Quilotoa-Chugchillan: The Sweet Smell of Dust, Fumes and the Ditch

The night was long at Manuel´s, not going to lie to you, that bed was hard as a rock. We rose early to try and get a view of Cotopaxi across the Laguna Quilotoa. No such luck, a wicked wind was blowing and Cotopaxi was clouded in. You could still see for miles and the Illiznas were snow covered in the distance.



We had agreed to go, with Manuel as our guide, for the 7.5mile trek to Chugchillan (rather than wait for the bus that dropped us off yesterday at 230pm to return and go there). Manuel got his mule Chocolate all saddled up with our bags and we set off on the hike around 8am.

The first hour of the hike skirts along the lip of the volcano and then down the edge of it through farmers´ fields, down, down, down into a huge canyon and back out again up towards Chugillan. It was a hike we probably could have done ourselves if not for the extreme heat in the day (aka we have really heavy bags) and for the rabid, racist dogs that live in some of the houses along the way. Apparently, another girl had been attacked a month ago really badly, and the nearest hospital is Latacunga. These dogs don´t really have a problem with locals, but with "gringos" they seem to have a different opinion. And sure enough they did, until Manuel showed them Chocolate´s ass and a few rocks to boot.

Manuel had a friend who owns Cloudforest Hostal in Chugchillan, so he brought us there. Chugcillan is a little bigger, it has a tiny store (and also ice cream .. yum) and paved roads. The hostal actually had showers, and proper W-C´s and no more dirt floors. Price again includes breakfast and dinner (no restaurants around here) and we soon settled into hammocks swinging to the breeze and basking in the full view of our route to Chugcillan.

There were two other people at the hostal that night, two retired Canadians on a four month trip of SA. They have a bit more money so had a private guide etc, but they were interesting to talk to because they have been to over 100 countries. As it turns out they are from Hollands Marsh in Ontario, and also just happen to know a friend of a friend in Whitehorse.. Small world.

The next day we were up in time to catch the Milk Truck at 9am. Actually we had ben asking around town and there was a rumour that there was an 830 bus. While waiting we got an offer from a Propane truck that was to return in 30 min. But before it or the milk truck could show up, this mystery bus came along. We pilled in along with all the locals and got the last seats at the very back of the bus. We soon realised that this was no ordinary bus as the driver was soon attaching a political flag to his antanna. We are pretty sure he was attempting to break a land speed record to get to Sigchos, as he was flying along the windy dirt road. The trip included such highlights as bumps with 2 feet of ass to air to seat ratio, a layer of dust on everything, exhaust, passing on one lane corners, including a ditch swerve, and of course getting to Sigchos in 45min (should have taken 90min).

His speed worked for us, as we managed to catch another mystery bus into town at 10am, and we got to Latacunga in record time by 1230pm.

Plans have kind of changed, and we have fallen into the luring gaze of Cotopaxi. Trekking and climbing here is a lot cheaper than back home and there is an oppurunity to climb Cotopaxi with a guide. The route, although not techinical, still requires a lot of endurance with the summit being 5897m and the base camp at 4,200m. Altitude is going to be a real factor, and a lot of people don´t make the summit because of the altitude. It will be 700m higher than we have ever been and will involve glacier travel. We have hired the services of a professional english guide. We will get training with crampons and ice axes the day before the asscent, mostly given that we will be travelling on ice, not because of any technical climbing requirements. The asscent is commensed at midnight, aiming to reach the summit by dawn, and then back down in a few hours.

Cotopaxi is the second highest mountain in Ecuador and the highest active volcanoe in the world. It towers above Latacunga, covered in snow and ice and often clouded in. People who have been up it say that only a clear day you can see into Colombia from the summit. Latacunga itself has been destroyed by it many times in the past, and is actually only 30min away from lava in the event of an erruption. In the past, lava has reached the town at speeds of 90km an hour. That being said it is once of the most watched and monitored volcanoes in the world. Currently there is NO ACTIVITY ON THE MOUNTAIN, AND IF THERE WAS WE WOULD NOT BE CLIMBING IT, NOR WOULD OUR GUIDE, NOR WOULD THERE BE ANYONE IN LATACUNGA.

Tomorrow is going to be a rest day, we will leave for the climb on Monday at 10am. Chance of a lifetime.

Saquisili-Quilotoa: Life in the Middle of Nowhere

Thursday morning saw another early day, up early to get a view of Cotopaxi (before it clouds in around 8am), and also to head out to the indegenous market of Saquisili. Having just visited the famed market in Otavalo, it was an excellent oppurtunity to take in a much more authentic market.

