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Published: October 11th 2007
We spent four days in the mountains of the Quilotoa Loop, a cluster of indigenous villages that surround Quilotoa, a dormant volcano with a caldera 2.5 kilometers wide and filled with turquoise water. The Loop has awesome hiking trails and a landscape of pastures and farming fields so it looks like a patch-work quilt was thrown over the rolling hills. The place is teeming with exotic wildlife. We´re talking llamas, pigs, wild dogs (Trevor bravely defended us from PPs or potential predators) and lambikins of all sizes and colors.
We stayed at the Black Sheep Inn, cited as one of the best inns in South America and named one of the top 10 eco-lodges in the world by Outside Magazine a few years ago. It´s at 10,500 feet and was built by two globally-minded Americans. Everything they do is all about sustainable living and they have it down to an art. The compost toilets provide for their organic gardens (check out the views from the toilet), hand-washing water combined with bio-soap irrigates plants, solar power water pumps provide other agua, and they recycle almost everything. They even give guests´ table scraps to their huge pig. (We saw so many cute
Live Cargo
This goat rode on the top of this bus for 4 hours over mountain passes and dirt roads. Unbelievable. pigs that we´re thinking about getting a pot-bellied pig instead of a dog when we get home).
Vegetarian breakfast and dinner is all included and it was surprisingly delicious. Making fun of vegetarians also made for great dinner conversation with fellow meat-lovers from Australia and the UK. We especially enjoyed the creamy soups, artichokes with special sauce, variety of pizzas, and their home-made veggie burgers. Who knew that years of making fun of Galloway for bringing his own veggie burgers to BBQs would make us feel, well... sheepish?
The first day, we hiked high above the villages to some Incan ruins, sphere dredges that were dug as lookouts or self-defense spots. Over 300 kids walk up to an hour to school and back each day, and we ran into this little crew (pictured) who demanded that we take their photo for dinero. Luckily, our ever-popular blackberry cookies did the trick and sent them on their way. The next day was cold and rainy so we ventured into see the thriving metropolis of Chugchilan (pop. 100) and enjoyed good books and hot tea next to the wood-burning stove.
On our final day, we hiked to the Quilotoa Crater
The punisher
You can barely see the stick that we used to beat away a ton of aggressive dogs. This pose was usually enough to send them running. Lake. Most people hitch a truck to the loop and hike back in five hours. We made it there and back through valleys, over hills, and straight up paths (no switch-backs here) in less than five hours. (If I hadn´t been in such pain from the altitude with a cold, I might´ve sang some of the Sound of Music). The eroded land around the crater made for a nice little summit struggling up the last 90-degree, sandy incline, but the lake views were well worth it. We made it back to Black Sheep just before an afternoon rain and hailstorm hit!
Ecuador is a favorite country so far, and we haven´t even seen the rest. Everyone, add this to your travel list!
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