Quilitoa

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This weekend we made another excursion outside of Quito to the mountainous region of Quilitoa. There are a number of small towns that make up the ¨Quilitoa Loop¨and we were able to visit three of them in two days. Friday morning we took a 2 hour bus to the town of Latacunga where we walked to another bus station, wanting to go to Quilitoa, and they immediately threw us on a bus that was completely full. There were at least 10 people standing in the aisle and we had to stand for an hour and a half in the aisle until some people got off. After 2 hours we arrived in the tiny town of Quilitoa, pretty much a couple hostals, a restaurant, a store and a dozen or so houses. We dropped our stuff off and bundled up because it was soooo cold, much colder than we expected and we went on a hike down to a crader lake. It was so beautiful with no one else there, it felt like we were in the middle of nowhere. At the bottom of the trail, there were a couple kayaks to rent, and a small hostal with a couple simple rooms with mattresses. The only sign of people were a young boy and girl herding sheep. We enjoyed the views for a while, then hiked 45 minutes back up the steep trail. After we got a ride with a local to a fiesta in another small town. We didn´t really understand why they were having a fiesta, but there were bull fights and a band and everyone was dancing and drunk from boxed wine and the local beer. It was comical to watch but after about an hour we were so cold we had to leave. When we returned to our hostal we warmed up by the heater, had dinner, chatted with the other foreigners staying at the hostal and then when we were ready for bed we realized that we had to start our own fire in the small furnace in our room. But the only wood we had was wet so after three failed attempts at starting the fire we had a freezing night sleep. In the morning we were going to go on an all day hike to another town but Rachel was feeling terrible so we went to a market in Zumbahia, nothing too exciting. I went on a little hike up a nearby hill. I walked through pasture lands, past small houses to find the most amazing views of the small town surrounded by huge mountains and quiltlike pastures. It is hard to describe, but it was beautiful! After we took the bus back to Quito and met up with two Swiss boys that we had met on our coastal trip. Saturday night we went out to dinner with them and the next day we went up the Teleferico (cable car) to see views of the whole city. At the top of the cable car there were tourist shops and cafes and we walked along a little trail to see better views. It was kind of a tourist trap but definitely something that all visitors to Quito have to do.

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