bus travel

Welcome to Expat-blog,ashevillecouple

Hope that members soon give you a realistic picture of how safe is it to travel in buses.

Sorry to hear about the bad experience that your son and his friends have gone through.

Regards,
Sheetul

Asheville:
Busses are safe in some areas,it all depends in the routes and towns.Guayaquil and Manta are the two cities to watch, even in Quito people are robbed in El trole or Ecovia.Not good idea to ride busses at late evening or early dawn.Portoviejo is a safe, quiet town generally except some areas far from downtown.Do not carry your valuables such as expensive jewerly while riding on busses. Your route traveling on bus is good from Quito to Manta.From Manta to Puerto lopez best choice to hire a taxi,not expensive. Ask the hotel for a reliable taxi driver. Get back to Manta by taxi.From Manta to Guayaquil no problem in bus Reina del Camino, and from Guayaquil to Cuenca very safe riding a bus during daytime, even much better by plane.Hope this helps.
Luis

Luis, Thanks so much for your response, that's great advice.  My sense is that Ecuador is generally safer than the US and Europe but we will traveling with all of our stuff including some electronics (no worry about expensive jewelry) and just don't want to do anything dumb.

Do NOT bring alone ANY valuable things with you on buses! Bus travel is generally for low class. I'd say: air travel between major cities, than take a tour or a private driver that DON'T pick up passengers on the street.
If you frequently travel on buses, IT will happen, sooner or later, just be prepared: do NOT resist , keep some spare change and your fake wallet in your pockets, and the cheapest watch you can find. The rest of the dollar bills put in your sock (not your shoes, they might be taken as well). They would be thrilled to take your "wallet" and your watch. I have not heard that someone got hurt or kidnapped on a bus.