Monday, May. 5, 2003 - 7:32 p.m.
Lake Quilotoa
Wednesday evening after midterm exams (April 30th), my companeros and I (Jayne, Newley, Mike and James) left Cuenca for a new adventure, our 11:30pm bus heading northwest. We rode for about 7.5 hours to a town called Latacunga. This town doesn’t have much attraction other than the close proximity to Cotopaxi Volcano (at 5,900 meters, Ecuador’s 2nd highest peak—Chimborazo is the highest at 6,300 meters). From there we walked to the bus station and in 15 minutes were on another bus, this one headed for the village of Saquisili. We lucked out in the fact that this town has what some consider the most important Indian village market in the country. And the main market day is Thursday, the day we were there. So after having some desayuno (breakfast) we walked around the market, which pretty much engulfs the town. Everywhere we went there were booths and vendors. There were several huge plazas teeming with vendors, people and endless activity. There was everything from car parts to household goods to crafts to jewelry to animals to electronic equipment to vegetables to pig’s heads being sold. This market is not a tourist market, although there were a few other tourists that we saw. It was amazing to stroll around and observe for a couple of hours. Then we caught a 3 hour bus to the town of Chugchilan. Our destination—Lake Quilotoa (“Kill-ah-toe-ah”), a volcanic crater lake that some say is the most picturesque place in Ecuador.
Our bus dropped us off at the doorstep of our hostel, Mama Hilda’s, which was recommended by other CEDEI teachers who’d stayed there before. The hostel was very pretty, almost like a tiny farm with corn and beans and other things growing around several buildings. We stayed in simple, but nice accommodations. I couldn’t believe the surroundings. It was so beautiful; the mountains looked like jagged hills. I have to remember how high up we are, because they look more like hills than mountains. To me mountains have snow tops, but here in Ecuador, only the highest mountaintops do. We could see a wide canyon from our lodgings. We planned to hike the crater to the lake the next day. Our accommodations in this peaceful place included breakfast and dinner for $8 a night.
We woke up at 5:30am to catch the bus to the village of Quilotoa. When the bus arrived it was full, but there were people (other tourists) sitting on top, so we joined them, along with some other bags of goods (probably veggies). We sat on metal slats with a short railing around the edge. It was really uncomfortable, especially since the road was so bumpy, our tushes were sore after our 1.5 hour ride. But we saw incredibly beautiful scenery. Behind us we saw the Ilinizas, twin snow-capped mountains, in the distance. The road hugged the side of the canyon and we passed several small villages stopping frequently to drop off and let on people. After being jostled around for awhile on top of the bus, we also got really chilled from the wind. My hands became frozen, gripped tightly to the metal railing and canvas covered bags of potatoes next to me.
Finally we arrived at the little village of Quilotoa where we were greeted by a few locals who invited us into a little hostel where we had coffee and bread next to a warm little fireplace. We met a Swiss girl who was also on the bus and a couple from Israel that had spent the night at the hostel. Also, I noticed an indigenous man who was making exquisite handmade paintings. I had seen these paintings before for sale in the markets in Quito; it is a beautiful stylized painting on sheepskin covering a wooden frame. These paintings originated in this village and are very detailed, each one painstakingly made. The brush was very fine, I expect from some kind of animal hair. I bought a small one of Lake Quilotoa.
Soon we were on our way—hiking to the lake. We only walked about 10 minutes when we reached the edge of the crater and beheld the amazing sight below us. I couldn’t believe it, it was so incredibly beautiful. The lake is huge and the crater walls steep, maybe 500 feet high. The scenery was absolutely spellbinding. I agree with what others have told me, I think it is the most beautiful place I’ve been to in Ecuador.
We hiked along the perimeter; the Swiss girl had joined us as well. Although the sun beat down on us, the wind kept us cool. We encountered a few local indigenous children (who wanted us to pay them some money for “showing” us the way to the lake) and a grumpy looking burro blocking the path. After a few photo ops the trail split. We took the path that left the lake down the other side of the crater wall. The Swiss girl left us to return to the village and at the same time we were met up with the Israeli couple, Uri and Yael. From there we followed ambiguous directions in the Lonely Planet Guidebook on a 10 mile hike that took us the whole day down the crater into a valley. We hiked through challenging terrain, amazing scenery and sleepy villages and walked across lonely grassy fields, through forests of eucalyptus and pine, along dry stream beds and past an occasional solitary farmhouse with angrily barking dogs or nonchalant pigs. At one point the trail dipped down into steep canyon walls that became so high and narrow (maybe 30 feet) that I couldn’t put one foot in front of the other, but slid sideways for about 10 meters before the path opened up again, the whole time we were slowly making our way down to the bottom of the valley to a small creek down below. Then we slowly made our way up the other side of the canyon. We met a few other travelers along the way, from Holland and Canada, and sometimes would come across some locals who would generally just stare at us, a troop of tall pasty white aliens traipsing around their “backyards”, sometimes they would wave and sometimes they would demand “un regalo” (a gift), which was just a nice way of begging. At one point, three adorable little indigenous girls came tumbling down the path after us, requesting that we take their photograph. Knowing that they wanted payment in return I told them I had no money. “Comer” (food) was their response. Not wanting to pass up the opportunity I took their picture in exchange for some Ritz crackers. Then they wanted water, but I had none I could spare them.
