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Published: November 10th 2007
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Well Kyran was finally better and off we went to Quilotoa.
It was a two hour bus ride to Latacunga from Quito and we arrived at about 10am. We wanted to climb Cotopaxi that day, but our haggling skills with the taxi drivers weren’t really up to scratch and we couldn’t figure out if we were being ripped off or not, so we decided to head straight to Chugchilan, which is located about half way around the loop (a very bumpy four hour bus ride on dirt tracks). Chugchilan is a tiny mountain village built into the mountain side overlooking the spectacular Rio Toachi canyon. The canyon was partly covered in cloud when we arrived, but the views the next day were stunning.
The next morning we were up early to make the one and half hour bus ride to Quilota. The main reason why people come here is to visit the Laguna Quilotoa, which is a volcanic-crater lake. It is absolutely stunning and from the top of the crater rim you can see the snowcapped peaks of Cotopaxi and Illiniza Sur Tower. Unfortunately Cotopaxi was already covered in clouds when we arrived at 8am, but we could just see Illiniza
Laguna Quillotoa
Starting the hike down Sur Tower in the distance. We walked down into the crater, and because we were there early, we were the only ones around, which was magnificent. All the other tourist were either sleeping or were only just setting off from Quito on their day trips. Once we got to the bottom, a couple of locals asked us if we wanted to take a boat ride. In our broken Spanish, we thought that they said that there were hot springs that you could swim in. So off we went in this little inflatable boat to find these springs. Well, umm, we certainly couldn’t swim in the springs - they were tinny little springs coming out from the rocks!! Oh well, it was nice to check out the Laguna from a boat.
Now, it took us about half an hour to walk down to the crater, but my god, did it take us a lot longer to walk back up. Quilotoa is about 3850m above sea level, and trying to get back up the steep trail was not very easy. There was a lot of huffing and puffing and rest stops along the way.
Once we got back up the top we
decided to hike back to Chugchilan instead of taking the bus. The Lonely Planet says it takes about 5 hours to walk and gave us a little spiel on how to get back. Yeah, well our navigation skills weren’t really too good, and with the zillion goat tracks around the place, we kind of got a little lost. So when the clouds rolled in and we couldn’t see our hands in front of our face we decided it was time to ask some one for help. $10 later we had a guide from a house that we managed to bump into and we were off again. The walk was really stunning. The country side is so green and the mountains are so high! We had to cross two gorges to get back to Chugchilan and the up hill bits were not so pleasant at this altitude. But we made it back to the hostel - finally!!
The next day saw us getting up at 3.30am for the 4am bus back to Latacunga. There are only two buses a day - 3am or 4 am - and I certainly wasn’t going to take the 3am bus!!
We arrived in Latacunga at
about 8am, and started the rounds to try and find someone to take us up to Cotopaxi. We finally settle on a driver and off we went. Volan Cotopaxi is Ecuador’s second highest peak and is 5897m high. Cotopaxi is still an active volcano, though at present its activity is limited to a few gently smoking fumaroles (but you can only see them if you actually hike to the summit and peer within the crater). There have been quite a few large eruptions in the past centuries, three of which have wiped out the town of Latacunga!! There are heaps of really good hikes around the national park, but as we only had one day we decided to only check out the Laguna de Limpiopungo, a shallow Andean lake 3830m above sea level, and hike up to the Refugio Jose Rivas, about 4800m on the northern slopes of Cotopaxi. From the car park to the Refugio it is only about a 1km walk up, but once again at altitude the going was pretty tuff. But we managed it, and got back down just as it started to snow. It was certainly pretty cool seeing so much snow in Ecuador!!
Now
Cotopaxi
Starting the hike up to the Refugio I´m back in Quito for the day, waiting to fly out to the Galapagos tomorrow. But I´m not really having much luck with this cruise as the Quito airport is closed due to a plane bursting a tire on the run way last night. Hopefully I will be getting on this plane tomorrow!!
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