The Quilotoa loop: amazing scenery, friendly locals and street fighting with dogs

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I vividly remember when I was first thinking about travelling to South America 1 year ago when I came across a picture of Quilotoa Crater. It was a stunning photograph and it kind of filled me with excitement about the type of adventure I was going to have when I went to the Latin Continent. So no surprises it was top on my list of places to visit in Ecuador. As soon as my plane landed at the Mariscal Sucre International Airport I was secretly counting down the days of when I was going to Quilotoa.

I tried to organise a weekend away between my weekly spanish lessons but it soon became apparent that I would need more time to visit the crater and also walk around the surrounding villages. So on the Monday follwing Quito Day celebrations on the 5th December Mattias, Davide and myself caught the bus to Latacunga where we would catch a local bus to Quilotoa. I was notified by a few people that the buses are even below the standard of the usual public bus found on Ecuadorian Highways so I wasn't surprised when we jumped on board a shanty bus packed with locals from the regions Indigenous tribes. There wasn't really any seats but after the driver reshuffled a few people I ended up on the back seat whilst the 2 boys were at the front. Now after learning spanish for the last month it was nice to have a conversation with the locals and let them know what a pleasure it was to be visiting their lovely country. However everyone on the bus spoke Quechua and no-one understood a word of spanish. It's very admirable that they managed to keep the local language alive after nearly 300 years of spanish rule so it was nice to see it was still being used. However this meant I was back to square one on communication levels.

I did however have some hot chips and some chicken wings and after offering some to the elderly male passenger besides me he felt it was an open invitation to eat as much as he could whilst the bag was leant in his direction. His hands were fumbling with the greasy chicken as he tried to take as much as he could in one go. I realised he wanted them more than I did so I let him have the majority and took them back when they were mostly gone. He gave me a little smile...speaking a little Quechua would have helped but I got the message.

I don’t know how many times I have heard a fellow traveller tell me they recently had the bumpiest bus ride ever. After 3 minutes of hand waving and explaining how their arse hurt for like a week you realise that you will never regain the last 3 minutes that you just lost. So on that note I will just say this was the bumpiest bus ride I have ever experienced. And sitting in the back seat made it worse. Full stop. And because I couldn’t speak Quechua I was basically turned into an inaminate object. Halfway through the journey the woman next to me who was nursing her baby daughter on her lap decided to use my lap as a change table for the baby. Not a word was said to me (obviously I couldn’t understand anyway) and I sat there doing my best job to be a sturdy change table whilst the bus rocked away. 2 minutes later after finishing and throwing the nappy out the window everything was returned to normal as if nothing happened at all.

Everyone got off at their fields and houses and we were the last ones on the bus as we reached Quilotoa. We came across a Swiss couple who were waiting for a bus and we had a general chat about the area. They had large suitcases so were unable to hike to Chugchilan and had been waiting two days for the bus to arrive so they were as ready as could be. We were warmly welcomed by a woman whom I shall call the consultant. She took us to one of the guesthouses where we received a good deal with meals for the next two days. We quickly had some almuerzo and then set off to hike around the crater for the afternoon.

It was only 5 minutes from the small shanty town and as soon as it came into view we all stood there for a few moments just taking in the scenery. On looking back at the photos from this trip it would be fair to say that I was obsessed with the crater which was confirmed by the 100 different shots from all different angles and lighting on my camera. It still is one of the most amazing things I have seen. And the best thing about it was that we only saw 2 other people on our hike. We truly felt blessed.

The hike around the crater took just under 4 hours with lots of breaks to help Mattias eat all the swiss chocolate that he had brought from home. The highest point was 4100m and we were in the clouds for around 20 minutes. The green rolling hills over the back also added to the sense of remoteness. Once we looped back to our starting point we all sat down to watch the shadows moving across the blue water and up the zig zag patterned white cliffs.

Since we were the only people in our guest house we sat upstairs after dinner and played cards to occupy the evening. After raiding the biscuits and sweets behind the bar we left all the empty wrappers on the counter and left a note saying to tally up the cost in the morning. The wind that night was hurricane like. The windows rattled and at some stages the entire house was moving. We had planned the night before to get up for sunrise and feeling like we should brave the elements Davide and I walked to a viewpoint that was sheltered slightly so we could wait for the sun to appear.

There was a lot of cloud around so it wasn’t as spectacular as we hoped but it was peaceful. It was clear over to the east and we could see two volcanoes rising towards the sky, one of them being Volcan Cotopaxi which we were due to climb in 4 days. Intimidating...yes. We also met a group of 3 Aussies and Kiwis who had caught the bus from Chugchilan just to see the sunrise and were now hiking back there. They had some directions that there hostel had written down for them so we wrote them down, feeling slightly more at ease that we would be heading in the right direction. After 2 servings of breakfast we walked down to the crater edge after we saw kayaks on the beach. A young boy was looking after them and after paying him $1 each we kayaked around for 45 minutes just hugging the edges as the water was understandably rough in the centre. After hiking back up to our hostel it was close to midday and we realised we were all slightly tired from the mornings activities and that we still had to hike to Chugchilan which was meant to be 5-6 hours. Another helping of almuerzo was scoffed down before we set off with the directions we had acquired earlier in our hands.

