At the Black Sheep Inn

Trip Start Mar 02, 2005

Trip End May 07, 2005

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Where I stayed

The Black Sheep inn

(Chugchilan hotels)

Flag of Ecuador Chugchilan, Ecuador
Saturday, March 5, 2005

After spending three nights in Quito I was ready to get out of the city and into the countryside. So I headed south through the "Avenue of the Volcanoes" to the little village of Chugchilan. It was a 6 hour journey on two buses. First a 2 hour ride on the Pan-American highway from Quito to Latacunga. Then from Latacunga to Chugchilan on incredibly windy dirt roads. It was probably only about 60km but it took 4 hours because the road was so bad and the bus kept winding back and forth to traverse down one mountain and up another.

Notes from the bus journey:

The first bus had a TV that was showing Ecuadorian Home Shopping Network. They were selling everything from cookingware to liquid liposuction in a bottle. Now who is going to buy a product from the TV while sitting on the bus? Or do they just really love watching the shopping network for the pure pleasure of doing so...?

The second bus ride was full of locals returning to their villages after shopping in the city

Black Sheep Inn

. A local woman sat in the seat across the aisle from me. She had only one seat for herself, her daughter, and her two sons. For a while the three kids all kind of sat on her lap and stood next to her. Then she started passing her kids off to other passengers`s laps. So for a while I had a 12yr old boy named Jon on my lap. The woman was very grateful.

It started raining three hours into the trip, so I couldn`t appreciate the beautiful mountain scenery. Plus, my bag was on the roof...But luckily the plastic tarp they had placed over the roof luggage kept my stuff dry.

The Black Sheep Inn is really a special place. It is a working farm, and the lodge is run in a very environmentally friendly way. The toilets are self-composting (and they are built with windows looking out across the valley below). For $18 you get a bed, a vegetarian dinner, breakfast, and all the tea and coffee you can drink. They even have coca tea, made from coca leaves. It helps you adjust to the altitude, and is actually quite tasty (You can`t actually get any narcotic effect just from putting the leaves in hot water. I was told you need to mix the coca leaves with another substance to experience that effect). Anyway, check out their excellent website to read more about the place: www.blacksheepinn.com Anyone in Ecuador really ought to visit this place. The only downside is the difficult journey to get there.