seekingmygreaterperhaps

Hola amigos! During the second half of my Carnaval break in Ecuador, I visited Laguna Quilotoa and Baños. Both places are stunning natural beauties, and Baños is known as the adventure capital in Ecuador, but that will come in the next post 😉 .

Laguna Quilotoa is a beautiful lake that sits inside the crater of a volcano. Before I traveled to Ecuador, I had no idea that Ecuador had so many volcanoes. When you look at the landscape, what you think are mountains, are really volcanoes. And that is kind of cool when you grew up in flat Indiana.

Getting there:
There are a ton of day trips to Quilotoa from Quito, so if you want to just stay in Quito, this is an option. I wanted to spend my week in Ecuador doing kind of a loop, so I went Quito > visit in Quilotoa > Baños > back to Quito.

I spent 2 nights in Latacunga in order to see Quilotoa. I arrived in the evening, had the whole next day to see the lake, and then woke up early to make my way to Baños. I took a public long distance bus. Ecuador is a little wild, because you just stroll up to the bus station and buy a ticket. There are a lot of companies, and you just pick one and try not to get the gringo rate. I read ahead of time not to put any luggage underneath because then people can steal from you… so I kept my backpack in the seat next to me and was fine.

From the Latacunga bus station, there are buses that go directly to Quilotoa- it’s about a 2 hour bus ride. If you look at it on the map, it should take about an hour, but buses in Ecuador are constantly picking up people along the side of the road because that’s just what the buses do. This makes for a lot of starts and stops and makes the journey long.

That being said- the scenery on the bus ride took my breath away. Ecuador is one of the most scenic places I’ve ever been. You get out of the city, and then there are rolling farms. It looks like a patchwork quilt, and it is absolutely beautiful. (Sorry no pictures- remember my phone got stolen?)

Quilotoa was absolutely worth the effort. I had mediocre weather (story of my travel life to be honest). I met a couple people on the bus and we started our walk together. When we got to the beginning of the trail, the entire thing was covered in clouds. I was praying that we would at least be able to see the lake at some point. It did clear up once we started walking (before the downpour of rain that followed…) and I got some great views! If you look up stock photos of Quilotoa, you will see that the color of the lake changes when the sun is out. I got this version, and it was still amazing! The walk down took a little bit, and then I hung out and waited out the rain and made my way up to the top.

I was expecting the walk up to be tough… but it was tough. The downside (eh?) of hiking in a crater is that you don’t have a beautiful view waiting for you at the top. It’s just hard, and then you are done. The intense slope in addition to the altitude made this a tricky hike. I was taking my time, and I ended up walking with an older American couple and we were encouraging each other. They had a private guide who also was chatting with me.

The way solo travel works is amazing. I ended up having lunch with this couple that I met. We all tried “cuy” at the restaurant, which is an Ecuadorian speciality. Cuy is guinea pig. It is not my favorite food I’ve ever tried but just because of the texture. To me, it tastes like rabbit, but with pig skin.

After lunch, this couple offered me a ride back with them so I didn’t have to ride the bus. They had a huge private van, and it was awesome. The driver took me all the way to my hostel, which was even better because it had started pouring rain. The parting words of this family was “pay it forward when you can.” I think that is the message of traveling- help each other out when you have the means.

Stay tuned for part 3 of my trip to Ecuador- Baños!