Getting In
I decided to go the adventurous way from Machalilla to Latacunga which required more buses, but was a more direct route, when I probably should have just gone back to Guayaquil and taken a direct bus. From a map perspective my way seemed like it was going to make more sense, but from a transportation perspective going through Guayaquil would have been much easier…and quicker.
First I took the 1 hour bus from Macachilla to Jipijapa and after eating a quick bite for lunch, I continued for another hour on the bus from Jipijapa to Portoviejo. Everything went smoothly to start but this is when things got dicier. I wanted to take a bus to Quevedo to continue in a straight path to Latacunga. But the guy told me that bus didn’t run until way later in the night and that it would be faster to go to Santa Domingo (or maybe he was just selling me on his company). Looking at a map this didn’t make a lot of sense. At least I would be heading east, but also way too far north. Santa Domingo is parallel to Quito and much further north than Latacunga. But it didn’t seem like I had much of a choice at this point, so I took his advice. This next bus ride was 5 hours and really had me questioning my decision to take this route.
I got into Santa Domingo around 9pm and the bus to Latacunga wasn’t until 10 so I grabbed a bite to eat. I somehow lost my ticket soon after I got it, but luckily I noticed pretty quickly and the lady at the counter was nice enough to give me a new one free of charge. She also told me to wait outside in the streets rather than in front of the bus station. I was a little weary, but there was an Ecuadorian lady who was on the same bus so I followed her. We ended up chatting while we waited. She was a 28 year old with 2 kids back in Latacunga who had to come up to Santa Domingo to fill out some papers. It’s also always good when your waiting with a local who is going to the same destination so that I feel more confident that I won’t miss the bus. Especially when it’s 10 at night.
We were chatting for awhile and the bus didn’t show up until 30 minutes after it’s scheduled departure. The bus was pretty empty so I was able to lie across both seats and sleep the whole time. My new Ecuadorian friend woke me up right before Latacunga to let me know that we were close. Very kind of her because I was passed out. The bus didn’t end up getting in until 2 in the morning. I left Macachilla at 12:30 in the afternoon so with delays between buses it took a little over 13 hours in total. In hindsight I should have taken the bus to Guayaquil then to Riobamba and stop to spend a few days there before moving onto Latacunga. But hey what are you going to do? It was a long day, but I made it.
The City
Latacunga is not a particularly beautiful town like going to Cuenca, but it’s the jump off point for lots of good hikes – Quilatoa Loop, Cotopaxi National Park, and Los Illinizas Ecological Reserve. When the weather is nice, Latacunga is supposed to have an amazing view of Cotopaxi, but unfortunately for me it was incredibly cloudy both days I was there and I couldn’t see anything. There’s really not much to see in the town besides a few plazas with churches and some nice mural paintings. I walked around the main area in just a few hours and had already run out of things to do.
It was hard to even find a bar to grab a beer, so I settled for a pizzeria as it was the only place with drinks. It was also very difficult to find an ATM that worked. In Ecuador, more so than anywhere else, a lot of the small banks don’t work with foreign cards. I had to try about 5 machines before I finally found one that worked. I kept that in mind as I needed to go back a 2nd time to ensure I had enough cash for the Quilatoa Loop since there are no ATMs in those small towns.
I spent a few days in Latacunga because I had to wait for Lena and Sophia (my friends from Spanish school in Montañita) to show up so that we could do the Quilatoa Loop together, but you really only need a few hours here. Like I said before, it’s more of a jump off point to other activities. At least it gave me an opportunity to acclimatize after being on the coast for 3 weeks. And I ended up discovering an amazing off the beaten path hike with the extra time I had.
Another nice part about being in Latacunga was that my friend Rebecca (from Medellin Spanish school and whom I traveled with for a week after) saw my Instagram story and said she was also there. Wow that’s awesome! This is definitely one of the advantages of posting stories on Instagram. We met up for drinks and caught each other up on our lives for the past 2 months. It was super nice to see a familiar face and reconnect on our travel experiences. Plus it looked like we would have more crossover further down the road as we were both heading south to Chile and Argentina after Ecuador (and we ended up meeting up multiple more times).
