Latacunga and the Quilotoa Loop

01/07/13-04/07/13

We spent a quick night in Latacunga, where we grabbed our first Chifa (chinese) in 9 months. True to South American form the portions were huge and we couldn't eat it all. 

The next morning we jumped on a bus full of locals in nice green velvet hats and with plenty of gold teeth, and travelled 2 hours to the village of Quilotoa, next to Laguna de Quilotoa, a huge crater lake up on top of the mountain. We began walking around the lake and followed a group of small kids (one carry and old fashioned metal jug of milk) who we thought were walking to the same village as us, but we soon got lost in the clouds which had overcome the mountain, and ended up following them to their house in the middle of nowhere. One of the kids asked Dave where he was coming from. When Dave told them “Inglaterra” and one of the kids said “is it a village nearby?”.
After that, they pointed us back on track (sort of) and we made it to the village of Chugchilán before dark (just). After a lovely scenic walk, down into the valley and through fields of maze and lupin flowers, we found a lovely hostel with nice hot showers, dinner and breakfast all included like the other two hostels you could find in the village, as there is no restaurant. We ate loads (as we didn’t really bring any good lunch with us) and had a good night's sleep.

The next morning was much brighter and we left Chugchilán heading for another village called Isinliví. The walk was different, much hotter in the lower altitude, and we passed through a large canyon and along a river, where we crossed the scariest bridge in the world (twice, as it wasn't on our way, we just did it for fun).
After making our way up the other side of the valley, being chased by dogs and getting lost again, we made it to Isinliví in the early afternoon. We saw the whole village in about 10minutes, so we put our feet up and had a game of cards with a cup of tea.



After a hot meal in front of the fire (we were up at a chilly 3000m again), we got a bit of sleep before waking up at 4.00am to catch the bus to the relatively nearby (3hrs) town of Saquisili for the local market that takes place there every Thursday. Unfortunately we missed our stop, and returned to Latacunga, where we had to change to another bus to go back to the market.



The market itself was spread across 3 markets in the town. One selling cheap clothes and the local velvet hats, one selling more clothes and vegetables and a final one selling chickens, guinea pigs and rabbits. All very interesting, but none of the food stalls looked appetising in the slightest. Back to Latacunga again to pick up our bags and head to Quito.