Four wonderful days exploring the Quilotoa Loop

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The few days we spent in the region of Ecuador known as the Quilotoa Loop was there highlight of our time in the country. We left Otavalo for the two hour trip back down to Quito where we caught a taxi between the north and south Bus stations. Quito has four major bus stations - you use the one which lies in the city in the direction to which you are travelling to. It was an hours taxi trip - hardly any traffic as the driver went around the ring road - but it took so long we wandered at one stage if he was actually driving us to our destination of Latacunga, two hours south of Quito. Eventually though we arrived at the massive bus terminal - it was as large as some international airports!
We enjoyed the trip along the Pan American Highway and though the weather was quite overcast we were lucky to see Volcan Cotopaxi (5900 metres high) - the second highest in Ecuador. It was covered in snow and very impressive. Upon arriving in Latacunga we walked to a hostel and set off to explore the city. There was a large market area - the main market was in the process of being moved and all the stallholders were out checking how much space they would have for their stalls - some of them didn’t look happy so I figure that they had less then before, It was a lovely city which sees few tourists and we found plenty to do in the 24 hours we were there. The weather was still not good though - heavy rain showers. The local women were wearing short skirts here, brightly coloured shawls, knee length socks and high heels. And of course the felt hat!
We visited the local market early next morning and decided against eating the local speciality - pork meat, thick pork crackling, popcorn and a thick greasy soup. A heart attack on a plate! The market was full of BBQ pigs and every cut of uncooked pork meat imaginable was available at the butcher stalls - including dozens of heads. We ate at the local pizza restaurant..... We’re really not enjoying the food here - pork or piles of white corn which is very bland. Heaps of sweet pastries to finish it off. Other than that it’s a piece of chicken, served with a bit of lettuce, tomato, rice (they eat a lot of rice) and chips. Every restaurant seems to serve the same meal. You can have pizza for variety! Lots of lovely vegetables in the market but we haven’t discovered yet what they do with them. Heaps of bananas though and some nice apples and the homemade fruit ice creams are wonderful.
We left after visiting the market with a small backpack each (our other luggage we stored at the hostel) to walk to the bus station. There is a narrow bridge over the river which you have to cross to reach the bus station and whilst I was walking over it I was approached by two young boys with cardboard placards. Whilst trying to get around them - they were crowding me - one of them stole my camera. I realised instantly it was gone - as were the two boys! Back to the hostel where one of their guides took me to the police station to do all the relevant paperwork before I bought another camera at a local shop - not a lot to choose from but better then nothing! A lesson learnt - touch wood we have no more problems but we’ve heard some horror stories since we’ve been here. One man arrived in Otavalo without his luggage - it was stolen from under the bus and bags are slashed frequently on the bus between Quito and Latacunga, Our bus driver actually locked our luggage in a separate compartment on the trip from Quito.
We caught a local bus to our first stop on the loop - the tiny village of Zumbahua. What a wonderful place it was - surrounded by velvet green hills, many of which were covered in tiny fields right up to their peaks. None of them were terraced and many were nearly perpendicular - we couldn’t believe that they were able to be cultivated they were so steep.
We were the only non locals on the bus and everybody was so friendly and happy to see us. The area has been open to tourism for a while but they don’t see a lot of tourists because the roads are so poor and the transport into the region infrequent. Nothing goes all the way around the 200 klm loop. The road to Zumbahua was paved, as was the next 14 klms to one of the major tourist attractions in the area - the stunning turquoise waters of the Laguna Quilotoa, a volcanic crater lake. From here the road is very bad, rough and many tight curves. The main way you get around it is on the back of a truck which act as taxis here. Arriving in Zumbahua we found a tiny hotel, slightly grimy, above a restaurant. We went for a long walk around the area - it was really pretty and peaceful - most people were wearing traditional dress and it wasn’t a tourist town. There wasn’t even an internet café in the place. Very dingy little eating places so we were very careful where we ate - none of them seemed to be too clean.
