Quilotoa Loop, Ecuador

Quilotoa Loop is the first hike we did in Ecuador. Fantastic 3-day hostel-hopping hike, with rich culture experience and natural beauty sighting. 

To be honest, the hardest part was to get to the starting point. For this Ecuador trip, we first landed in the city of Quito, capital of Ecuador. A lot of people start adventure in Ecuador there. We stayed at a hostel in Quito on the arrival day (after midnight), then did a city walk tour on the second day. The third day, we took bus to do Quilotoa Loop. The hike starts in a small village called Sigchos. From Quito, you first need to go to a bigger city Latacunga, because there is no direct bus from Quito to Sigchos. We took metro to go to bus terminal in Quito, then we bought a bus ticket to Sigchos, but when we went to bus area, the bus had gone already. So we had to buy a ticket again. We needed to go to a bus terminal in Latacunga, but our bus' destination was not Latacunga, just the bus went through Latacunga, so the bus dropped us off the middle of road. In Ecuador, there are no bus designated bus stops: they can get off or get on wherever they want. Now we had to go to the Latacunga bus terminal but those buses are not many, but luckily one bus passed by and we were able to get on. It was super rare, the second bus driver, who was young and spoke English and he kindly told us the we needed to by a bus ticket to Sigchos in the terminal. Interestingly, he said that I look like Ecuadorian! Probably because I am short and black hair (Those are general looking of Ecuador indigenous people). After the second bus, we FINALLY arrived Sigchos. We had coffee in a small cafe in Sigchos. 

Day1: ~6 miles, ~1500 feet elevation gain. First, going down in the valley in lush green scenery. Nice to see small villages and agricultural view. This is the real culture witnessing. One thing really stunning is that, many steep hills they grow the products and observed many times farmers were working on the hill by hands, without any machines. More than half of the farmers working on the field. were women with babies on their backs. That was surprising. 

Going through villages, we saw many dogs without leashed. This reminded me of Montana (East Glacier) where many dogs roaming on the roads. The dogs barked a lot while we passed, but they didn't come too close or bite. Among animals, the best was llama (left picture). 

Many llamas are in Ecuador, and indeed, the first night's staying was called, "Llullu Llama Mountain Lodge" shown in the left picture. Really nice cozy place. For 2 of us, with breakfast, dinner, packed lunch, private double bedroom, shared shower and bathroom, unlimited coffee/tea, spacious communal area: $65. One person with 2 meals costs only $32.5?! Such a good deal. AND the meal is very good. For example, the dinner was 3-course meal! Starter is soup (it family style with other travelers): it was very good broccoli soup. Then main dish was meat. Then, dessert was home made cake. All delicious. We had 7 hikers total on that night. Two guys from Netherland, two twin sisters from England, a guy from Montreal, Canada, and us. The breakfast was also amazing. Fresh cut fruits including passion fruits, yogurt, fresh smoothies, bread with butter and jam, eggs. Handmade tuna sandwich for lunch was very tasty as well. 

Day2: ~7.4 miles, ~2500 feet elevation gain. 2nd day was another beautiful day, with lush green views. One point when we crossed the river, an old guy spoked to us in Spanish and was saying his wife had surgery and (likely) begging money. We left. 

The 2nd day's hostel was Clouds Forest. Another nice meals, private room with private bathroom/shower, communal area. Again meals were amazing. Carrot soup, steak, and cake: 3-course dinner. Fresh fruits, smoothies, bread with jams, eggs for breakfast. As it was the same itinerary, we again saw Canadian guy and Dutch guys, but not English ladies (as other hostels nearby, assuming they went vegetarian hostel as they were vegetarian and vegan). 

Day3: ~8.3 miles, ~3200 feet elevation gain. The 3rd day is the most elevation gaining hike. Many pigs were leashed on the way. Some were leashed but not attached anywhere, so basically free. 

My favorite is of course, orange cat! 

Also we saw some local people near the hostel since it was in a small town. Motorcycles are popular vehicles for locals, and we saw a lot of 3 people on the motorcycle (husband, wife with baby) without helmets. 

Climax is Quilotoa Lake, it is a huge crater lake! We walked the half of it and arrived a hostel, Runa Wasi. Then we still had time, so we hiked down to the bottom of lake! It was nice. It was around 5 p.m., so the business was over, but you could kayak on the lake. Also, if you pay, you can hike up back to the top with horse. We saw a couple of people horse ride back.

Customers were on the horse, but the horse owners walk to harness horses. Wow. It looked like a family business. Husband was walking with customer group, and his son (I guess) was walking with another customer group on the horse. Then, his wife (I guess) was cleaning horse poop on the trail. It is very good the business owners clean the horse drops. In the U.S., horse S&%$ is everywhere on the trail and nobody cleans them up. 

On the 4th day, we did a day hike (6-hour) to walk the entire circle of crater lake to see sunrise over the lake. It was gorgeous view. In general, there are less crowds in the morning compared to afternoon (foggy the previous day), so it was nice to see clearer view. From the town to the entire hike, 3 wild dogs hiked together. It was a big hope for them to get treats with us, but we didn't feed (we didn't have much snacks anyway, and I don't like feed wild animals). 

This trip is from 9000 feet to 12900 feet, so this serves as a good acclimatization trek. After we enjoyed fully the Quilotoa loop, we got a bus to Quito. Fun trip!