Blogs from Chugchilan, Centre, Ecuador, South America - page 2

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 ... read more

After the weather in Tena turned bad we decided against hanging around or heading deeper into the jungle, so instead we headed for the decidedly drier, though somewhat cooler highlands and the Quilatoa Loop. The Loop is effectively the route that covers all the villages/towns that surround the crater lake of a dormant volcano. The loop itself is very long - needing a number of buses to manage to go the whole way around. After catching the daily bus that went in an anti-clockwise direction, 4 hours and quite a few bumps later we were in the small village of Chugchilan. We chose here as there were a few hostels featured in lonely planet that all seemed quite nice and it was well placed to do a couple of days exploring around the lake. We chose ... read more

Day 30: Tuesday 29th July - A close escape from a landslide As part of my acclimitisation programme for climbing Cotapaxi I've been recomended to travel the Quilotoa loop as its between 3000-4000m above sea level. The ride around the loop is supposed to be through spectacular scenery. My destination today is Chugchilan which is half way around the loop. Getting there is half the problem, there is only one bus per day in either direction around the loop and it leaves around noon from Latacunga which is a 2 hour bus journey south of Quito. I make it to Latacunga in time to catch my bus, and while I'm waiting I get talking to an American guy who's heading to the same place I am. The bus journey is certainly eventful. About 3 hours in ... read more

After barely sleeping in my leaky room in Quilotoa, I simply wanted to get out of that town, despite feeling tired and a bit ill. Atahualpa and Maria left with a guide at around 8:30 AM, and I stayed behind curled up in my bed, leaving periodically to stand outside when the sun peeked through the clouds. It was still in the high forties at around 9:30, so I decided to pack up and leave, instead of waiting for the 1:30 bus. It was the only way for me to warm up my body, so I began to walk back to the main road. The route that the two Mexicans took was a shorter option for the hike to Chugchilan, which led off the crater and onto a trail rather than along a road. Being that ... read more

The next day was sunny again, and everything went fine on the hike to Isinlivi. I had to hike down into the Toachi Canyon again, a bit further north this time. Beautiful, green landscape again, and the river glittering int he sun. On the way down I passed a carpenter-cum-painter, and I purchased a rather crude painting of a local village scene from him. High up o the other side I chatted a bit with an oldabuelita (grandmother) with her grandson, and later on with a couple of kids. Other than that I did not meet many people during the entire trip. Isinlivi is a weird place, quite dirty. The only hostal in the place, Llullu Lllama (Baby Llama) seemed quite deserted. The guy in charge of it was drunk already in the afternoon, and whined ... read more