The Lodging
I stayed at Adventure Climbers hostel for 3 nights and it was only a few dollars more per night to have a private room so I figured why not. Other than having a pool table, the hostel wasn’t too special, but it provided me a nice quiet room for a few nights. On the day before leaving for the Quilatoa Loop with Lena and Sophia, there was a German guy, Andi, asking around to see if he could join a group of people for the trek. I told him I was going the next day with some friends if he wanted to join. He was very stoked about that and ended up becoming the fourth person in our crew. At first I was a bit hesitant because he seemed kind of hard to talk to, but as we got to know each other better throughout the trek I ended up really liking him and we had a great friendship. We exchanged lots of good stories and he had a great sense of humor.
Laguna Verde de Los Illinizas (7.1 miles, 3219 feet elevation gain, in and out)
After my first day in Latacunga when I realized there was really nothing to do in town, I was super eager to go for a hike because I had more time to kill before starting the Quilatoa Loop. I was a bit anxious the night before because the weather looked questionable and just getting to this hike was going to be a bit of an adventure. The trailhead was about 30 min outside of a small town called El Chaupi and I had read that there are people in town who you can pay to give you a ride out to the different trailheads but who knows what exactly that entails. On top of that uncertainty, just getting to El Chaupi wasn’t very obvious. There’s no direct bus from Latacunga so I was going to have to wing that a bit as well. Oh and I was going solo. What could possibly go wrong? The anxious feeling was also mixed with my yearn for adventure. After a few weeks of being at the coast I had a strong itch to go to the mountains. Plus I came on this trip willing to push myself out of my comfort zone and this was a good opportunity to do so. Luckily I had enough confidence in my Spanish at this point that I felt like I could navigate the uncertainty ahead.
My alarm went off at 5:45 because I wanted to get a head start to the day, not knowing how the weather would turn out. But with some lingering anxiety and general sleepiness, I snoozed until 6:15. I walked to the bus station and said I was going to El Chaupi, and the guy told me to hop on the bus leaving for Quito in a few minutes. Okay off to a good start. Of course since El Chaupi was about a 15 min drive from the main highway, I wasn’t dropped off directly in town but rather on the side of the highway. I walked across the street to a junction that had a bus stop and hoped/assumed it would head into town.
While waiting for the bus, this guy started chatting me up about being a guide to summit Cotopaxi so I got his info. He also said he has a friend in town that could give me a ride to the Los Illinizas parking lot. Perfect! The local bus to El Chaupi arrived soon after and I hopped on for 50 cents. As if it was too good to be true, Marco (the driver) was waiting for me outside the bus. Wow this morning is going great so far! He drove me and a group of a few other people the 30 minutes up a bumpy dirt road that definitely required a 4×4 with good clearance. I scheduled a 3pm pick up time with him and all concerns about transportation to and from the trailhead had vanished. Now I could focus on the hike.
The weather was far from desirable with grey clouds and fog blocking any sort of views. To me hiking is not just about the views and the landscape (although that it a huge part of it), but it’s also about the way it makes me feel connected to nature and how clear and positive my thoughts are. My soul is in its happy place.
The beginning of the hike felt like I was heading to Mordor in Lord of the Rings walking on a dirt path through a cloudy mountainous marshland where I could barely see a couple hundred meters in front of me. The hike began with a steady uphill which provided a good opportunity to acclimatize as the starting elevation was just over 13K feet. While the altitude got to me at first (especially after 3 weeks at sea level), it didn’t take long for me to get back into my rhythm and I was so happy that I had decided to make the extra effort to do this hike. Even if the weather wasn’t great, my mood was.
