The Quilotoa loop

Monday the 4th of October 2010
Together with Martijn en Nienke (NED), who we met the day before in Latacunga, we took an early morning bus to Quilotoa. Upon arrival we checked in in the hostel and restaurant Cabañas, were the meals are served for all guests at the same time. It feels like you are all one big family, which creates a very enjoyable atmosphere. After checking in and having a quick bite, we walked to the crater lake Quilotoa is famous for. Full of energy we decided to walk down the crater all the way to the lake. Walking down was not a big problem, going back up was much harder. Quilotoa is located at about 3500m above sea level and the path is pretty sandy… tough! For the remaining part of the day we restricted ourselves to a walk in and around Quilotoa – again the landscape was stupefying. At night we played a game of carts and went to bed early in our woodstove heated room.

Tuesday the 5th of October 2010
We woke up at 7 in the morning and felt more or less ready for the 12 km hike from Quilotoa to Chuchillan – we didn’t sleep to well because of a baggy mattress. Nienke decided to take a bus, but she was quickly replaced by Vanessa, a girl from Hong Kong who we met the evening before. The altitude, the terrain and the lack of sleep the night before made it a pretty hard walk. Especially the last part was tough, but also the nicest. We walked down a valley on one side to walk up again on the other side. This was after our lunch break in Guyama where we arrived at the school playground right at lunch time for the kids at school, allowing us to have lunch altogether. We arrived early in Chuchillan (14h). Vanessa decided to stay overnight and walk to Isinlivi the next day. Martijn and the two of us decided to get in a pickup and try to catch the next bus to Latacunga in the next town 40 minutes down the road. The view during the entire bus trip was postcard worthy again.