Quilotoa to Chugchilan

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Again, sorry for the delay. Almost up-to-date now.

Day 6: Quilotoa to Chugchilan:



Although we both slept well and warm, we started waking up at 5am and were impatient for coffee and breakfast at 7:30am. We went downstairs around 7am and then ate a very decent breakfast of hot coffee, a nice slice of fresh pineapple, a local fruit juice, homemade toast with butter and marmelade, and scrambled eggs. All very good and hearty.



After breakfast, we loafed around the room (trying to stay warmish) until about 11am for checkout. We paid our bill then hiked down into the town for the view and a cup of coffee. We obtained both at the nice looking community center overlooking the crater. Feeling like we were mouching off the hospitality, after a while we went to look at the crafts the vendors offer near the crater edge. Nothing was overly exciting, so we got one more good look at the lake from the lookout, then strolled down the road. I wanted to check out a nice looking place called Hosteria Alpaca Quilotoa. We ordered another coffee and found out the hosteria belongs to the same family as the famous Andes artist, Humberto de Quilotoa who started a whole new style of painting and masks. It was still rather early for our one and only 2pm bus to Chugchilan, so we went back to our lodge where we knew we could chill without feeling guilty.



At about 2:15pm, the Ilinivas bus to Chugchilan came up the road so we hopped on and paid our two dollars for the trip... for both of us! In case you hadn't noticed, we opted out of the trek on foot after the gruelling climb up from the lake and our unpleasant experience with the cold and wind. The trip to Chugchilan was not as dangerous feeling as some we've taken, but the road was really rough most of the time. We had to stop twice for them to smooth out a section enough for our bus to pass. Fortunately, the narrow parts were not near cliff edges and the parts that were, were quite wide. We made the 20 some kilometer trip in about an hour and a half, so you can imagine how slow we went most of the time. The last few kilometers were smoother, but basically only one lane wide.



We got off the bus in the main square... well, actually the only square, in Chugchilan, and got ourselves oriented towards our hostal, Hostal Mama Hilda. This hostal was really nice, consisting of four or five buildings. Three I think are mostly or completely rooms, one is a nice two-floor lounge with TV, coffee, tea, and a fridge, and the other is the dining hall. Our room was nicely appoitned, especially the bathroom, which was high-class hotel quality. The only problem was a lack of hanging/storage area. After turning on our space heater and crossing our fingers, we went out for a stroll around town. There really isn't much here except for a few small grocery-type stores, a couple of bars, a plaza, a church, and a cute little library. Since it was still some time til dinner, we decided to take a stroll down the road a ways. We'd noticed a large crowd of young local ladies walking down the road that direction, so we were curious. After passing the other two hostals in town, Cloud Forest and Black Sheep Inn, we continued a ways further down. Even though we didn't find the girls, we did find out they were walking an hour to the next town to spend the night before their catechism the next day. We hiked back up the road, feeling alot better now with the altitude and the temperature, stopped for a big bottle of Coke and water at a nearby store, then returned to our hostal to await dinner.



After chilling in the nice lounge area, we finally went over to the dining room for dinner. We ate communal-like, sharing long tables with several other guests. Dinner consisted of a decent cream of potatoe soup, followed by bowls of mashed potatoes, meat with veggies, and a salad. Slices of cake were dessert. Everything was okay, just nothing special, and the servings were not big, but mostly because we didn't realize we could take what we wanted and they'd bring another bowl. We chatted a lot with a couple from Ireland, then headed to our room to watch another movie on NetFlix. Unfortunately, not only was the internet still not up, but the power started going on and off, with off being the favorite state.

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