and thousands of thieves and robbers. Mexican and Colombian cartels have settled into coastal cities like Guayaquil and grabbed chunks of the trade shipping hundreds of millions of dollars of cocaine from neighboring Colombia and Peru to countries overseas.
Dang, I hope things get better for people there, it was on my short list of places I’d like to travel to.
My wife and I made plans (flights/hotels) to go there early next year. I’m starting to have seconds thoughts.