Ecuador — Insurance

Buy comprehensive cover including theft and crime-related injury — Ecuador's current security situation makes this non-optional — and check the policy has no exclusions for areas under state-of-emergency decrees. Quito sits at 2,850 m and altitude symptoms are common the first days. Private clinics in Quito, Guayaquil and Cuenca offer good care with upfront card payment; public hospitals are free but stretched.

Free, confidential HIV and STI testing is available through Ministry of Public Health (MSP) health centres, and PrEP is dispensed through the public system; private laboratories in any city run same-day panels for modest cash fees. Condoms are sold in every pharmacy (Fybeca and similar chains).