After about 1.5 miles of steady uphill, the real challenge began, as the incline got much steeper and the altitude got more intense. I was about 14,000 feet at this point but luckily I have done my fair share of high elevation hiking during the trip and I continued to keep a good pace with the occasional 10-15 second stop to catch my breath. I’ve become a big fan of high altitude hiking, it’s a feeling like nothing else in the world. It provides this natural high and adrenaline rush as you slowly work your way up the mountain and into the clouds. Maybe it’s the lack of oxygen in the brain, but you just reach this totally elevated mindset that is solely focused on going one step at a time. Everything in the world slows down and you are truly living in each moment.
I worked my way up the mountain and the last section before the refugee camp was covered in snow. It was a tough stretch gaining 1,300 feet in just 1 mile and I had that strong sense of accomplishment as I took a quick breather at 15,570 feet at the refugee camp. About a tenth of a mile after the refugee camp the path splits between going to Laguna Verde and going to the summit of Illiniza Norte (sitting at a whopping 16,818 feet)! As much as I would have loved to go to the summit, I had no idea what to expect and it looked like most people at the base camp had helmets and some even had ice picks. I didn’t know what was ahead and I wasn’t equipped well enough to find out.
Plus it was so cloudy that you couldn’t see the mountain peak at all…you could barely see a few hundred feet in front. So that added even more to the unknown. I guess I’ll just have to come back some day. The only good thing about not having views during a hike is that I can come back in the future and it will be like a brand new hike. I decided to take the “safer route” to Laguna Verde, although that wasn’t exactly a piece of cake either.
Within a minute of taking the fork in the path, I was walking along a snowy ridge that hung over a steep valley. The wind was roaring and the path was about as wide as putting both feet next to each other. A wrong or slippery step would have had me tumbling down into the valley (don’t worry Mom I had my Garmin!). Of course I just took it very slowly focusing on each step and using my hands when necessary. This stretch lasted for about 10-15 minutes but felt like a lifetime. Finally the ground started leveling out more and there was no longer a deep valley next to me so I could breathe easier. A short walk further led me to the Laguna Verde standing at 15,308 feet high.
At first it was so foggy that I could barely even see the water. I decided to have my lunch to see if it would clear up a bit. It was so cold though. Even with my gloves on, my hands were freezing. Afterwards I did a half loop around the Laguna and right as I was starting to leave, the clouds cleared up a bit and I had a nice view of the Laguna. Woohoo!!! A tour group was arriving as I was leaving so it was nice to know I was not the only person out here. The guide told me that on a clear day you also had great views of the two towering Illiniza mountains. Sigh. Oh well.
Of course I had to go back the way in which I came along the sketchy snowy ridge. Once again I just took it slow and shuffled my way out of there, passing one more group of 3 people. I was super happy once I got past this crazy snowy part as it was pretty adrenaline rushing and nerve racking.
The route down was a bit of a knee buster on the steep section after the refugee camp. Sometimes you forget just how steep it was on the way up, especially with the high altitude hiking, because you’re so focused on taking each step. The last mile of the hike ended with a pleasant stroll home through the dry brush of Mordor. The sky actually cleared up a little bit and I had some nice valley views on the way down.
I got to the parking lot by 1:45 so I had to wait for a little over an hour for Marco to arrive but no harm there. Marco’s brother ended up picking me and a few others up around 3:15. He spoke so quickly I could barely understand a word he said. He was one of those friendly reminders that some people are still impossible for me to understand.
I’m proud of myself for taking on this adventure. It wasn’t easy or straightforward, but everything actually went very smoothly and the end result was highly rewarding. I absolutely love hiking and this one gave me an extra strong sense of accomplishment. Now I just have to return some day to conquer the summits of Illizina Norte and Sur.
Quilatoa Loop (23.52 miles, 8392 feet elevation gain, 4000 feet elevation loss, point to point)
The Quilatoa Loop is an incredibly popular trek in the backpacker community and one of the top reasons that backpackers come to Ecuador (behind Galapagos and Cotopaxi). The nice thing about this trek is that you don’t need a guide or even your own tent because there are little Ecuadorian villages with B&B’s that you can stop at along the way. It wasn’t many years ago that this trek was like a treasure hunt trying to find these villages and figuring out where to stay. Now it’s much easier to figure out because there are countless blogs about the trek and most of the B&B’s have listing on Hostel world and booking.com. Regardless it’s still an incredible experience, although I think some of the fun and mystery has been lost in our current digital age. But you could say that about a lot of travel experiences these days. It’s nice that we can research just about anything on the Internet and find information, but it does take away from some of the adventurous side of traveling. Oh well, obviously I’m going to use the tools at my disposal to make the experience go more smoothly. And it was still an adventure nonetheless.