There were a few stalls set up for toursity affairs (ponchos etc) but the rest of the market was aimed at local people, and they come from all over. Stalls with used clothing, food stuffs, household goods fill up the main market area. There is also a section set up with sewing machines to fix anything that may need to be fixed, as well there is a seperate animal market, that made the animal market at Otavalo look tiny.



The animal market is especially interesting because of the sounds and the smells that are there. As with all sections of the market it is flanked on the edges by food stalls selling all sorts of food, but most with a full roast pig which is carved away throughout the day. Then the market is broken down into sections, there is a section where you can buy food for your animals, and then from there it is the sheep and llama section, pig section, and cow, horse and donkey section. The sound of the pigs is the most amusing because they pretty much don´t want to do anything outside of snuffling the ground, and so their squeels and grunts fill the air. Some of it is kind of hard to take in because some of the owners get pretty annoyed with their pigs not listening and use some drastic dragging, switch hitting and kicking methods.

We must say we enjoyed this market far more than the market in Otavalo, although it was worth it to see both. The market in Otavalo is a lot more kitsche in retrospect, with repeat stall after repeat stall of tourist goods. Saquisili has a more authentic purpose, serving the community, and is less for show and at times seemed like a flea market (although parts of Otavalo´s market where definitely not for tourists).

We spent only a few hours in Saquisili as we had been told there was a 10am bus leaving Latacunga for Quilotoa, the first stop along the Quilotoa Loop. As usual, you have to ask a few people when the buses are leaving, every person says something different, and none of them end up being correct. The bus actually left at 1130am.

The bus ride in itself to Quilotoa was amazing. As it seems with most of our travels, it wound through dirt road switchbacks past farmlands and craggy mountains, absolutely breathtaking scenery. As the Loop is a bit off the beaten track, and because it isn´t tourist season, we were the only tourists on the bus, and the rest of the people were locals returning from the market to their homes.

We arrived in Quilotoa after a couple of hours and were dropped off on the side of the dirt road outside of town. Quilotoa is a tiny, tiny town (pop 125) on the top of a mountain which overlooks one of the most spectacular volcanic lagoons in Ecuador. There really aren´t any hostals in town, just a few very very basic beds for rent in people´s houses. Luckily we didn´t actually have to start knocking on doors because a man on a bike met us on the road in and told us he had a few beds at his house. For 7USD each we got a bed in a dirt floor house with a fire place and two meals.

As with most things Lonely Planet (hence forth referred to as LP) touches, Quilotoa is now learning to embrace the tourists and so our "hostal" owner had started up his place a year or two ago, and is working on it bit by bit. He has a small room with about ten beds in it, adjoining another smaller room with a common table and a fire stove.

This hostal is basically built on the lip of the crator´s rim and about a 30second jaunt uphill past the sheep and the pig to the lookout. The lagoon in itself is huge, so big I couldn´t even fit it into one picture, with tourqoise water and huge cliffs. After some tea we decided to head out and hike along its rim and down by the lagoon and back out again. This, in hindsight, was a poor idea to do in sandals given all the sand sliding over volcanic rock, but it was a fun adventure none the less.

The night was spent hanging around with Manuel and his family. Manuel didn´t speak any english, but he spoke Spanish and Quechua (local indegenous language in SA) and so it was a lot of fun speaking to him. At times it was hard, it felt somewhat like we were being babysat. There were no other tourists there, or for what we could tell in town at all. His family, or at least one of them was always with us. They are quite resourceful, having started up the hostal and also Menual paints in the Ecuadorian style of the lagoon and Cotopaxi and llamas etc. His esposa weaves scarves and Manuel also translates stories into Quechua to sell. Sitting with them was very interesting, it is just hard sometimes because we find that a lot of people know that if they put up with some small talk with tourists they are more likely to make a bigger sale.

That being said we asked as much as we could. We talked about his land, how it is about a 15 by 20meter plot and that he bought it for a few thousand dollars. His plot is right on the lagoon and back in Canada it would be worth millions. He told us a large pig here is worth 100+ USD, although that is cheaper in the city. He said a rooster is worth 10-15 USD, although again, cheaper in the city. (Quilotoa is very far removed and tiny, there is no store or water. Manuel has to go into town once a week on the 3am bus to get supplies) He told me a good horse is worth 300USD, although for packing and trekking his mule, Chocolate, is better. He talked about how he usually goes to bed at 6pm and gets up at 3 am every day. He owns three plots of land, one down by the lagoon, the one his house is on, and another one out in the country. His wife works as part of a humanitarian sponsored well dig, because Quilotoa has no water (it is too high). He has six kids (from 6 to 20) he is 44 years old. Four kids live with him and two are away in Baños studying school (school in the area only goes until 6th year).

