Quilitoa Loop

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We spent 3 days in the highlands, at and above 3300 metres...


* First off we visited Sasquili and their local Thursday markets....more for the locals than the tourists with everything from beautiful fabrics and clothes, old tools, food markets, dubbed CDs, knife sharpeners, delicious corn bread and fruit and older men fixing clothes on old style 'singer'sewing machines
* Next stop was Quilitoa, a tiny village high in the mountains 2 hours away (3850 metres), a village with a stunning, serene and peaceful crater lagoona 400 metres below - and our fingers were crossed we didnt get hit with altitude sickness again....the climb back up a steep sandy slope was somewhat of a challenge! The 2 hour hike was our warm up for the hike to come....
* Our hostel here was with a lovely Ecuadorian family who also made us delicious meals...we were the only guests in this charming yet freezing hostel in which the water tank had run dry so we hauled up buckets of water to sort of clean ourselves! (thankful for our new ponchos to keep us warm here)

* The following morning, we forced ourselves out of our cosy bed into the freezing day to hike 5 hours from Quilitoa to Chugchilan across the crater rim (strong winds, stunning views), down steep sandy slopes to the valley, across the valley floor, down further into another crater (scary but stunning), past a tiny local village, scattered homes and burning scrub, across a river and scrambled up a steep hill for an hour to Chugchilan, our destination....an amazing hike full of stunning scenery and challenges made even more so by the altitude making us feel out of breath much quicker than usual!

* Chugchilan is a tiny village at 3300 metres, with a lovely relaxed Ecuadorian run hostel with delicious local food and enjoyed a couple of well earned beers in the afternoon sunshine...
* Skanky discovered, to his delight a smooth 20 year old columbian rum..a bottle of which only cost $10 so yep...he treated himself!
* We relaxed here for a couple of nights and rose early to begin an 8 hour journey across, up and across the country to Papallacta...

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