Killing Quilotoa Loop 💪

11/2/23

Today I was starting a three day hike, the much talked about Quilotoa loop, starting in Sigchos and ending in Quilotoa after walking by the infamous turquoise lake. After checking out, I headed to the bus station alone. I knew a few people were probably going from the hostel, including my German roomie, but I needed to grab breakfast on the way and maybe a few snacks. I stopped for a traditional breakfast halfway to the bus station and grabbed a couple of bananas. Then I got the 09.30 bus to Sigchos, the beginning of Quilotoa Loop. The bus ride was a good few hours and after buying some snacks from a panaderia, I headed off, with only three cakes, a lone banana and a bottle of alarmingly green pop to fuel me – I had hoped the bus station would have had more snacks and sandwiches, but alas, it was not meant to be!

After gathering snacks from about the village, I bumped almost immediately into the German guy who had been in my dorm (and Banos), with another German guy who he had decided to hike with. The new guy looked confused at our casual greeting and asked if we knew each other. We did all the introductions and I learnt that dorm guy was Max and new guy was Tim. We started walking together, which was nice although they had decided to walk two days in one so had to walk at a fair lick! The views once we left the outskirts of town were beautiful almost immediately. We chatted and walked until we hit a steep down hill. I told them to carry on and not to wait for me, because we were already starting relatively late – most people start at 11.00 as supposed to 12.30 – and I was worried about them going double the distance in the light! I lost them quickly on the down, but when I got to the final slope, they were there waiting at the bottom eating snacks, trying not to laugh at how shit I was at going down slidey steep stuff! I told them they should’ve have but they said they didn’t want to leave me walking all alone. Cute! The were some more mad views, another steep downwards slope with Max and Tim patiently waiting at the bottom! Awhile later came the parting off the ways – I needed to cross the river and go up the opposite side of the valley and they just needed to plod on along the road some more. We said our goodbyes, got a selfie for the blog, and I headed off down, down, down!

Walking by the river was quite a boggy affair, which quickly turned into a slightly scrambly boggy affair! It was steep up for quite some time! I was slightly relieved that I could do the uphill at my pace without worrying about stopping, so after the bog, I enjoyed a snack stop with a view. Afterwards, I headed onwards, upwards, along a track with beautiful flowers and into a field with some cows, and a bull that somehow snuck up on me and flared it nostrils as I was looking at the route! Aaarghh! I got out of that field pretty quickly after that! After some new mad views across the valley, I turned onto a track, which I continued on until the village I was staying in. I passed a tractor and a woman with her sheepdog and flock. (Most shepherd’s seem to be women here, which is cool, though I don’t know why men don’t farm much here. Who knows?!)

At the hostel, I was shown to a four bed dorm, just for me (luxury!), showered and then went back out to a viewpoint before returning to chill on the veranda in a hammock, reading my book with a cup of tea. I was looking out at the view when a woman brought three alpacas/llamas (I can’t tell the difference despite someone who worked on a llama farm telling me!) into the garden. Glorious! Once it got cold, I moved to sit by the fire and read and chatted a little to two German brothers. For dinner I sat with the Germans, a Dutch girl, an American gal and a Canadian guy. The other young table was made up of French speaking tourists. The final table at dinner was two Brits from down south who had sold up and had been travelling for the past ten years to enjoy their life and their love and from what they said to prevent them from getting bored of each other! Fair play. We were brought the best soup I’ve eaten in Ecuador, a glorious pumpkin soup with homemade cheese scattered on top for starter, followed by a standard meat and rice main and pud. I went to bed fairly soon after that as did most people, but did spend maybe an hour playing guitar by the fire first as the German brother dutifully worked away at their already very good Spanish.

12/2/23

Today, everyone got up early for the pre hike breakfast and then I jumped on the English speakers hike. I joined Meryl, Greta, Connor and another guy Owen from another hostel who we waited for for a fair while (over an hour) after breakfast to start our hike. Luckily, we had plenty of time, so it really didn’t matter and he was a useful hiker (balanced, not scared, with two good knees, and happy to help), so it was worth the wait!! We set off as part of a herd of tourists, but quickly we spreaded out. We became our pack of five for the day. The views were beaut, the hiking nice in parts but with more significant boggy sections than the previous day, mixed in with having to slide down the bog instead of scramble up it, it became a challenging day. We were a group with four bad knees and one wuss (me) so down was not ideal and took plenty of time. Everyone made it down through the bog before we had to start the steep hike back up the other side of the valley.

We stopped for lunch at a random point in the valley only to be attacked by flies! We moved on quickly and retried slightly later with more success. A wiry old solo man passed us, at quite a pace! Fair play! We stopped at a viewpoint tree house over the valley which was pretty insane, after a super steep, breath stifling climb! It was worth it! Eventually we made it to the edge of town and slowly dropped people off at their hostels. We had lost Meryl at some point on the final road as everyone was so exhausted they needed to walk at their own pace! Then Owen left for his hostel, then Connor and I to ours and then Greta.

