Otavalo & Quilatoa Loop

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This is my second attempt at writing up my blog as I spent over an hour updating it last week and for some reason it didn't publish or save anything. The PC I'm using now is really slow so not sure how my patience will bear up!

We arrived in Otavalo on April 25th and found a hostal with ease near the bus "terminal" called Hostal Mashys. Huge room, balcony with views of Cotopaxi volcano & private bathroom all for $US15 - bargain! The town is famous for it's market which I did manage to have a look around although David kept asking if I really needed things and when would I use them so I didn't buy a bag I had my eye on & now regert it. I plan to go shopping alone in future - I think David is worried as my rucksack is now overflowing and my stuff is slowly migrating to his bag - well he does have more space!! We had a very cheap dinner from a food stall in the market square - fried egg, rice, fried potato cake & salad for $US1 - bargain! The food over here is very carb heavy but not so bad given all the walking we're doing. We were up early the next day to take a taxi to Lagunas de Mojanda. It took just over half an hour and cost $US10 and the driver agreed to pick us up at 1pm. We were walking by 8am and hiked up mountain Fuya Fuya for views across the lakes. It was a tough walk up due to the altitude - it's 4275m and unfortunately by the time we reached the top the clouds had rolled in so we only had fleeting views. We cariied on walking around for 5 hours and as we got a bit lower we had better views - the scenery was stunning. Luckily our taxi driver re-appeared at 1pm and we gladly clambered into the car feeling absolutely shattered. We treated ourselves to empanadas and a cookie from the bakers before collapsing back at our hostal. We had torrential rain in the afternoon but luckily it dried up at 6pm so we ventured out to buy fresh fruit and had healthy fresh fruit salad for dinner. We had planned another walk for the next day but when the alarm went off at 6am it was cloudy and wet so we ended up taking a bus to Quito at 8.45am then another bus from the north to south terminal in Quito followed by a bus to Latacunga. We arrived in Latacunga early afternoon and it took a while to find a hostal but once we did I got us a real bargain. We stayed at Hotel Le Alamo and had a great room which I managed to get reduced from $US20 to $US12!! Latacunga is quite a nice town and we had a pleasant afternoon wandering around and also finding out about the Quilatoa Loop

THE QUILATOA LOOP 28TH-30TH APRIL

We took an early bus to Saguisili on the Thursday which was market day so we had a look around the indigenous market and it was quite an eye opener!! You could buy anything from a pot made out of rubber tyres to turkeys, chickens, puppies, kittens, guinea pigs, calves, pigs and fish! We even saw a few lambs and pigs been taken for a walk! We just bought some bananas and bread rolls for lunch! At 11.15am we caught the bus to Isinlivi along with a pig that was transported (unwillingly) in the luggage hold! The journey was very scenic but we had a scary moment where one of the bus'wheels slipped on some mud on a landslide and everyone thought we were going to go over the edge. We all got off the bus whilst the driver safely moved it forward then we continued on our way. As we wound our way around some bends we looked back and saw the landslide we wouldn't have wanted to go down! We arrived in Islinlivi at 2pm and we'd already been told there was only one hostal there and that it cost $US18pp in a dorm including dinner and breakfast. We asked around town and we found a shop just up the road from Llullu Llama hostal. The lady said she had a room for $US9pp including dinner and breakfast. She told us she is building a hostal and we sat in the construction site looking at the amazing views whilst being treated to a spectacular thunder & lightening show with torrential rain. It was freezing cold so we had coffee & popcorn to warm us up (we weren't even charged for this!). When it had stopped raining we walked up to the pre-Inca site for more amazing views then had a fantastic dinner of home-made veggie soup, Spanish totilla with fried egg & salad (chicken for David) and cups of tea. I forgot to mention there was a powercut so we ate by candlelight in the family kitchen. The owner lived there with her parents and 7 year old son and she told us she used to live in Spain but returned to Ecquador when her husband died 6 years ago - she is only 40 years old so it was a sad story.. We went to bed at 8am with a candle!!
We were up for a 7am breakfast the next day so we could start walking early- it was dry but quite cold and it had an autumnal feel. The scenery was spectacular but we got lost twice as our map wasn't great. We had to navigate a small landslide then we had a very steep climb up to a small village just outside Chugchilan. Lots of schoolchildren were running past us - my excuse was that they weren't carrying backpacks! We met a local man who works as a carpenter and after showing us a mirador he took us to his workshop and showed us a gorgeous olive cabinet he was making. He also paints. We finally arrived at our hostal in Chugchilan called Cloud Forest - a great place with comfy hammocks. After lunch we relaxed in hammocks with a beer and a book. The village is tiny so only took about 5 minutes to walk around. We huddled by the wood stove next to the kitchen as it got very cold in the evening but we warmed up by dancing with some local girls who did a dancing display and made us join in. Dinner was a bit on the small side given all the walking we had done but breakfast the next day was fantastic - fresh fruit salad, porridge, scrambled egg, bread, jam and coffee. This set us up for our walk to Quilatoa Lake. We walked with an Aussie couple and 3 French people. Again we had to negotiate a landslide and a river and the path up was very steep but beautiful views made it bearable. The weather was hot and sunny which helped! When we arrived at the lake we had fantastic clear views so we sat and enjoyed the scenery whilst having lunch. We then had an hour's walk around the top of the crater and up another steep hill before reaching the small village of Quilatoa. We jumped straight on a direct bus back to Latacunga and fortunately it stopped at the next village for an hour so we were able to grab lunch at the local market - more egg, rice & fried potato but it tasted fantastic! It was torrential rain on our bus journey to Latacunga - we decided to treat ourselves to a few beers in a local bar - we had a brief lock-in as there was a powercut for about 20 minutes! After a dinner of pizza we crashed out feeling totally exhausted - more walking to come in Banos!!

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