As we had discussed in Ayampe; Lena (Austria), Sophia (Netherlands) and I decided to do the Quilatoa Loop together starting on Monday. As I mentioned earlier in this blog post, there was a German guy in the hostel (Andi) looking for a group to do it with so I said that he could join us. The 4 of us ended up being the crew and I’m so glad how it all worked out. We had an incredible chemistry and it was such a fun couple days.
We all had so much fun with this particular group that we continued traveling together to Baños. Plus throughout the trek we added on 2 more other great people, Ryan and Heidi. More on that to come. This trek is typically done in 3 days, 2 nights (although you could fast track it and do just 2 days, 1 night but part of the fun is going slower and enjoying the B&B’s in the little villages). Another nice thing about the trek is that all the B&B’s have breakfast and dinner included in the price and you only need to worry about carrying your own lunch. And they even sold sandwiches for lunch for next to nothing; as well as snacks and drinks. Basically everything is already setup for you to make life easy.
Rather than taking the 2 hour bus from Latacunga to Sigchos (the starting point of the trek) and immediately starting the trek, we decided to leave the night before and stay in Sigchos. This is not your normal move for doing the trek but there’s really nothing to do in Latacunga and I’m glad we decided to do it.
Day 0
The weather wasn’t great on our bus ride from Latacunga to Sigchos but it was a beautiful ride through hilly countryside and green farmlands. It was nice to see this type of landscape after spending so many weeks on the Ecuadorian coast. It got me really excited for the trek ahead. The bus driver impressively made his way around the winding squiggly road uphill with clouds caught in the hillside. As we got to a higher altitude it was so cloudy you could barely see the road; once again putting a lot of faith in the drivers here to keep us safe.
We got to Sigchos and walked about 15 minutes to get to the Starlight Inn. No one was at the house but we were greeted by a pig dog with a tail. The creature had the face of a dog, the body of both a pig and a dog, and the tail of a pig. And the way it ate looked more like a pig. I later asked the girl working what kind of animal it was saying It looked like a dog and a pig and she just laughed. We will never know.
The whole scene felt like something out of a horror movie with all the fog in the air, the abandoned house, and the creepy farm animal. Do they even know we’re coming? We had just booked it earlier that morning. Andi messaged the person through his booking and we ended up waiting 30+ min for them anyone to show up. Luckily we had the pig dog to keep us entertained.
Once inside the place, it was actually really nice with a pool table and a fireplace. There was 3 different rooms with enough beds to sleep 10 people, but we had the whole place to ourselves so that was awesome. Andi and I played a few rounds of pool then we all sat by the fire drinking hot tea and chatting.
Dinner that night turned out to be delicious. We had a soup to start then a giant plate with chicken, rice, beans, and salad. After dinner, we sat around the fire having some really profound and deep fireside chats. Even though Lena is only 21 years old she has a much wiser and more mature perspective on life than her age. She just finished doing the entire PCT so I respect the living crap out of her. She felt like going to college in Austria during the pandemic with online clases wasn’t really beneficial for her at that time so she left and did the PCT. It was so awesome to pick her brain about that experience throughout the rest of the trek. She had so many cool stories and very interesting insight on thru hiking, being out in nature, and lots of other things. Like I said, her maturity level was above that of your normal 21 year old.
Sophia is a doctor in Netherlands who also had lots of interesting perspectives on different topics. She cracked me up because she had this neurotic nature to her, but also from her stories has this carefree party girl style to her. Andi was your classic beer loving German who loved to crack jokes and had his own interesting take on things. Overall it was a great group dynamic and both the conversations and jokes flowed easily throughout the entire trek.
