Quilotoa Ecuador

February 14th we made the move from Puyo to Quilotoa by buses. We knew we had to switch at Latacunga, but much to our surprise, the bus stopped on the multi lane highway by the ramp to Latacunga, and gave us the bums' rush. We barely got our luggage off before the bus was moving, and we had traffic on all sides! Yikes! In a bit of a panic, I grabbed the first taxi I saw, which took us into the bus station.

All good after that. We arrived in Quilotoa late afternoon, to a comfortable mountain lodge, called Runa Wasi. It was very reasonable, and included dinner and lunch, as do most of the lodges in this area.

I hiked a short distance up to admire the lake, which was the main reason for being there. It is a volcanic crater lake, about 250 metres deep. It looked like the kind of lake that should have some kind of incredible creature living in it - maybe an even more giant version of the 80 kilo dragon fish we saw in Puyo.

 And then the clouds rolled in.

 Some sights from my walk up there.

They lit a fire in the dining room, so it was cosy for dinner, which was delicious. While we ate dinner, one of the women went and lit the fire in our room, so it was really warm when we returned. 

Both Richard and I had a bit of trouble with the sudden change in altitude, which was more than 3800 metres. We were both quite short of breath, even without doing anything, and that lasted all night. By the morning, our breathing had improved, but Richard felt like his eyeballs might explode out of his head. They didn't. 

We both walked up to the crater's rim again, because I wanted to see it in the morning light. The colour of the lake changes constantly. 

It was cold (3C when we got up) but I finally got to use the warm gear I've been schlepping around Ecuador.

Most people are here to hike from village to village, but we weren't prepared to do that. Instead we took a taxi to the village of Isinlivi. More to follow.