Back to Nature: Quilotoa Loop, Ecuador – January 7 – 13, 2020

South America was one of our favorite destinations on our Many Moons adventure back in 2012, so we were very excited to return.  It has just the right amount of daily adventure with awesome outside pursuits.  Our first destination was Ecuador with plans to climb in the Andes for 2 weeks.  We had been doing our best to stay in shape while in Europe, but neither of us was in prime climbing shape.  In the spirit of “never too late”, we opted to start our travels with a 3-day trek called Quilotoa Loop culminating at a beautiful crater lake.

We were also excited to have our friend, Mac, join us in Ecuador for our climbing trip.  He also opted to fly in early and join our “never too late” hike!  It was so awesome to share this adventure with him.

Quito is at 9,200’, so we spent our first 2 days in Ecuador slowly walking around the city trying to acclimate and do some light sightseeing.  I was pleasantly surprised by Quito.  It was more modern than I expected and has lots of green spaces within the city.  We enjoyed wandering through a botanical garden with a great orchid and bonsai collection as well as exploring old towns’ plazas.  We also dusted off our Spanish skills as we used more in these 2 days than during our 3 weeks in Spain!  I was thankful that both Mike and Mac spoke some!

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From Quito, we traveled via bus to Sigchos where we would start our trek.  The bus was filled with locals, had fun Latin music playing, and vendors boarded the bus at each stop selling drinks and snacks.  Along the way, we saw glimpses of Cotopaxi, and endless green hills and farms. We knew that the km/h meter was posted for our safety, but somehow it made us feel less confident that we would survive the curvy descent from a steep pass! South America, we’ve missed you!

For the next 3 days, we would simply be walking from village to village, staying in inns along the way.  When researching this trek, there were only a few blogs to go by and no good map, so we were a bit unsure of what we would find.  It felt a bit undiscovered and adventurous.

Leaving Sigchos, we descended 1000’ to the river below.  The trail was a mix of paths, dirt farm tracks and gravel roads.  To our relief, there were good signs and trail markings showing the way.  We walked past many tiny fields of potatoes, corn and squash.  Once we crossed the river, we had to regain the 1000’ and walked through many cow pastures.  The fence posts were most interesting, as they were live rhododendrons, but trimmed/trained into a post! 

Our destination for the night was a tiny hamlet called Isinlivi with a lodge called the Lulu Llama.  The lodge is eco-friendly and gives back a percentage of their proceeds to the community.  We opted for a cabin here to share with Mac.  It was so cool with amazing views from our terrace, a full skylight shower and even composting toilets (think Smith Rock!).  Water is a premium in this village, so the lodge is trying to minimize its impact.  We enjoyed relaxing the afternoon away while enjoying the views of the valley.  Dinner was family style, and it was fun to chat with our fellow trekkers and share travel stories (although we tried to avoid the guy we called Ted, who looked way too much like the Unibomber).

The next day, we enjoyed a yummy breakfast of fresh fruits and local yogurt and cheese before continuing our trek.  I love having the only goal of the day being to hike from one place to the next.  I find it so relaxing and satisfying!  We again started the day with a descent to the valley floor.  We continued to be impressed with the scenery and got great views looking back towards Sigchos. 

Once at the river, we followed it along until we crossed it on a log.  Then our uphill portion of the day, steep, dusty switchbacks.  We were again rewarded for our efforts with a nice viewpoint over the valley with views back to Sigchos and our first view of the Quilotoa crater rim!  The final 2km were on a main road into Chugchilan.

The hostel in Chugchilan had great views of the valley and was run by a very welcoming family.  The dad, Victor, worked non-stop doing little projects around the place.

Our final day hiking was the longest, and we also gained the most elevation to a high point of 12,777!  Plus, we were rewarded with views of the Quilotoa lake.  Like the last 2 days, we descended to the valley floor to cross the river and then start our hike up.  It was Sunday, so as we walked through the tiny villages, we saw people dressed up on their way to church.  Everyone greets each other on the trail, so I got my practice saying Buenos Dias! 

We got a glimpse into farming life here as we saw a family working a steep hillside.  The men had water tanks on their back and were manually irrigating the field while the women were weeding.  Some of the fields that we saw looked almost impossible to tend, but every square inch of land is used.

After 3000’ of gain, we finally crested the crater rim and got our first views of the lake.  It is a beautiful blue color set off against the green, mountainous backdrop.  From here we, opted for the shorter hike along the rim to the final town of Quilotoa as we still had to catch a 2hr long bus.  The rim trail was awesome and was fun to see the lake from different angles. 

Our hiked ended in the very touristy town where most people access the lake via bus or car.  There were some nice overlooking platforms for us to take a few final pictures.  Our 40km trek was complete, and we were all feeling a little better about our fitness level.  We wanted to get to Latacunga somewhat quickly as we needed to be in Quito the next day to kick off our climbing trip.  We timed it perfectly, as we got on the bus right when we arrived at the bus terminal!

Arriving in Latacunga on Sunday afternoon, we soon realized that Ecuador really shuts down on Sundays!  There were lots of families out and about, but every store front was closed.  It was cool to see people spending time together and not working, but from a traveler’s perspective, it makes it a little challenging.  Finding the hotel was easy but finding a place for dinner was not.  We finally found the one joint in town that was open – pizza- and it was amazing!  It was perfect to fill our hungry bellies.

Our first week in Ecuador was exactly what we needed.  After a few days trekking in the fresh mountain air, we were feeling more fit and acclimated to the altitude.  It was made more interesting by glimpses of everyday life in small farming communities and celebration of community and family on a Sunday.  Plus we got to share the adventure with Mac!  What a way to kick off our month in Ecuador and get us acclimatized for our climbing adventure in the Andes!