Three nights, one loop, one dog.

  Quilotoa, Ecuador
Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Hola All
I´m in Quito again, shouldn´t be but I am - details coming up.

I´ve taken a weeks break from the reserve (been there 3 months so feel I deserve one) and left there last Friday to meet up with Tom (another volunteer, for those from LH thats Tom Tom, not Big Dave Damson Tom Tomato) in Latacunga (bout 2 hours south of Quito). I got there to find no sign of him other than a note from him and Vanessa - piecing the evidence together, I realised that she must be with him and was joining us on the walk we had planned, which was a bonus. The plan was to walk/bus around the Quilotoa Loop - quite a famous route in Ecuador. After a restless night in the $5 hostel (which we also suspect could have been hired by the hour..) we set off walking from Latacunga to Pujili (pronounced poorly - at least when I try to say it... thats not olden; thats golden. Thank you very much, I´m here all week). Anyway, we got there after about 3 hours for a spot of lunch - $4.50 for three set dinners, soup, main and drink - bargain or what. 

a. and we´re off - Pujili bound

 

b. big steps in pujili - no idea why

There then followed about an hours bus trip to the next village where we were staying, which was either a nice pleasant journey on a seat watching the beautiful passing scenery, or a cramped hot standing nightmare with a far too low ceiling and a small elderly Equatorian lady sat on you feet. Guess what I got.

We spent a night in a fantastic farm, with possibly the nicest, friendliest people on the planet, with gorgeous views, fantastic food and a lovely toasty wood stove to sit in front of. Though for this we did have to pay the princely sum of $22 - for those in the UK not curently following the dollars fortunes against our mighty pound, thats about 11 quid. They kept saying that their home was our home, and it really felt like that. 

c. view from our home for the night

d. and relax

e. sun setting over the farm

f. more, but its really really nice

g. one sunset, two llamas (paco and pico possibly)

h. one more of the farm, honest

i. well one more

Next day we walked for about 5 hours to another village, Zumbuhua where we arrived just in time to see the local party in full swing and waited for our next bus. 

j. nice view, ruined by one Tom

k. bloody tourist getting in all the photos

l. more scenery - its everywhere there

l. you cant teach photography like that

m. and more

o. Zumbuhua - sprawling metropolis

p. two hats, two idiots

This next bus did NOT, as requested, take us to Quilotoa,  which was our destination, preferring instead to drop us a few K short in some other random village, where we met this guy who suggested we take an amusing photo involving hat swapping - all good until he then tied to charge us a dollar for the privilege. Bloody cheek, doesnt he know who we are, he should be paying us. But eventually we reached Quilotoa which was so worth it - theres a massive crater lake there formed by a volcano and is posibly one of the best views on the planet, photos or description dont really do it justice but heres some attempts. We stayed in a lovely lodge, huddled under about 10 blankets as it was frickin freezing, but then again we were at about 3800m so kinda understandable. 

q. as the sign says, welcome to quilotoa

r. some of laguna quilotoa

s. and the rest

t. sunrise right, cotopaxi left, laguna centre

u. me blocking the nice view

Then we headed off to walk the 5 or so hours from Quilotoa to Chugchilan and had a lovely walk around the crater in the morning then headed down from it towards a little village on our way to the destination. 

v. now they are

w. thats better

x. view the other way is pretty good too

y. and back down we go

z. small village, big walk away

Thats where we met the frickin dog that decided to attack us and bite Vanessa in the leg, this is pretty much where it all started to go a little pete tong. Obvioulsy we needed to get to a hospital asap, which was a bit of a prob as we were in the middle of nowhere. Anyway long story short, after lots more walking, attempts to find someone with a car or a horse we managed to get to Chugchilan and then hire a truck to take us back to civilization and then hop on a bus back to Quito where we went to a hospital that would put most in the NHS to shame, luckily with an English speaking doctor because although I could manage to convey dog bite etc, think I would have been a bit short with the medical terms for injecting stuff and instructions for further treatment etc. All injections and necessary stuff were administered and everything will be ok now. So instead of the lovely Eco-lodge Black Sheep Inn (Google it, it looked lovely and they helped us out loads by going to pick Vanessa nad Tom up after I had turned up sweating profusely and muttering stuff about dogs and bites and bottom of the canyon) in the wilderness we were supposed to be staying in, we ended up back here. Frickin dog.

So having a relaxing day here having to unfortunately eat lots of chocolate cake as its good for helping with altitude as me and Tom Tom are heading back South tomorrow to try to climb Cotopaxi (bout 5900m). Spending tomorow night in the climbers refuge, then we have to get up abut 1am to head to the summit. Be back in Quito on the weekend so hopefully be able to tell you how it went then.

Hasta.