Blogs from Quilotoa, Centre, Ecuador, South America - page 5

My Spanish teacher Paulina took us on a fieldtrip to a very very small village about 4 hours outside of Quito. Here the famous volcano "Quilatoa" is found, or as some people know it "the volcano that imploded". Instead of erupting outwards it collapsed, creating a circular fresh water lagoon filled with blue-green water. Ecuador's current president Correa had a special connection with the village, and lived among the Indigenous for many years.... read more

Ecuador, Quito,09-10-1990. Nothing can distrup my good mood this morning walking through a still foggy Quito devoid of traffic at this early hour. These Ecuadorians are definitely not early risers. I feel a bit like hiking the streets of a past era, a pre-conquistadores time though the whitewashed and red-tiled houses, the many colonial churches reminding me that the times of complete seperations of the American continents from power hungry medieval European rulers are a far away reality. Leaving the Quito historic centre behind, I enter a residential area full with modern looking shopping malls, embassies and prosperous looking banks. Obviously these are the middle- and upper-class residential neighborhoods and under normal circumstance of no importance to an intripid backpacker on the South-American Gringo Trail like me... When finally I make it to the airport, still ... read more

Quilotoa: vulcano, laguna e nubi nubi nubi. Una bella camminata e una corsa con il sangue alla gola alle 5 del mattino!!!... read more

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 ... read more

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 ... read more