After hanging out in the big city of Quito awaiting the arrival of my dear ol' Dad... it was time to head out into the countryside of Ecuador to stretch our legs and get some fresh mountain air.
Since there is no shortage of countryside here the question was, where exactly do we want to head first? A bit of adventure and uncertainty is what eventually led us in the direction of the Quilotoa Loop. You see, trying to decipher the Lonely Planet's directions on how to go about getting to the loop is like trying to understand your camera manuel in Dutch. Virtually impossible!
From Quito we were told to catch a bus from the northern bus terminal heading towards Latacunga. A ten dollar taxi ride from hell dumped us off on the side of the street with all our gear at the northern terminal where we quickly learned that we were at the wrong place. As it turns out, Latacunga is located south of Quito, meaning that we needed to make our way to the southern bus terminal in order to get on a bus heading south towards Latacunga.
Confusion had already set in and it was only 9 o'clock in the morning, but not to worry because the life of a perpetual traveler is good regardless of how many different buses one must take in the same day! So with one taxi ride and three bus rides later... we arrived to the remote town of Zumbahua.
Zumbahua is a small indigenous town located about 15k from a volcanic lake known as Laguna Quilotoa. This was to be the first stop... or so we thought... on the infamous Quilotoa Loop.
After standing for the last 2 hours of our journey on the oversold bus through the Andes Mountains it was time to find a cervza and take some photos of the locals. The problem is that the indigenous folks believe that pictures steal your soul, so they don't generally allow you to point your camera in their direction.
You must become an expert sniper shooter in order to get any good shots of them and this is not a very easy task when you are one of the only three white people walking around town with a gigantic camera hanging around your neck. You must be quick or you will most definitely receive a nasty look or you might even get suckered into giving your target a dollar to re-pay them for the soul you stole!
Thankfully there was a market taking place the following morning and within the middle of that market was a large rock that we deemed "the sniper rock" and sniper we did!
Having read and re-read the Quilotoa Loop "directions" in our "trusty" Lonely Planet with an end result of mass confusion... we decided to give up on navigating our way around the entire loop and settle for just making it to the lake. Just as we were pondering on how the heck to get the 15k from town to the crater, we were approached by a local to pay $2 each for a lift in the back of his pick-up truck. Just like that we were on our way to Laguna Quilotoa!
Laguna Quilotoa is a lake that has formed in the crater of an extinct volcano. It was formed almost 800 years ago following a catastrophic explosion, which caused the collapse of the volcano and the creation of this pristine glassy-green lake.
It is about 800 feet deep and close to 2 miles wide. It will cost you $1 buck to see it, but it is definitely worth it.
It makes for a beautiful place to spend the day, but I suggest getting there early in the morning as it tends to shower in the afternoons. Unfortunately for us... nobody told us about the inevitable afternoon shower and so our time at the lake was cut short, but not before I managed to sniper shoot the next National Geographic photographers at work.
After several hours of walking around taking pictures as well as getting caught in the rain, we opted to flag down another local and hitch a ride back into town. Time to pack up and catch yet another bus!
Next stop... Banos... the land of natural hot springs! Yes please!
