Greater communication between booking and arriving would have avoided problems on arrival. Some of the initial information was misleading such as distance of animal sanctuary from the nearest town. When I queried location for inoculation purposes I was given different information. I enquired about booking the airflight with them. The flight cost given was considerably higher than I had found on Expedia and my email had not been read correctly so the dates did not match the dates I had given. Although I stated that I would be staying in Ecuador for a few days after the volunteering and would not be returning straight to Quito, this was not relayed to the local organisation and so they had booked a hostel room for me. The meeting with the local agent was good, the taxi driver hired to take me to the bus was excellent. The hostel was very poor. I had asked if I would need Spanish as I have none. I was told no as English was spoken at the project. That English was spoken at the project was correct. Not at the hostel where I was booked in, fortunately a little by the taxi driver but that was fortunate - I found very few taxi drivers, shopkeepers or hoteliers who spoke English. Given that the arrival day is Sunday, many places were closed and the hostel could not even muster up a cup of tea people need to be told to buy plenty of water at the airport before leaving it and food if possible. I was able to find a pastry shop open, otherwise I would have had nothing to eat. The volunteer project was brilliant.