On reading the notes one thing stood out: “Throw or pretend to throw rocks at the dogs to keep them under control. A big stick will help.” Immediately we filled our pockets with rocks and all found a big stick to carry. We set off in the right direction but after 30 minutes we realised that we had come down the hill too early. We talked to a local farmer and he roughly pointed to a village miles in the distance. Valleys and rivers would have to be crossed so we decided to walk down to the riverbed and follow it for a while just to get us closer. And this is where the earlier advice really came in handy.

The dogs were barking wildly further down the hill so we were gripping our sticks all the harder. Suddenly from behind us a dog came charging down the hill straight for us and we all stood together with our sticks at the ready throwing a few rocks for good measure. We were in street fight mode with our all our backs together covering every angle. Another dog turned up making it even more difficult but after 10 minutes of shouting, rock throwing and waving our sticks we thought we had advanced far enough down the track to be in the safety zone. At that moment the first dog came racing back down the hill and bit Mattias on his ankle. Luckily Mattias had thick hiking boots and it had only managed to dig its teeth into the leather. We were all on high alert from here on in.

We made our way down to the river and started our long walk downstream. The trailhead was nonexistent in parts and a few times we had to cross the river by walking over concrete beams. Eventually we came to a clearing and saw a little village that was landmarked on the map our new friends had given us so we knew we were getting closer. The only concern was we were apparently on the opposite side of the river. At that exact moment we saw a group of 6 schoolkids walking up the dirt path in our direction. There were 5 girls and one boy and they were all very young, the oldest being around 12. They were walking back from school to their respective villages towards Chugchilan and said we could follow them. Crossing back over the river would have made the journey even longer so these 6 angels were guiding us in the right direction.

The next hour was incredibly amusing from our point of view, as I am sure it was for the children as well. We gave them some chocolate for their help and with this new found energy they started playing hide and go seek in front of us. The road (actually a dirt track with giant holes) was horrible and the kids started hiding in the holes in front of us and surprising us when we would pass them. We enjoyed these games for over an hour, listening to the kids shushing each other as we pretended to look for them. Eventually all the children branched off to their houses and we walked the last hour uphill with Chugchilan in our sight. Every now and then the dogs would remind us of their presence by threatening us but we were ‘battle hardened’ now and fended them off with ease. The valleys into the distance were beautiful and we would be able to enjoy this view from our hostel for the next two days. We were exhausted by the time we reached the small town of Chugchilan and checked into the same guesthouse of the people we met earlier in the morning with the directions. Now this is where speaking spanish in South America saves you a lot of money: negotiating a good price for a room. The trio had tried to get a discount but there spanish was poor. With Mattias and Davides fluency and my decent attempt we had no trouble in getting a better deal. On the proviso from the manager that we wouldn’t tell the trio of our arrangement!! The guesthouse had awesome hammocks, great rooms, cold showers (we were in the middle of nowhere so no complaints) and fantastic food. We continued to play cuarenta (Ecuadorian card game) which needed 4 people so the manager became our fourth player. After a few friendly games she started giving extra dessert as prizes for the winners. Lets just say we had a few extra helpings that night.

We spent the next day mostly relaxing in the hammocks and eating excessively. We had all lost a bit of weight from all the hiking so having an extra meal a day didn’t worry us. We went for a walk down the valley just to keep the legs fresh as we would be climbing Cotopaxi in two days time. An early night was had with the bus leaving at 3am in the direction of Saquisili where the Thursday markets were the main attraction.

Seeing the southern cross on the horizon was the only highlight of waking up so early and getting on a rickety bus. Sleeping against the window was impossible without getting concussion due to the bumps so most of us stayed awake for the 4 hours that it took to reach Saquisili. After some desayuno in a local café the markets were in full swing. It was separated into three types of markets: livestock, fruit and vegetables and goods/handicrafts. The livestock market was the most interesting with the guinea pigs and chickens trading hands all over the place. The guinea pigs were being tossed around with some vigour and before being sold their genitals were checked, which involves squeezing their stomach until something little pops out!! I will confess that I did try a grilled guinea pig but I would much prefer them as pets.

After a few hours wandering around we jumped onto a bus heading north where we would rendezvous with Ryan at a hostel just outside of Latacunga. This was the meeting place for the start of our Volcan Cotopaxi climbing trip. Continue reading the next blog to see how we fared.

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