Day 1 (7.0 miles, 1550 feet elevation gain, 1300 feet elevation loss, point to point)
Up to this point, I had bad weather for most of my time in Ecuador but I got super lucky for this trek as it was beautiful bluebird skies and sunny almost the entire time. We woke up to nice views outside the hostel. I could finally see the Illizinas volcanoes I hiked between the other day, but still no signs of Cotopaxi. Once again the Starlight Inn hooked it up with a big meal: eggs, fruits, yogurt, coffee, and juice. They knew how to prep us with a full stomach for the trek ahead.
The trail started as an easy walk along the road with views of the rolling hills and green farmlands. There was a few shortcuts on trails off the road but we mostly just followed the road. The conversation amongst the group continued to flow nicely as we made our way along the mostly flat road. Andi and I cracked jokes about how Cotopaxi didn’t exist and it continued to be a running joke throughout the trek. We were saying how if you search for Cotopaxi on Google it just says no results found. We believed that the volcano was just a conspiracy theory made up by local Ecuadorians to attract tourists.
After crossing a little bridge, we finally had a steep uphill section with about 20 min of switchbacks. This was the first true test of the trek. It wasn’t hard, but it wasn’t easy either. And the altitude wasn’t crazy high yet but we were over 9,000 feet high so it was challenging if not acclimated. Lena hadn’t hiked much since the PCT; this was the biggest hike Sophia had done (she kept being unsure of herself but she did great); and Andi doesn’t hike too much either but he was a pretty fit guy. So as usual I was the one leading the group in the front with Andi close behind and the two girls getting to the top about 10 minutes later. Once I had hiked with Lena longer, I learned more about her style and was quite impressed by her rhythm. Something about the way she hiked, you could just tell she had done a crazy hike like the PCT. She wasn’t necessarily super fast (which really doesn’t matter) but she had a good stride and consistent pace.
It was an easy first day of the trek and we got to Hostel Taita Cristóbal in Isinlivi by 1 in the afternoon and just chilled – reading, chatting, and drinking a few beers. There was hammocks with a nice backyard and an incredible view. It was truly the good life. I got really absorbed in my book, The Paris Apartment, and read a bunch of chapters that afternoon. Unfortunately the screen on my iPad cracked sometime during this day while it was in my backpack. It was a bummer but didn’t stop me from being able to read.
There was also llamas just hanging out in the backyard chilling and eating. It was kind of funny because the other popular lodge in this town, the Lulli Llama Mountain Lodge didn’t actually have llamas and our hostel did. You would think it would have been the opposite. We joked about exchanging one of the llamas at our hostel in order to have access to their hot tub.
While chilling in the backyard we met an American guy from Arizona, Ryan, who was in his late 30s and was a very well spoken and interesting character. He was also super outdoorsy and impressed when he heard Lena had done the PCT; and he asked her lots of good questions that brought out even more info and stories from her trip. I feel like with big trips like the PCT (or my South America trip) where so much happens and there’s so many stories/experiences/memories/etc, that the best way to talk about it is when other people ask good questions.
The dinner at this B&B was soup with pasta and it was decent but not as good as the other meals we had. Ryan plus our classic crew had both deep and hilarious convos that night after dinner. A lot of times when in nature, everyone’s goofy side comes out. And once that gets going then the conversations get silly and the laughter is rolling. This was definitely one of those nights. We all kept cracking each other up. A few conversations centered on ridiculous things about the US and I’m glad I had an American guy to defend/laugh at ourselves. Some of the topics included (1) Why we don’t use metric system. We all started laughing about how ridiculous the conversion is to calculate miles to feet versus kilometers to meters. (2) no ground floor in the US (3) American money all being the same size and shape. For some reason Lena was really curious how blind people decipher our currency since it all looks and feels the same. There was a quite few other silly discussions but I don’t remember anymore. All I know is that it was a great couple of hours where we giggled like a bunch of stoned teenage, but in reality we were just high on life.
