The longest mountain chain on earth.. A good spot to get lost??
Deciding it was time to get off the beaten track for a while, we headed into the Quilatoa loop - days hiking from village to village, through some amazing gorges, down rock faces, across crazy half-bridges, eating terrible dinners, eating fantastic dinners, avoiding maulings from one crazy cat, etc, etc...
Planning on getting to the end of the loop in time for market day in Zamboa on Saturday, we headed anti-clockwise.. it seemed a good idea at the time, but as the ascending increased, and the quality of accommodation decreased we realized why most go the other way.. Starting in Sigchos, we were met with looks of confusion when we asked for the road to Isinlevi - "The bus goes there this afternoon!", however after a couple of false-starts we were on the right track.. a few wrong turns were corrected by friendly (if somewhat bemused) locals, and we arrived at a beautiful old farm house hostel - "Llullu Llamas" (if anyone is going to Quilatoa, go here!). Really lovely people, and a cool homely feel (complete with a self-composting toilet, with a view!) and a mad, mad cat (not to mention the lasagna) made for a great spot to stop. Unfortunately our market plans meant we couldn't stop for long, and the next morning, we were off to Chugchilan..
A beautiful hike through a hidden valley was followed (of course) by us missing the turnoff, and ending up clambering down someone's farm (more bemused locals) before finding a cliff to descend. This accomplished, we discovered that we had missed the bridge, and clambered/slip/climbed/trudged our way to a crazy half-bridge, that lead to some jumping stones.. and eventually to the other half! Across, after six hours of effort, tuna sandwiches have never tasted so good!
Chugchilan didn't live up to the hype, and the next day we were off to Quilatoa.. They recommend that this section is done in the other direction.. with good reason. We ascended around 1km over the course of the day (after starting at around 3km above sea level)! However the relief (read unrestrained delight) at finally viewing the lagoon (really beautiful, by the way) may have made it all worthwhile..
Unfortunately, we were then into Quilatoa, a made-for-tourists-but-without-any-of-the-amenities-that-tour ists-like town, where due to a combination of altitude, exhaustion, and possible food-poisoning, we both promptly fell ill. This led to an extra night in Quilatoa (thankfully after switching to the upscale hotel), and the abandonment of our market plans..
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