In any case it was very interesting. The whole family was in by the fire (it gets dang cold up there at night) his wife knitting and his kids playing. His son really liked the Canadian money, and we are kicking ourselves that we only brought a quarter, penny, dime and a twenty dollar bill. They were really interested to learn that our 20 is worth less than the USD 20.

The family doesn´t have enough beds, so I think they usually sleep in the beds they have for tourists. Manuel asked us if his wife could sleep in one and we didn´t mind. He ended up sleeping there with one of his kids and his wife. They must have been tired staying up with us because they were snoring within seconds.

Latacunga: Life on the Loop

Today was a day of spur of the moment actions. We caught a bus from Quito to Latacunga in what is becoming our fashion of showing up at the Terminal and our cabby pointing out a bus leaving the terminal going in our direction. Touts screaming, us hustling, bags thrown on board, and before we can blink and recap that ten minutes ago we were in our hostel, we are on the way to wherever we are going.

The ride was beautiful. Green fields rolling over hills and tumbling up mountain slopes. We passed by Cotopaxi, one of (if not the) highest active volcanoes in the world. Snow capped and glaciated with its perfect volcanic cone, it towered above the bare mountains around.

Latacunga is a busy market town in itself, but for us it is the starting point of the Quilotoa Loop, a high alpine dirt road, cirling the sierra. It takes a couple of days to get around it via bus and-or milk truck and-or local vehicles. The road in itself is only a couple of Km´s, but minimal transport combined with a high alpine volcanic lake and hiking make it take a while.

The plan is to head out to a local indegenous market (apparently the most important indegenous one in Ecuador) and then head out on the loop. It will take 2-5 days, so you can all be thankful, the insane postings and photos will be on hiatus until then.

As to all of you Canadians, Happy Thanksgiving.

Quito: trolleys, plazas, churches and pedestrian steets

We are in Quito. We arrived on Sunday after a long hot bus ride from Otavalo, this time, we were able to disembark at the bus station. With our packs on our backs, and our guidebook and some souveiners in our hand, we were off and found a hostal without too much difficulty.

After checking into our room, we were off to explore the city, and look at other accomodations for the next two nights that we would be here. We hadn´t walked very far before we realized that Quito is a city that is removed from our experiences in South America thus far. Surprisingly, for a big city, the pace is very relaxed and the people nice. We have not been harrassed by touts trying to get our buisness and are very comfortable and feel safe walking through the streets.

Quito is very reminisant of a European city. The streets, although mainly one ways, are a little wider than other cities in SA (not the sidewalks) and there are many pedestrian only streets. The Grand Plazas, interior courtyards and the abundance of churches all speak to European influence. The Colonial architecture in the Old Town occupies street after street, and we are pretty excited to do more exploring.

Our guidebook does recommend that we do not walk the streets after dark, so our sightseeing on Sunday was very limited as we wanted to see some of the other Hostals that are in the city. After a couple of hours, and countless rooms looked at, we arrived at Hostal Bambu. Despite a very plain exterior, we were very impressed with the inside of the hostal, complete with a kitchen, library, internet service and a roof top patio with a spectacular view of the city. We quickly reserved for the next two nights.

On Monday, we spent the morning wandering the "Old Town" of Quito. The city is divided into the Old Town and the New Town. The Old town is the more colonial part of the city, while the New Town is much more modern and more of the buisness, tourist sector with its taller buildings as well as a couple of Universities and most of the banks.

We checked into our new hostal in the early afternoon, and spent the remainder of the day doing some running around, which included a bit of a struggle to send a package back to Canada. Should arrive in 8 days....so we are told.

We have been very surprised to find that we are enjoying Quito, and despite being a large city, are feeling quite relaxed, and aren´t overly anxious to get out of town.

Our plans are to head off to the Equator tomorrow, a seemingly simple 22km bus ride, and blow our minds jumping between hemispheres. Then explore Quito a bit more in the afternoon. Wednesday, we will begin our travels again, heading south to Latacunga. It is very near Cotopaxi, a major mountain in Ecuador, and also a side trip that we want to do that will take us through some (hopefully spectacular and not clouded in) Andean country and should be quite interesting as we have to arrange much of our own transportation along the way.

Might be a while before we blog next as a result.. and probably until we send more photos (as if we haven´t sent out enough.. phhew)