Day 2 (8.4 miles, 2615 feet elevation gain, 1800 feet elevation loss, point to point)
We woke up around 8 to another day of bluebird skies and sunny. After eating breakfast at the B&B, the original group of the 4 of us hit the trail (Ryan wanted to hang around a little longer and get started later in the day). There was also a few other groups of people leaving the hostel at this same time that we ended up passing back and forth throughout the day. The hike began downhill and led us the through the beautiful hilly, Ecuadorian countryside with luscious green grass and trees.
We took an uphill shortcut that required a very small scramble to get up (which Sophia was quite nervous during but she did it) and provided us with great views of the valley. The next section continued with small ups and downs and stunning panoramic views before reaching a gorgeous mirador.
We kept passing the other group back and forth and we ended up adding Heidi, a Norwegian girl, to our group because she didn’t want to walk with 6 people from the Netherlands because they kept talking in Dutch. Normally Dutch people are very good about being accommodating with everyone and they speak in English (the Dutch speak English better than any other non native speakers) when around other people but I guess with 6 of them that wasn’t the case.
After the mirador was a very steep downhill section to the river where you almost had to run down due to the incline. Or at least I found that much easier. Once at the river we took a lunch break where I ate 1 of my 2 sandwiches I had purchased at the B&B. It was $1.50 for a pretty loaded ham, cheese, avocado and tomato sandwich. It was a steal of a deal.
After lunch was a slight uphill section to a small town that looked like it was from a western movie. It was a ghost town besides one little kid walking around and we joked that he was probably the mayor of the town. Andi and I had really started connecting on our silly senses of humor and we kept calling it the silicon valley of Ecuador. I’m not even sure how we came to this train of thought but we were saying that this is where they invented the fire extinguisher and the tree fence. Jokes that will only make sense to me and Andi, but I’m putting them in here for myself as they were hilarious at the time.
The next section was the steepest and most challenging of the day. It started with some steps that led into a number of switchbacks. All the sudden the town below came alive as all the children got out of school and little kids were racing passed us up the hill in their uniforms. For them this 20-25 uphill trek was nothing and just what they do every day after school.
Andi and I were way ahead of the others (he always did his best to keep up with my fast pace on the uphill) and we enjoyed the views from the mirador at the top with expansive valley views. I chatted up the local guy at the mirador who had built it for tourists and he gave us some info on the land. You could also tell he was hoping for a tip or some money. At least Heidi bought a little llama keychain so that was something. There was also little girls trying to sell us fruits and other snacks but I was still too full from lunch. Shouldn’t they be in school or something? We got some nice pictures of the crew once everyone had made it to the top.
The path continued with a steady uphill incline and one final steep section that had yet another gorgeous mirador of the valley below. We had come a long way on this day from our starting point and it’s always cool to look back on where you came from. Even though everyone was pretty tired, the good conversations and solid group connection continued. The final 1.5 mile walk of the day went along the highway before reaching Chucchilan. The road was surprisingly nice; it was better paved then most roads in Denver.
We finally got to Cloud Forest Hostel and the original 4 of us (sorry Heidi) went up to our room on the top floor which had multiple hammocks and swinging chairs outside our room. It was the perfect place to just chill and drink some beers. I also finished my book after being totally absorbed the day before.
We were served a huge dinner that evening with soup, chicken thighs, rice, beans, and salad. It was probably our best dinner yet. I was chatting it up with some French people that we had seen in our hostel the night before. Then to finish off dinner they gave us this warm apple cider that the owner topped of with aguardiente (anise liquor that I drank a lot of in Colombia).