A noisy night - lots of people coming into town for the markets. We were up early next morning and off to explore. Cold and foggy. The markets was amazing - it was the first market where we’ve seen llamas for sale. They sold for around $100 each - a lot of money here. Gorgeous animals - I could look at them all day. It was a very large market - spreading over the main square and all the streets nearby. Local ladies were colourfully dresses in multi layers of shawls - brightly coloured silky summer shawls being worn under heavy woollen ones. All of the men were wearing ponchos - the main colour being worn was plain red or a stripe of red and blue. In the market we found a row of men sewing the collar areas into the ponchos on pedal Singer sewing machines. Women were buying large realms of wool from which to knit their shawls and there were a lot of stalls selling high heeled shoes - a definite accessory item for all the women, young and old. Imagine walking back up those hills in them! Heaps of stalls were also selling felt hats in many colours, though the olive green and brown colours were the most worn. Shallots were grown in the region as there were massive bundles of them for sale - all were sold still coated in heavy soil - maybe they leave it on to preserve the quality. A fabulous market - and well worth staying the night to visit early in the morning. I doubt we’ll get a much more authentic market during the rest of our time in Ecuador.
Our next stop was the stunning Quilotoa Volcano Crater Lake. We hired an open back truck to take us there - the only way to travel - and we plan on doing much more of it! The lake was much more of a tourist area as many companies bring day trippers down from Quito - it would be a long days travelling (four hours each way) to spend a short time at the crater. The lake is 3 kilometres wide and 250 meters deep and is a vibrant turquoise in colour. Many people hike around the perimeter of the crater - about 9 klms - but recently tourists have been involved in accidents doing this. A Canadian backpacker has died in the last few weeks - the path is quite unstable and prone to collapsing. We were content to find a grassy spot overlooking the lake and to just enjoy the view. It is at an altitude of 4000 meters and despite a week at high altitude already we were still quite breathless. The altitude hasn’t made us sick at all - no headaches or such - but very breathless on exertion.
From there later in the day we caught a local bus to Chugchillan, only 14klms away, but 2 hours on the bus. It was a scary trip as the road surface was very rough and sandy (volcanic ash) in places. The bus slid around too many corners for us to relax! There were many deep wide canyons and sometimes all you could smell were the eucalyptus trees which lined the road. Part of the road was a riverbed - we stopped to let a lady off there and that was when we realised that we had livestock on the roof. She had bought two sheep at Zumbahua markets and they were tied to the top of the bus. It was fun watching the poor things be lowered down from the roof. We had been on the bus for so long we thought that we had totally missed Chugchillan but eventually late in the afternoon we arrived. Any tourism the area receives is based on trekking and this village is halfway around the circuit so there are three lovely guesthouses there. We stayed at Mama Hildas - she greeted us like long lost family members - we had a lovely room with a little stove in the corner which we fired up each evening. Hardly anybody else was in town - only one other person was at the guest house each evening whilst we were there. Breakfast and dinner was provided (eating options were very limited in this town!) We enjoyed the fire, watched the lovely long tailed hummingbirds in the garden and spent hours walking along the trails around the village.
On Sunday morning there was a tiny market on - we watched a man pay over small amounts of money for the bags of corn that the farmers bought into the village. He sat on a fancy wooden chair as he weighed their meagre bags of corn - they were weighed, paid for and then tipped into large bags beside him. We decided not to eat lunch at the markets - the food looked gross - and knew we would be well fed by Mama Hilda that evening so weren’t too concerned. We puffed up and down the paths into the hills, being passed by lots of barefoot old ladies coming back from the market, men taking donkeys down to the village and being accosted by kids. None of who asked for money or lollies - a sign that the area doesn’t see a lot of tourists!
We had no trouble spending two days, three nights in the village. On Sunday afternoon two brass band played at opposite ends of the village - all the musicians got drunker as the afternoon wore on - therefore the same tune (it was as if they were having a competition to see who could play it the loudest) - played by both bands over and over - got progressively worse! It was actually funny but we were thankful to see one group stumble onto the bus (after all their drums and trumpets were tied to the roof of the bus) and leave to go back to their own village. We had a wonderful few days in the region - the locals were really happy to see us and all tried to have conversations with us. They spoke the Indian Quecha language (very different from Spanish - not that we speak that either). The region is one of the poorest in Ecuador - it was very obvious by the locals dress and even the food they were eating. Sadly we left to go back to Latacunga and onward to Ambato. We caught a truck again - such fun - for the two hour trip to Latacunga. It was very cold but the scenery was beautiful - mountains as far as you could see, a patchwork of farms and nn more villages until we got close to Latracunga. We had great views of the snow capped Cotopaxi Volcana - you could certainly feel the snow in the air! Upon our arrival in Latacunga we collected our luggage from storage and headed off to the bus station to catch a bus to Ambato.

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