After a beautiful stay at the Secret Garden Cotopaxi, I set off with a girl called Amy and guy called Ryan to embark on a four day, three night hike to a town and volcanic crater called Quilotoa. It may sound more daring than it is, where it does involve hiking between 7-15km a day, we were going to stay in hostels in the small towns along the way.
The 'Quilotoa loop' is about three hours from Quito. People vary how they actually visit the Quilotoa crater with some opting to just take a day trip there. After talking to some girls I met in the hostel in Quito who had done the three nights along the way, I was keen to also see the small indigenous villages, canyons, lagunas and volcanoes along the way. It also doesn't require you to have a guide so as long as I had someone to read the map (I literally have zero sense of direction), I thought I would be fine!
Ryan, Amy and I got a public bus to a town called Latacunga where we stayed in a hostel called Tianas for a night. We left our bags here the next day taking only small backpacks with us (I actually think I'm slowly getting the whole 'packing lightly' ethos down). Each hostel along the way gives you maps of the route to take and each route is marked so no need to worry for the directionally challenged like myself.
The next morning we took a bus to Sigchos which took about two hours and cost about $2. From here we set off (well after a cheap 'almeurzo'/lunch in the town) we set off and hiked just over three hours. Unfortunately as we were hiking in the afternoon there was a lot of rain but still beautiful scenery....and a masssiiiiivveee hill!
When we got to Insinlivi we stayed in the hostel everyone seems to stay at called Lulu Lama. It was a cosy spot and had a resident llama in the garden as well as a giant great Bernard called Blue. They have a 'spa' that costs $7 to use and after a hike it was very tempting but unfortunately there were already a few people signed up to use it that afternoon. Instead we opted for hot showers and went for a walk around the small, deserted town. There was a beautiful little cemetery and questionable looking 'sports fields'. That evening two Australian guys And an American girl I had met in Quito arrived along with two other Australian friends.
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| Lulu llama hostel |
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| Exploring the local villages |
The next morning after a good breakfast of scrambled eggs, bread and fruit, granola and yogurt we set off on day 2 of hiking. The hike was estimated to take 4-6 hours and was roughly 12km to the next town of Chugchilan. After taking a wrong turn after literally three minutes of walking, we backtracked for ten minutes, recalibrate and set off again. It was a lot hotter and we knew we were in for a steep ascent after the first couple of hours. After about two hours we made it to a lovely little village deep in a canyon where they were blaring Latino dance music and all the children were in traditional clothing with fake moustaches painted on their faces. We were told it was their Christmas party. We sat here and had a water break watching the children playing and the local women chasing after them. Seeing as we were now in the canyon, our next challenge was hiking up the mountain behind the village along a dusty trail. It was steeepppppp and hot. When we got up to the top, sweaty and thirsty, we found a lovely viewpoint for lunch and was welcomed by a local artist called Miguel who sat with us and chatted while we ate, after he showed us some of his artwork where he carved intricate images into wood and painted it.
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| The kids in the local dress |
We made it to Chugchilan in pretty good time (I think just over 3.5 hours in all) walking along a very impressive but boring tarmac road with hardly any cars on it for the last thirty minutes. We arrived at hostel cloud forest and went for a wander around the small village where we got to see some interesting sights including this man causally gutting and cutting a pig with his family. He very nicely let us take a picture. Later that afternoon the rest of the Australians arrived and we had an evening of cards, a few drinks and family meal of pretty bland noodle soup 'meat', rice, vegetables and fruit.
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| Family dinner prep |
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| Hiking scenery |
The next morning we were all up early for a hearty breakfast before packing up and getting ready for our hike to Quilotoa! Again we had maps and were told it would take about 4-6 hours with more inclines today than the previous days. This time Amy, Ryan and I set off with the four Ozzies, Robbie, Tim, Mark and Matty. The boys had all planned to camp in the crater and not wanting to miss out on the opportunity Amy and I had bought a very cheap and verrrrry Shitty tent off one of the other hikers the night before for a bargain (but fitting) $5. We stocked up on snacks (bread and fruit) and set off at about 9am. It was another hot, hot day but the views again were incredible. We hiked for about three hours and after off roading, finding our own track, accessing maps.me to look for another way up the crater and adding on another kilometre or so to our hike, we made it to the top of the crater. And what a crater it was! Huge, turquoise lagoon shimmering in the sun! Perfect spot for a Christmas photo seeing as it was the 21st December.