Cloud Forest hostel was pretty nice. Because Connor and I arrived together we were given the same room and lucked out with getting a double bed each (luxury for any backpacker!). We showered and then Connor and I went on a snack hunt in between and found the village to be a bustling place! On returning, I chatted with other hikers in the hostel, including a Dutch guy who sounded more British than me (good afternoon to you sir) and an 18 year old who was here to teach trombone to kids in Quito (think McCall Smiths Bertie!), played pool and table tennis with Meryl and then eventually had dinner. I even had a beer – wild!

Dinner was a family affair. Everyone sat together on long tables. I had the pleasure of sitting opposite Mr USA, who was everything American and couldn’t bear to miss the Superbowl. Despite his best (and loudest) efforts, he didn’t not have success streaming the Superbowl live to a small wooden house on the mountains. After our three course dinner, pretty much everyone went to bed to prepare for the next days hike. I went to bed with the best intentions to be asleep by 9pm, but was tossing and turning until 2am. My roomie and hiking bud Connor was the same. The morning would be a nightmare! The only plus side was stargazing at midnight was pretty stunning. The milky way was OUT!

13/2/23

After a night of little sleep, the alarms went off too early! We wanted to leave around 06.30 to have the best chance of seeing the lake in all its turquoise glory, before the inevitable afternoon cloud settled in and muted it to a more solumn blue-grey. We were down to three hikers. Meryl’s knee were too injured for continuing to be a sensible decision and Owen had sacked off the early start so he could enjoy his breakfast. So off we went, Greta, Connor and me. Again, as soon as we left the town, the views were beaut. We hiked down passed a lot of kids in uniform, making their ways up the valley to school. Some steep sections again, but thankfully, today was pretty much all up!! Good for wimps and knees, but quite a hit of cardio, especially in the altitude! We went up and up, and met some people on the way going down and down (rather them than me!).

At some point, the old wiry man appeared, right towards the end, on the very steepest section. We had all spread out to tackle the airless climb at our own pace and the man was gaining on me. Nooo! I managed to keep going, getting dizzy passing some llamas, stopping to drink and snack and managed to reach the lake just before the wiry old man. Yaaaas! We got a squad pic at the top, where the others were waiting for me. Niceeee. A Dutch couple from the hostel and trombone Bertie were already at the top, having set off even earlier than us! Not long afterwards, a lady came to open up her cafe. I went in to order coffee and she offered me some coca tea to try which locals use to help with the altitude. It tasted bitter, but with a bit of sugar, it was alright, and perhaps it worked, because my head was fine for the final part of the hike!

We had a long (and much needed) chill at the lake of an hour or so, before heading onwards from Quilotoa lake to Quilotoa village. When we made it to the village, we were all ready to eat and rest. Absolutely, well and truly exhausted. We tried to find the bus times but couldn’t, so gave up to search for food instead. The place was very sleepy and most places seemed closed! Eventually, we found a place that did empanadas, but the woman wasn’t keen to cook for us. Eventually, she brought five out of our six empanadas and looked annoyed when we asked for our final one. More shockingly still, she had no salsa (a freshly made chilli and onion sauce, integral to Ecuadorian cuisine). What was this madness?! We ate quickly before hauling ourselves up and out to search for the bus. A few taxis tried to convince us that there were no buses, but luckily Greta said no and we found the bus, on the edge of the dual carriageway. We collapsed onto the bus and tried to sleep. Greta napped, but still I couldn’t sleep and nor could Connor. Argghh!

When we got back to Latacunga, we all tried to sort our buses to leave for our next destinations, which was a little complicated. My bus did not go from the terminal, nor did it go from any terminal. Instead, it went from a very small shop, which I failed to find. After checking all the terminals, with kind pals in tow, I said my goodbyes and walked back to my hostel (in the sketchy part of town!). There, I showered, got my clothes that I’d left there and repacked all my stuff into my big backpack. I had been messaging one of the hostel workers who was helping me to organise my Amazon tour. He came looking for me while I was in the shower, so I had to answer soaking wet in a towel, a film cliche, I think! Shortly after, I went down to reception and found out about my tour. The guy, Eduardo, had kindly went to purchase my bus ticket to the Amazon (or as close as a direct bus could get you!) and had a printed itinerary for me. Afterwards thanking him, I went to meet Connor for a meaty dinner in my favourite burger joint on the sketchy side of town (a short walk from my hostel)! Aha!

We had burgers and fries with glorious sauce and then headed back to my hostel to get my bags. Connor hopped in the taxi to avoid walking the sketchy part and after dropping him in a more seasonable part of town, I headed to the pick up point for my night bus. A night bus on four hours sleep and a lot of hiking was not sounding like a fun idea, but it was the only way to see the Amazon before Carnival began! Sadly, the bus was an hour late, so I spent over an hour sat on the roadside with other fed up passengers. Almost as soon as I got on the bus, I was asleep, fitted with my Frida Kahlo eye mask and ear plugs. Sleeeeeep.