Blogs from Quilitoa, Centre, Ecuador, South America

As my time in Ecuador draws closer to an end I can take a breath of jungle air and look back over the past year. My time with the charity brought me numerous travel opportunities, encouraged me to interact with the locals, introduced me to the love of my life and showed me that change doesn’t always have to be monumental, whether within oneself or those you can reach. Everything matters. First off, on a personal note I’ve seen much more of this country, its inhabitants, traditional foods and customs than I had intended when I originally purchased a month-long adventure to Ecuador. I see how the children adore story time, speak what they know of English and try to say what they don’t. I understand more about the luxuries, opportunities and resources that are present ... read more

Hello ! Apres cette journee de reve sur le volcan Cotopaxi, depart pour le lac de Quilotoa, situé dans le cratere d un volcan. A partir des explications de la concierge de l hotel, j embarque dans bus, direction Zumbahua. En fait il va meme directement a Quilotoa ! Genial. Le gars me dit: "il part dans une petite 1/2h". Bon, apres 1h dans le bus a l arret, le chauffeur demarre, eteint, demarre, eteint, a peu pres 20 personnes montent et descendent pour vendre: DVD, fruits, brochettes, biscuits, noix, savons, etc etc . Il y a meme jusqu a 4 personnes en meme tps qui crient pour attirer l attention et vendre leurs produits !! Bref, on finit par partir. Arrivé a Quilotoa, apres 2h de bus dans les montagnes, on paye 2USD pour entrer ... read more

Rano nam zacalo krasne, uz pred siestou sme boli zobudeny trhovnikmy ktori sa pripravovali na dnesny trh. Zostali sme lezat skoro az do osmej, ale potom sme uz nemohli dalej odolavat a vybrali sa na prieskum trhu. Bol to typicky miestny trh plny farieb, hudby a roznych voni na ktorom sa dalo kupit uplne vsetko - zvierata, jedlo, plienky, sekery, oblecenie,..... Na desiatu mal ist autobus do Quilotoi, ktory ako obycajne nesiel a miestny sofer dodavky /camioneta/ nam ponukol odvoz, samozrejme za peniaze. Je to typicky sposob dopravy ked nejde autobus. Kazdy kto ma prazdne auto a ide nejakym smerom, tak sa pokusi vyplnit miesto a tym si privyrobit. V Ekvadore je benzin velmi lacny a za jeden dolar sa daju kupit 4 litre nafty. V Quilotoe bolo viac hostelov nez domov, takze najst ubytovanie nebol ... read more

And so I have finally torn myself away from my beautiful magentic life in Salasaca to travel other parts of Ecuador for awhile! Admittedly it is only for a few days, I am to return there in a day, but it is the first taste of my life post volunteering! Last Friday afternoon, after fulfilling our 6 hours for the day (practically) and receiving my Katitawa participation medal from Robert (a moving ceremony) a select group of volunteers hopped onto a bus to Latacunga! From there, after finding a shop that sells our favourite cheap box wine, we got another bus to the tiny little town of Zumbahua, our first stop on a whirlwind tour of the Quilotoa circuit. After Emma and Arpen successfully wrangled us a lovely cheap room, we ate a teeth challenging dinner ... read more

We arrived in the very, very, very small town of Quilitoa via the larger town of Latacunga. First we took a bus to Latacunga from Baños. Of course this bus didn’t drop us off at the bus station so we had to roam around Latacunga until we found it. Latacunga is another one of those “uninspiring” towns that really has no charm whatsoever, but it’s the jumping off point for doing the loop. We boarded what was easily the ugliest, dirtiest, oldest, stinkiest bus I’ve ever seen and waited for nearly an hour before departing the bus terminal. The bus was full of Quechua people, the local native people who live in the small town in the middle of the country. When we passed thru the town of Zumbahua, where they were celebrating Corpus Cristi, about ... read more

As we set off on our 5-6 hour journey to Quilotoa, our guide Marsello educated us on Ecuador, a country we knew little about. It has 42 volcanoes, 21 of which are active, including Cotopaxi (where we were headed on Saturday) which is the highest snow-capped active volcano in the world. Quilotoa, today's destination, last erupted 500 years ago, with the energy of 10 atomic bombs, reducing its own height fro 5600, to 3900m through self-destruction. Oil is Ecuador's primary export, followed by bananas. The third most important for the economy is tourism, and fourth is the export of roses. Roses were first cultivated by a famous Colombian drug baron in an effort to clean his drug money. Since then the industry has boomed and Ecuadorian roses are exported all over the world by plane, hence ... read more