The Quilatoa Loop and Cotopaxi

We have had a wonderful week of hiking around the Quilatoa Loop and Cotopaxi! Our legs are tired, boots are dirty and clothes need to be washed, but we covered some spectacular ground this last week.

The Quilotoa Loop is a four day and three night hike through the mountains west of Latacunga and the famous volcano crater lake Quilotoa. It takes you through rural Andean villages and farmlands that are unreachable by bus and sometimes even truck. You are immersed in the simple lives of the colorful and friendly Kichwa (Quichua) indiginous people. The only catch is, the maps are not good nor are they to scale, the diretions are written by someone who does not speak perfect english and read something like ¨walk about 30 minutes down the road until you pass 3 white poles and continue to a clump of Eucalypt trees and find a trail descending to the left¨or cross the bridge, walk through some trees to the left, cross a small meadow diagonally and find a tiny trail.¨ We have met up with our Australian friend Luke, who joined us on this loop, and we were glad to have him so that three brains could work together to decipher the scavenger hunt that was our trail.

We took a bus from Latacunga to the tiny village of Quilatoa. There is nothing there, except a few buildings, a restaurant, and oh yeah, a HUGE crater lake, Laguna Quilotoa. The lake is rimmed by steep, jagged edges, over which a path was somehow formed. We did the hike/scramble in about three hours, and made it back to our hostel just in time for the clouds to roll in and turn the entire crater into a giant bowl of pea soup! All of the hostels along the loop provide breakfast and dinner in their room price, because there is literally no food (besides cookies and chips) for travelers to buy. Our hostel in Quilatoa was run by a Ketchwa family and we were pleasantly surprised with a substantial, traditional meal of potatoe/veg soup, rice, potatoes, veggies and chicken. It was FREEZING up in Quilatoa, so we huddled by the only stove in the house with the family and drank hot tea until we retreated to our beds with about 5 heavy wool blankets apiece!

The hike on day two took us from Quilatoa, along the west rim of the crater and then north 11km to the town of Chugchilan. In the first few minutes of our hike out of Quilatoa, a little boy appeared above the sandy cliff of the rim above us and told us that the hike to Chugchilan was very dangerous and we would need a guide. We had heard that some local people might try to get us to guide them for pay by feeding us absurd stories about the walk being long and hard, roads being washed out or it being dangerous. In fact, some of the local guides had removed the blue arrow signs that would have directed us to Chugchilan so that we would get lost and need a guide. We continued on without the aid of the 14-year old and had a sunny and succesful hike into Chugchilan. We explored the tiny town, attempted to play frisbee golf but were deterred by a charging llama, watched a local game of Equavolley and enjoyed another delicious dinner with people at our hostel.

The third day, we trekked from Chugchilan to Isinlivi. This was probably the most beauitful day of hiking. The sun was out and we followed grassy roads and trails that wound alongside cliffs, dropped deep into a valley and followed a muddy river before ascending through farmlands to Isinlivi. Perched in Isinlivi, we could see the stunning mountains all around us, green and quilted with square farms. Some of the hills were stepped with plateaus and looking down into lush sinkholes our eyes could barely perceive the depth. We were fed the best meal yet on our trip that night: Lasagna!

The fourth day we made the dusty trek into Sigchos, the biggest town we had yet encountered, and caught the only bus from there back to Latacunga. We rested the night and then took off the next day with a group from our hostel to do a day trip around Cotopaxi. We were able to visit surrounding lakes, hike up to the refuge and even further up to the glaciers and beginning of the snow. The highest elevation we hiked to was 5,000 meters, which is higher than Mt. Rainier, so we felt pretty good about that. Cotopaxi is a pretty volcano, but it is dusty and red right up to the snowline and even though people rave about its beauty, we have seen much cooler things growing up in the Pacific Northwest.

For tomorrow, we will relax in Latacunga, visit markets and do some much needed laundry! Then its off to Quito to catch our flight to the Galapagos Monday morning!!!