The Volcano Avenue

We have entered Ecuador! And here we go for our first extreme experience in this country (more than “Extreme Sommer”): the Volcano Avenue.

The Volcano Avenue is a valley (near Quito) surrounded by several active volcanoes. There we would start our tour mountain-biking one of the highest volcanoes of the area: the Cotopaxi volcano, which reaches the very modest altitude of 5,897 m !! We would start from the refuge where snow begins and we would go down to the valley. Imagine that this mountain is so high that despite being on the equator, it has eternal snow on its top.

Going down such a sudden volcano is extemely fast, so our hands got tired of pressing the brakes and still the speed was extemely high! The brakes had to be used so often that (in combination with the numerous bumps) our hands would hurt by the time we were down in the valley!

After this adventurous descent at high speed, we continued biking in the valley through volcanoes and ancient Inka sites! We had lunch in a small deserted stone house in a valley and then we continued biking till it got almost dark.

Then we caught a bus to Latacunga the “ecuadorian way”, meaning that they left us on the highway and we made a sign to the first bus that would pass-by on the direction of our destination. Buses pass by all the time so we got on one of them very soon and we arrived in Latacunga.

Latacunga is a very beautiful city south of Quito. We stayed in a very nice hostel in an old house with a patio. As we were extremely tired we fell very fast in the arms of Morfeus...

In the morning we set off to discover the region. We started with a museum of local artists. The topics are often local myths, but political stories often inspire them and there are many paintings about the current situation with the election of President Rafael Correa, who is a “Chavista”.

Then we entered a house where local people live in the countryside. It is a simple one-room hut, where the whole 10-member family stays. We met only the women because men are at work during the day. These people live all in that hut and they sleep in the floor together with any small animals that they do not want to expose to the extreme cold outside...

Afterwards, we went to the Quilotoa volcano, where we could clearly see the lagoon that has been formed on the huge crater of this active volcano. We went down to the lagoon (there is no life in this toxic waters, except some plants) and then we returned up on mules!

It was time to move for our next stop, the beautiful city of Baños, which is further to the south. There we ate in the french restaurabnt “Marianne”, where the food is undescribable! Ecuadorians had already told us in Quito that this restaurant is a reason for a day-trip to Baños, but we really understood why when we tasted the "gratin dauphinois"!! Amazing!!!

In Baños we stayed in a beautiful hotel from where we could see the waterfall. According to the locals, this waterfall has been created by a miracle of Virgin Mary after an earthquake and therefore the thermal springs, which are located there, are considered very healthy. Because of the volcanic routes of the springs, some of the water is extremely hot and some of the water is extremely cold, like in every waterfall. It is quite an experience to go from very cold pools to very hot pools! And in the night with a jar of fresh lemonade the ambience is something else...

The next day we were back in Quito for new experiences!!

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Part of trip: DIARIOS DE AMERICA LATINA

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