Latacunga, Quilotoa, Baños, Cuenca, Loja and crossing the Peruvian border


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March 27th 2010
Published: March 27th 2010
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The first thing I should mention here is the problem I had on the bus from Quito to Latacunga. I´ve taken care with all my belongings so far, keeping an eye on my bag in the hold of the bus whilst keeping all valuables in my smaller bag with me on the bus. Unfortunately, on this occasion I clearly wasn´t careful enough. My bag was on the floor, between my two feet. There were two people sat behind me, but one moved forward to come and talk to me (distraction tactics), whilst the other cut a hole in the bottom of my bag and proceeded to take my mini laptop. I didn´t notice a thing until I was about to get off the bus in Latacunga, by which time the other two had long got off. Obviously after the incident I was not best pleased, but there´s nothing I can do about it. Theft appears to be rife in Ecuador - someone I met at the hostel in Latacunga had his wallet stolen on the trolleybus in Quito; someone else had their camera stolen. Compared to Colombia, Ecuador does seem to have a lot of crime issues, probably as there are so many more tourists here. I have to look at the bright side - they didn´t take my phone, ipod or my malarone (anti malaria tablets), of which the latter cost considerably more than the laptop. From now on, I´ll have to travel with my bag on my lap at all times, which I guess I should have been doing from the start. People had warned me about placing bags on the overhead racks, but I hadn´t heard of this trick before. As a result, I haven’t been able to update the blog in a while, so I hope I haven’t forgotten too much.
Anyway, I arrived in Latacunga, which as about 2 hours to the south of Quito. In the city itself there is very little to do, and is far from picturesque. I was only visiting the city as the following day I wanted to go to Lago Quilotoa, a volcanic lake 2 hours west of Latacunga. I ended up travelling with a Swiss German whom I met at the hostel, and in fact we did the whole hike around the edge of the crater together. The 5 hour walk was stunningly beautiful, with the volcanic crater on one side and mountains and valleys on the other. Besides losing the trail at one point and ending up going a lot out of our way, the trail was relatively easy, though a brisk 5 hour walk. In this part of Ecuador were lots of indigenous groups, and the women, in their colourful dresses, seemed to be everywhere: working in the fields, shepherding sheep and managing the shops in the village, whereas I didn’t see that many indigenous men. No idea what they do all day. Generally the indigenous in the countryside seem to be quite distant, and when Herman, the Swiss German, tried to take a picture of a group of women without asking, they reacted somewhat strongly against him. In the cities they always seem to be selling something or other, so come across much more friendly.
The following day, I had to leave at 5am, as this is the time of one of only 2 direct buses back to Latacunga. The bus driver amused me, as he was sounding the horn as he passed every house, which surely must have woken everyone up. The bus took me back to Latacunga, where I picked up the rest of
Overlooking the volcanoOverlooking the volcanoOverlooking the volcano

Nearing the end of the hike. It really wasn't as flat or short as it looked. A good five hours and some long up hill bits! But worth it for the continual view!
my belongings from the hostel, before I proceeded to the bus station to catch a bus to the town of Baños (Bath in English). Locally the town is known as un pedacito de cielo (a little bit of heaven), which may be going a bit too far; nevertheless it is a really nice, albeit over-touristy, town. The thermal baths which give the town its name feed off of the active volcano which overshadows the town, though I was told the town is in no danger from the volcano. The main attraction of Baños for me was the hiking in the hills around; I didn’t have much time to explore, but spent most of the time I did climbing up the well marked paths to the various view points over looking the city. The hostel I stayed in was nice, though on the roof-top terrace about 5 people had Acer Aspire laptops, the same model I had, which seemed to rub salt on the wound.
After Baños and a rather uncomfortable night bus, I arrived in Ecuador’s third city, Cuenca in the early hours of the morning. The first thing I noticed at the bus station, next to a no smoking and a no food sign, was a sign with a picture of a goat and a red line through it, presumably inferring that goats are prohibited in the bus station, making me wonder what sort of problems they must have had in the past. I headed straight for my hostel in the city centre, which was run by one of the nicest people I’ve met over here. She didn’t have any rooms left so instead she gave me a room in her own house across the street from the hostel, promising to reserve a room for the next day. Besides this, when I told her I needed to find a tailor to repair some holes in my clothes, she rang up her uncle and arranged for him to sort it all out (which he did, and for a very cheap price). The city itself is one of the nicest I’ve visited so far, with plenty of colonial squares and churches, two cathedrals (one of which is the largest church in the world made of bricks) and a host of Inca ruins. The city is built upon the ruins of the Inca settlement of Tomabamba, and although not too much remains
Cloud over the lakeCloud over the lakeCloud over the lake

During the 5 hour hike, the cloud came over from one side, into the crater, and then out the other side. A strange phenomenom to observe!
in the city itself, the site of Ingapilca 2 hours to the north was really interesting. If I had seen this after all the ruins in Peru, I don’t think it would have struck me that much, but as it was the first proper Inca site I saw, I was impressed by their technology and culture. After 2 nights in Cuenca, it was time to move on again.
Following a 5 hour bus south, I arrived at my last stop in Ecuador - the city of Loja. At the bus terminal, I bought my bus ticket for the next day, which would take me across the border to the Peruvian city of Piura - an 8 hour journey for only $8. In the meantime, I had the rest of the day to explore the city, which was just about the right amount of time. My first port of call was the hostel I had chosen, the Hostel Londres, which although located close to the city centre, had rooms which felt more like prison cells (very high, narrow windows and rickety old furniture.) But for $5 a night for a private room, the price was certainly right. Being Sunday, most of
Banos main squareBanos main squareBanos main square

The view from the rooftop of my hostel
the city was unfortunately closed down. The 2 main squares, the markets and the gate to the city were the main attractions, but after these, I quickly ran out of things to do. But as I had a very early bus to catch the next morning, this didn’t bother me too much, so after dinner and a few chapters of Frankenstein, I had an early night. The bus journey the next day from Loja to Piura felt very long; that said the border crossing was the easiest yet, with no complications. For some reason in Piura, intercity buses leave from and arrive at their own offices as there is no unified terminal, so I had to get a taxi from one bus company’s terminal to another in order to get a night bus to Lima. Cruz del Sur is the most expensive nationwide bus company in Peru and is recommended for safety and comfort, so I ended up on one of their double-decker coaches to Lima. Although it was a very comfortable ride, both my vegetarian dinner and vegetarian breakfast had meat in them; complaining to try and get some money back is apparently a long and arduous process (not ideal for people who won’t be staying in the country that long). The 15 hour ride to Lima seemed to fly by however, with the help of some classic movies and a comfortable (yet empty) coach.
Will write the next blog shortly about Lima and Peru - sorry if this entry seems less detailed than usual, but I’m doing most of it from memory from a month ago!

As always full photos are on my picasa page at picasaweb.com/graemejbingham



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1st April 2010

I really enjoyed your post. I have always wanted to go there. My blog is looking for travel photos. If you have the time, check us out a dirty-hippies.blogspot.com Continued fun on your travels, Heather

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