Quilotoa

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I´m a bit behind in writing about what I´ve been doing so I´ve attached lots of pictures of my trip to Quilotoa. I travelled from Quito to Latacunga, which was another exciting bus adventure. No movies this time! I arrived in Latacunga Tuesday afternoon. As I was sitting on the roof terrace of my hotel looking at Cotopaxi volcano I decided to take a trip the next day to Quilotoa crater. A group from the hotel were going and there was another place free and it seemed a better option than local buses, the back of pick up trucks and walking three hours on a dirt road.
When we left Wednesday morning it was raining and I did not expect that the day was going to be all that good, but as we drove up higher into the mountains the clouds cleared. Our guide stopped when we reached 4000m and we got out of the car. After the heated car the outside temperature was a shock and so was the wind. If the guide hadn´t grabbed my arm I would have been blown off the edge.
After another hour of driving, first on ´paved´ and then dirt roads (and a few stops while trucks in front of us unloaded pigs) we passed through the village of Zumbahua and arrived in Quilotoa.
The lake is 300m from the top of the Quilotoa volcanic crater and looking down from the top I didn´t even consider that once I got to the bottom I would have to walk back up. The guide walked in front of me on the steepest bits on the way down, which I don´t think was a good idea because I was bigger than him.
Once at the bottom we sat by the lake for an hour and relaxed. One of the donkey owners was playing his flute for us. I was going to offer to play ´Hot Cross Buns´but I didn´t want to to show off!
Then we started back to the top. It was very steep and dusty but worth it for the views and while we tried to decide which path would get us to the top the guide rode past on the donkey!
At the top we spent some time with the local women who made us lunch. Esteban posed for some pictures. At first he did not like it but when he saw his picture on the back of the camera he was posing and demanding his photo be taken.

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