The next task was to hike down into the crater. You'd think that between seven of us, at least one of us would have read that you HAVE to hike along the top of the crater and then down the road into the crater. What did we do?! Decided to take a small trail leading around and down into the crater, along the cliffs edge. It took about forty minutes of scrambling down before Amy and I were stopped by two kids shouting at us in Spanish. I wasn't quite sure what they were saying but pretty sure they were telling us we couldn't continue on the path (at the time I thought they were telling us it was a path for the donkeys.... we later found out they were saying there were too many rocks and it was too steep). After lots of swearing, sweat and probably some being close to tears we took the kids advise and let them lead us back OUT of the crater (steep, steep crater) where they then asked for money and directed us to the right road to take back down. By this time we were all ready for lunch and thankfully the small village of Quilotoa was right beside us. We found a small little comidor where a local lady was serving Almeurzo (chicken soup, main dish and juice) for $3...and could feed all seven of us. Perfect.
After a feed and a beer we felt ready to get back on our feet. After a quick enquiry to the information centre I was told that there was a 'rustic lodge' in the crater of the volcano that had rooms for $10 and a kitchen. Perfect again, Amy and I could have the 'camping experience' without having to sleep in our crappy tent. So after a quick stock up in the tiny local shop where we bought hot sauce, tuna, noodles (not dietitian approved) as well as a LITRE of homemade aguardiente (sugar cane liquor) which definitely smelt like it should only be used as litre fluid and not ingested we set off back down the crater at about 4.30pm, this time on the allocated path!
By the time we got to the bottom there was no one else down there, the horses were gone, the small shop was closed and even the 'rustic lodge' was abandoned! The company we had were five stray dogs who seemed to adopt us as their owners. Great. We looked around the lodge and when we found the kitchen open, with all the keys in the door, fresh food on the stove, a strange smell but no one in sight....wolf creek came to mind. We thought surely someone would be back before dark! So in the meantime we set up the tents, 'borrowed' the machete in the kitchen to cut some wood and the boys made a pretty impressive fire. By the time darkness came.....still no one at the lodge. Bizarre! So as we had nowhere else to cook, Amy, Ryan, Robbie and I cooked up a storm (or questionable meal) of the noodles, tuna and hot sauce with an aguardiente (paint stripper) and coke on the side. We had a nice little meal in the kitchen, genuinely expecting someone to be back at any time. As it got later...and eerily scarier we realised no one was coming back. We grabbed whatever blankets we could find, cleaned up as much as we could and headed back to the campfire.
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| The abandoned lodge and dinner for four! |
We had a few more aguardientes (for warmth of course) and Amy and I bailed into Ryan's two person tent with the 'borrowed' blankets. In the middle of the night I was woken up with the dogs barking incessantly at the Ozzies's tent...I must admit I had visions of the owner of the lodge coming back seeing his machete and kitchen had been used and coming to hunt down who it was, maybe I've watched too many horror films. Anyway we woke at 5.30am, Amy, Ryan and I crawled out of the tent where we had been sandwiched in and watched the sunrise (with the dogs of course). I never thought I would have the opportunity to camp inside the crater of a volcano and then watch the sunrise the next morning. So unreal.
And even better...a few hours later when rest of the guys rose, all limbs still attached. I was relieved. Later that morning after returning the blankets to the still abandoned lodge, packing up the tents we set to hiking back up the steep crater where we found the bus to take us back to Latacunga to pick up our bags. We then took a bus to Baños where we would all be spending Christmas together. Nawwwwwww.
I hadn't heard about the Quilotoa volcano or the hike before I went away and hadn't planned to do it. However I am so glad I did, it was such a unique, funny, challenging and sobering experience. I know this trip was made even more special due to the people I did it with and camping in the crater definitely added the cherry to the hypothetical hiking cake. Now for Christmas...with not a drop of aguardiente in sight please.
Next Stop: Baños, Ecuador
Stayed: Hostel Tiana, Latacunga, $10 including breakfast
Hostel Lulu llama, Sigchos, $18 including dinner and breakfast
Hostel cloud forest, Chugchilan, $15 including dinner and breakfast
Camping in Quilotoa crater, free
Food/drink: food in the hostels, snacks of fruit, bread from the bakeries. Home,ade aguardiente...muy fuerte. I don't recommend this for human consumption.
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