I have about 2-3 more posts to wrap up my South American adventures and need to be clear for upcoming travels! Where was I? Ah yes, in Ecuador, embarking on a self-guided trek to a volcano crater...
I think I've mentioned how one of my favorite and simultaneously least favorite things about traveling is meeting new people. It is really difficult to constantly be in small talk mode, but it's also fascinating hearing peoples' stories, sharing advice and tales. That's one of the reasons I enjoyed the Quilotoa Loop so much. We started a group of 3 women and ended a group of 10 people and 1 puppy, we all got past the small talk, and it kind of felt like a mini-family.
Holly and I left Quito headed for Latacunga via the main bus station. While walking through the station, we picked up an Aussie, Daniel, or Dan the Man, Damn Daniel = Damniel, and any other name variations you can think of. The three of us (Holly, me and Daniel) met Cali in Latacunga before the trek, wandered around town a bit, had dinner, were interviewed on tape by local high school kids who are taking a class in tourism and had a project to make an add for visiting Latacunga.
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| Squadanas! (Squad of Bandanas) Holly, Daniel, Cali, Jess |
The next morning the four of us (me, Holly, Daniel, Cali) met a woman from Munich, Germany (Heidi) and man from Basel, Switzerland (Stefan) on the bus that dropped us off at the starting point of the trek, a town called Sigchos.
Day 1:
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| Cali the pig whisperer |
The (now) 6 of us (me, Holly, Cali, Daniel, Heidi and Stefan) hiked the first day from Sigchos to Isinlivi. It felt like a pretty short trek - only 14k, but the last 5k or so was in the pouring rain, which was a real downer. But the views of the Ecuadorean Andes were paralleled only by the views of the Peruvian Andes from the month prior and our hike to Machu Pichu. We stayed at an adorable hostel that owned a llama (?!?!) called LluLlu Llama, with delicious food, a composting toilet, and hot showers. They literally greeted us at the door with towels, free hot tea and coffee, which was a life saver after the rain hike. Also at the hostel, we picked up our next 4 group members - Tina and Ian a middle aged couple from Ontario, and their college aged son Gordon, as well as Monique, another woman from Berlin, Germany.
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| Dan taking a short rest on Day 1 - before the rain started! |
Day 2:
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| Hiked by this mountain stream for a bit on Day 2 |
Consisted of another 15k from Isinlivi to Chigchulan. The scenery was even better, which is mind blowing. AND the weather was beautiful today. Unfortunately, Cali came down with Montezuma's Revenge, so we left her in the capable hands of the LluLlu Llama staff and essentially traded her for Paul - another U.S. citizen (Nashville). This was my favorite day of hiking, probably because the weather was so fabulous. I mostly just want to share photos from today because I think the views were unparalleled by anything else I saw in South America.
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| One of the amazing views on Day 2 |
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| Amazing view number 2 from Day 2 |
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| Had to cross this bridge - terrifying! No rails! |
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| Heidi bonds with a baby pig towards the end of Day 2 |
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| Gordon and Stefan relax after our Day 2 - we beat the rain! |
Day 3: Chigchulan to Quilotoa. Today, we picked up a puppy from another group of hikers who are going the reverse route from us and say she followed them from Quilotoa to Chigchulan. She followed us the whole way back to Quilotoa AND she was reunited with her family just inside the city limits. Today was our longest day of trekking. It was really exhausting, we've been arriving just after lunch time each of the other days and today we didn't arrive until almost dinner. With the high altitude and mountain hiking, I was spent!!! Cali arrived safely by taxi in Quilotoa and rejoined us at the hostel.
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| Gordon bonds with our new puppy |
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| Some of the trails we hiked looked like this! |
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| Made it to the Quilotoa Crater Lake! |
Our entire group took a van/bus back to Latacunga on the morning of Day 4 and then Daniel, Monique, Holly, Cali, and myself are continuing on to Banos. Heidi, the Canadians, and Paul are headed to Cotopaxi Volcano and Stefan is heading home. Holly and I have to figure out how to spend our next week before we leave. WOW, feels so soon and so ready to see Tim!
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| The town of Quilotoa with the mountains in the background |
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