Our hike that day was absolutely incredible, the weather was fantastic, as the sun shone bright at times and a cool breeze kept us from getting too hot. Eventually we got back to our hostel. We had some snacks and hit the sack early. We were bushed since we had been hiking for 7 hours straight!
The next day (Saturday, May 3rd) our group went on another hike, and the Israeli couple came with us. This time we headed east up the hill behind the hostel in search of a village with a cheese factory we had been told about. Up the mountain we hiked until it flattened out. We would ask people we met for directions to a cloud forest and cheese factory. Mama Hilda had given us very basic directions. ‘Go up the hill, stay to the right. When you see lots of people ask where the cloud forest is’. Most people didn’t know anything about a “Bosque nuebla” (cloud forest), but kept pointing up the mountain. The trail soon joined a road that hugged the mountainside. Ever upwards we climbed. At one point we met an old woman with a llama and asked her for directions. After answering our inquiries she said “saca foto”, she wanted us to take her photo for a price. When she realized we weren’t going to she asked for money, but she had no luck with that either. We couldn’t give money or food to everyone who asked.
Again the scenery was breathtaking. We could look back and see where we had hiked the day before, the distance was impressive. As the day before, we hiked through forest, field and mountainside, and could see the patchwork of fields below. At one point we stopped by a field of brilliant green grass for photos. The wind was rippling through the grass so that it resembled waves of the sea. The wind and breeze kept us cool, while the sun beat down on us. But as we got higher (perhaps 12,000ft) the clouds slowly rolled in, we lost our view and got a little chilled. Sometimes we had an incredibly view of the Ilinizas mountains, absolutely stunning, the snow capped tops with the canyons and green fields surrounding us as well. The hike was again physically demanding as it was uphill most of the way, but I just kept at it and did alright, but my muscles were so sore later. Sometimes we’d pass by people’s houses, some of them blasting salsa music that rolled across the hills so that it sounded like it was next door. At times we’d hear people shout to us and when we’d look it was usually children waving at us. We saw some sheep; some dogs would bark and growl threateningly. I know sometimes they bite so we’d pick up a rock so if we had to throw it (or pretend to throw it) it would keep the dog from attacking us. Fortunately, we never had to do that.
Several hours later we came across the cloud forest. It didn’t seem to be that much difference from any other forest in the area except that at times we would find ourselves immersed in mist as a lazy cloud rolled up the mountainside and engulfed us. We hiked for awhile and Yael (the Israeli gal) and I got into a fascinating conversation when I asked her about the political history of her country. Eventually we reached the village with the cheese factory. It was really small, mostly huts with one little church. The people just stared at us. After a short walk we found the cheese factory, but it was closed. Even though reaching our destination was anti-climactic, we returned to the town where a woman sat under a plastic tarp selling bread rolls, 5 cents each. After that we found a little shack and bought some cheap French fries and cola. It was a very tasty snack. We huddled inside around a little wooden table; the woman cooked the papas fritas on a gas powered fryer. The door was cracked open and then the clouds rolled in, the mist even seeped into the room. As we hiked back to our hostel, the clouds covered the Ilinizas and little droplets of moisture started to cling to our hair and eyelashes, giving us all a slightly frosty look.
That night we had dinner and played cards back at the hostel. We met another English teacher (from Canada) who’s teaching in Riobamba. She talked about the explosion that occurred there back in November. (When I was in Riobamba back in Feb I saw a public elementary school whose face-front looked like a giant hand had shoved in the walls and many of the windows had yet to be replaced). We had heard about it when it happened, the media claimed it was an accident, some grenades had exploded on a military base and had broken the majority of the windows in the city. She told us her experience of the city being evacuated and the windows in her house had been blown out. She had run outside when it happened and was covered in glass, fortunately not hurt. She said the official number of deaths were seven (4 were military, 3 civilians; two of which were parents of a small child). People believe many more died but the government paid the families off. She heard rumors that the explosion was related to the military doing business with FARC, an extremist political group, like the guerillas in Columbia. I don’t know if I believe that, but I think it may be possible. I do suspect there was a lot of cover up because this also happened during the time of the presidential elections. I also heard that the government has not taken any responsibility for the civilian deaths that occurred or even offered anything to the grandmother now raising her orphan grandchild.
