Lauren –
We spent the night in the rather dirty town of Latacunga before heading off on our 4 day hiking adventure. We needed somewhere to leave our big bags with a shop and ATM to fill up on essentials before the Ecuadorian wilderness. The best bit about our Latacunga stopover was the beautiful view of the Cotopaxi volcano from our hostel room.
The Quilotoa Loop is one of the most famous hikes in Ecuador. The most popular route starts in the town of Sigchos and ends at the beautiful Quilotoa crater four days later, you hike to little towns on the way where you stay in tiny mountainous villages.
Our overnight bags packed, water bottles filled, hiking boots tightened and maps downloaded we set off to the tiny town of Sigchos in the Ecuadorian Andes ready to depart on a four day hiking adventure. We got off the bus with a few other tourists who all started walking in the same direction.
“Are you walking the Quilotoa loop?”
“Yeah!”
“Shall we walk together?”
And so we had our hiking group for the day. Edwardo from Brazil, Eli from the US and James from the UK. Off we set, each with slightly different map directions – how hard could it be we thought? Turns out quite hard, within 10 minutes we were already lost, walking down hills we’d just climbed trying to figure out the way.
We muddled our way through and found the right path in the end. We spent most of the hike stopping to take photos of the beautiful surroundings, meeting random llamas and horses, and getting to know our new hiking buddies.
The first day of the Quilotoa loop is known to be the easiest, a 5 hour wander from Sigchos to the town of Isinlivi. So we were expecting a ‘muy tranquillo’ time – it was all fine until the last few hours where the direction on our map said “follow the path up the mountain”.
Hmm we thought!
“Up that big mountain?”
“Looks like it!”
So we set off upwards stopping every 20 metres to catch our breath – hiking at altitude definitely takes it out of you! Finally we made it to the top and collapsed on the side of the road for a few minutes break before hiking the last 30 minutes to our hostel in town.
As we rested the local bus drove by, people waving and looking confused as to why we had put ourselves through such pain unnecessarily. The driver offered to stop and give us a lift for the last few kilometres, but we refused, determined to make it on our own!
Finally we made it to Sigchos and to our absolutely beautiful hostel Llu Llu Llama. We had heard that it was an amazing place so thankfully had already decided to stay two nights to take advantage of the beautiful location and hikes around Sigchos.
We settled in right away, lit the fireplace in our room (that’s right…we had our own FIREPLACE!), took a steam in the sauna and hot tub (yep again you read that right a hostel in the mountains with a SAUNA and HOT TUB!) before tucking into our family style dinner. Bliss.
But wait it gets better! They have a resident Llama and St Bernard who are BEST FRIENDS! Lets just say we loved getting to know the house pets and making friends with fellow hikers.
We got ourselves into a rather feisty game of monopoly with Harry and Lana from England (the girls won). Quiet time in the hostel started at 11pm, but the game was in full swing as Lana and I nabbed Mayfair and Park Lane, it took a few more rounds to completely decimate the boys.
The next day we set off nice and early to the town of Chugchilan. This was a 6 hour hike with moderate difficulty and a high chance of getting lost. Again, David and I managed to get completely lost within 10 minutes of leaving the hostel. I decided that I would take over control of the map for the day and got us back on track. This was our favourite day of the hike by far. The scenery was stunning.
It was a hard slog down a valley and up a giant mountain. We stopped frequently to take pictures. This whole area is mountains, mountains and more mountains – even if the guide says a flat bit is coming up, chances are it’s followed by a very steep path up!
On arrival at our next hostel, The Black Sheep, we collapsed in a tired heap. We took full advantage of the free banana bread, cake and oatmeal cookies on offer 24/7 and may have eaten about 20. Again we were happy to be staying in this tiny mountainous town for a few nights to really soak it all in.
On our last day we were finally going to see the Quilotoa crater lake! We eagerly made our way up bright and early and crossed our fingers for clear weather. We’d met some other travelers who had unfortunately had been met with fog and couldn’t see their own hands, let alone a crater some 500 metres below.
On arrival it was a little treacherous, the clouds were closing in, but we got to see the beauty of the crater. I had seen pictures of the crater lake in perfect sunshine and I have to say I think the ominous clouds and wind added another element to the experience!
Not more than 20 minutes later it started to rain. It was the first time it had rained on our hike and we were thankful for this. Rain and wind at 4000 something metres isn’t too fun. So we quickly meandered around the rim to a distant ‘tea house’ we had been told about the day before. I was imagining a beautiful building, warm, with a selection of amazing teas. When we got there, rain pelting, wind howling, it wasn’t quite what we had expected…
It was a tiny wooden chalet, completely open to the elements. A mother and child sitting in the middle huddling over a small fire, a pot of tea on the coals bubbling away. We all huddled together, slurped our herbal tea and hung our wet clothes from the roof panels to try and dry them a little bit.
As the wind howled outside we didn’t want to leave. But after about an hour we begrudgingly put on our very wet clothes and ventured out into the elements. As we made our way down the mountain the sun shone through and the rest of our hike was in relative warmness.
And that was it! Our four day Quilotoa hike was over. We had the best time meeting other hikers along the way, staying in tiny remote villages in completely cut off hostels. It was definitely hard, but well worth the effort.
Far Away From Home 
sounds like a beautiful hike up there! glad u liked it!
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