Hiking & hail in Chugchilan

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The next town in the loop was Chugchilan, a town only slightly larger than Quilitoa. There’s really nothing there except a small town square, 3 hostels, and an enormous amount of natural beauty, which is why anyone bothers to visit it at all. The hostels here are much more expensive than anywhere else because they can be. There’s no competition. One, the most famous of the three called The Black Sheep Inn, actually charges $35 per night per person for a DORM ROOM that doesn’t even have a bathroom in it. You have to walk outside and go into a different building with the bathroom. Yeah sure, it includes all your meals, but that’s about it. The sauna, the hot tub, the yoga classes… all that hoopla costs extra. So, we ended up at the Hostel Cloud Forest, which also includes breakfast and dinner and was $15/night each.

Our first afternoon and evening there we didn’t do anything except relax at the hostel. We had our community dinner, which included the best split pea soup ever. We discovered that we were staying, yet again, in a hostel with another big group of Americans. This time they were thespians… theater kids from NYC and California who were traveling for 24 days to “get inspired” to write a play that they will eventually perform off-off-Broadway in NY. They seemed alright at first, but unfortunately they were all staying in the communal lounge, just below our bedroom, because they had to catch a bus at 3 a.m. and didn’t want to pay for rooms for the night. So, instead they stayed up all night, singing and hollering and laughing and probably performing short improve skits for each other, thus keeping Ryan and I awake most of the night. My earplugs didn’t have anything on this fine group of thespians.

The next day we slept in, obviously, and then went for a really cool hike around the area. We never really knew where we were going, but we found trails and we took them. It ended up being a really nice hike other than having to pass by a rabid-looking dog that had most of its intestines hanging out of its butt and one of its legs tied up into its collar. I would have tried to help it but I didn’t have a gun.

The rest of the hike was beautiful though. We hiked down into a valley and back up the other side. Then we had to turn around and head back the same way we came because the trail just kept leading further and further away from Chugchilan. Just before we could reach the hostel a huge storm, complete with lightening, thunder, and lots of hail, rolled in and got us. We had to run the last hundred yards or so back to the shelter of our room. That night we had dinner with a few other people in the hostel (only 2 other Americans, thank god) and then we also had to leave at 4 a.m. the next morning to catch the only bus outta there. It would be the beginning of an all day journey to the beach...

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