Andi and I had been talking about going to the Country Bar in town ever since we arrived in Chucchilan and saw that it existed. So after having a beer at the hostel we messaged Ryan and told him to meet us there (the girls were too tired to join us). But when we got there, we were disappointed to find out that it had already closed even though it was only 9pm. We went back to the hostel to have one final beer before calling it a night when Ryan came out of nowhere (he was staying at a different hostel). He knew we were at Cloud Forest Hostel and he heard Andi’s booming laugh. So the 3 of us drank yet another beer and just shot the shit. Andi was telling us about the ridiculous drinking activities in his town. They legitimately do a beer Olympics weekend just like in Beer Fest but with even more competitions. They also made a giant slingshot that they used to launch people into the lake. The videos were absolutely hilarious. Oh the stupid shit people do in a random small town in southern Germany…or anywhere. Some of my favorite Andi quotes from the night were: “only 2 people have been concussed doing the slingshot, and it doesn’t matter because they were idiots anyways” and “Beer bongs can cure cancer. I do a lot beer bongs and I don’t have cancer. That’s my science behind it.” He was the classic big German dude who loves both drinking and talking about beer.
Day 3 (9.1 miles, 4200 feet elevation gain, 600 feet elevation loss, point to point)
We woke up around 7 and had a huge breakfast at the Cloud Forest Hostel before hitting the road for the longest and hardest day. They gave us a fruit bowl, yogurt, pancakes, and an omelet. It’s good to have a big breakfast before hiking but this one was almost excessive. We saw Ryan in the morning as we were leaving town so now we had our full group of 6. The 4 original crew members plus the 2 good add ons to the group.
The hike began along the road through farmland but it wasn’t too long before we reached a steep uphill trail that was made extra challenging in the heat. It was only about 20 minutes (for me and Andi, we waited for the rest of the group at the top) but the incline was a calf burner, especially on day 3 of the trek. After a short rest and a few group photos, we continued a short way back along the road through the small village of La Moya Baja before getting back onto the trail. This next part was a beautiful path cutting along the side of the mountain with incredible valley views. The landscape was stunning and it was one of the highlight sections of the trek.
We took a quick snack stop off in a gazebo with a nice overlook before doing the final stretch of the day. It was a mixture of road and trail and there was some steep shortcuts that really had the heart racing with the altitude (we had reached over 12K at this point) and the day 3 legs.
Once again, Andi and I had zipped ahead of the group since it was a given that we would all meet at the top. Even though I led the entire trek, he jumped in front of me at the very end just to say he was the first one at the top. That bastard! We made it to the top a little before noon and had beautiful views of the electric blue lake below as we sat 12,500 feet high. Laguna del Quilatoa is a collapsed volcano known as a caldera lake similar to Crater Lake in Oregon. About 800 years ago, the volcano erupted, and the force of the eruption led to its subsequent collapse, forming what is now the lake. Over time, the caldera formed by the collapse filled with water, which gets its beguiling blue-green color from minerals dissolving. The caldera lake is 3 kilometers in width, and its walls reach 400 meters in height from the surface of the lake to the viewpoint area. The lake reaches as much as 240 meters deep in the center.
On a good day you’re supposed to be able to see Cotopaxi off in the distance but once again it proved to not exist because it was blocked by the clouds. However we got really lucky with the weather all 3 days and we still had perfect views of the lake. I’ve seen other peoples’ photos where it was covered by the clouds.
The rest of the group made it up shortly after us and we sat at top for close to 2 hours eating our lunches, enjoying the views, and taking lots of photos. It had been since the Salkantay trek in Perú that I had done a multi day hike and I was feeling that strong sense of accomplishment after 3 days of trekking.
But we weren’t in the clear yet as we had to get to the other side of the lake. It was a steady up and down path along the rim of the crater. Per usual Andi and I were in the front and we lost the girls, but 3 dogs joined us for the remainder of the route. We joked that this was an upgrade since the dogs talked a lot less. We finally made it to the town of Quilatoa a little after 2 and enjoyed a beer and watched the dark clouds come in. We made perfect timing as the view became more and more covered with time and the lake was practically invisible by the time we left.
Overall it was an incredible trek and the group dynamic made it all so much better.Originally Lena, Sophia, and I had talked about staying the night in Quilatoa but there really wasn’t that much of a town and we were all ready to go to Baños so the 5 of us (everyone but Ryan) decided that was our next step. When you have a good crew stick with it. But first we had to take the 2.5 hour bus back to Latacunga to get all our stuff before heading to Baños.q
