This past weekend I went hiking with 3 other girls from my program, a couple hours south of Quito. The hike is known as the Quilotoa loop and is supposed to be one of the best things to do in Ecuador. We were hiking a stretch from Chúgilan to Quilotoa, which is the opposite direction that most people go. That should have been a clue that it was going to be difficult. We also were going without a guide...something that's recommended.
We had to take a bus to Chugilan-- 2 hours of which was on unpaved roads right after the area recieved a lot of rain. It was rough... At one point everyone piled off the bus to make it lighter, in order to make it possible for the bus to pass through a particularly washed out stretch. Several other times I seriously thought the bus might fall off the mountain. But don't worry, I'm alive. However, please see my previous post about how good of a driver I really am :) .
When we FINALLY arrived to Chugilan, it was pouring and I felt like I had been repeatedly punched in the stomach for the previous 2 hours. Bleh. Saturday morning we left the hostal about 8 am in great moods. It was raining a little but we were confident...even though we really didn't know the way to Quilotoa. Luckily, for the first 3 hours or so of the hike, we were able to ask people working in the fields (mostly indigenous people) which direction to take.
After 3-4 hours...we had no idea where we were. We were literally standing in the middle of a mountain in the Andes with no clue which direction to take. We figured we had to climb the mountain in front of us but weren't sure if anything promising was on the other side. It was pretty clear at that point that we were not on the typical path listed in Lonely Planet. We were walking through people's farms and fields, nowhere near any type of road. We were lucky that whenever we did encounter someone, they were super helpful.... Although "helpful" consisted of pointing in a direction that hardly looked like it was on the way to civilization.
Side note: the 2 dogs that belonged to the hostel where we stayed in Chugilan were following us the entire way. We tried to make them head back after about an hour or so, but they were faithful companions. Not that they were showing us the way... Anyways, we had to cross a shoddy looking bridge at one point, and one of the dogs lacked the bravery to cross it. We debated what to do, because it was crying very loudly... But ultimately we continued on, bearing the knowledge that we could have led this dog to its death (since we weren't sure if it knew the way back). Fast forward 3 hours to the image of us lost on a mountain... not only were we thinking about the possibility of sleeping under a tree, we also were worried about the fate of the 2 dogs.
Eventually, after 6 hours, and 3000 feet higher, we (and the dog) reached Lake Quilotoa (our destination). It was like we had been wandering for days, we were so elated. I think we were a little delirious from exhaustion. Lake Quilotoa is actually in the crater of a volcano that last erupted in the 1700's. It was GORGEOUS (see pictures)... The hike was definitely vale la pena (worth the pain), and the scenery was absolutely incredible. We stayed at a hostel in Quilota, and hiked down to the lake to kayak on Sunday morning.
Side note 2: the dog that had hiked the entire 8 miles with us hung out around the hostel all afternoon, looking at us as if to say, "You loved me in the beginning and now you've abandoned me." (We had resorted to completely ignoring it in hopes to make it turn back). But, incredibly...... While we were eating dinner that night in the hostal, we saw BOTH dogs out the window. The cowardly one had decided to take his chances on the bridge (which really was not an issue at all) and made it to Quilotoa...which consequently made us feel like idiots for being worried, because clearly these dogs had made this trek before.
All in all, it was an exhausting but awesome weekend!!!!
