Our Three-Day Quilotoa Loop Trek

Day 103 (October 9, 2018) – Latacunga, Ecuador

This was our most ambitious hiking journey yet. We had completed some seriously difficult day hikes in El Cocuy, Colombia, but our trip around the Quilotoa Loop was our first multi-day hiking trip. In fact, I feel like we can now say we’ve gone “trekking,” which sounds very outdoorsy and all.

One of the dance groups from the parade in Latacunga.

We started in Latacunga, where we spent a couple days getting organized and picking up supplies. Latacunga gave the impression of being a very industrious city and not exactly a tourist hot spot. We would have passed through it with little notice had we not stumbled onto a parade after breakfast one morning. It went on for hours and was a lot of fun to watch. There were groups of people dressed in traditional attire, and some in bizarre costumes, showing off their coordinated dance routines. We sat on the side of the road and watched countless groups of people dancing down the streets.

On Sunday morning we got up early and caught a two hour bus ride from Latacunga to Sigchos, a small town up in the Andean hillsides. We spent a couple minutes walking through town and stopped for breakfast (coffee, juice, chicken, rice, and potatoes…. yes, even for breakfast). Travis got the GPS map going on his phone and we started off on our hike.

The view when we first started out from Sigchos.

Most of the hike was filled with beautiful panoramas like this one.

The river at the base of the valley. All uphill from here.

The trail was only occasionally marked and followed a combination of dirt roads and hiking trails. We hiked past farmlands and mountains as we made our way down into a valley where we crossed a river and then started an ascent up the other side. The first day took us about four hours to hike from Sigchos to the tiny town of Isinliví, where we stayed overnight at the shockingly beautiful Llullu Llama Mountain Lodge.

The Llullu Llama Lodge. It seems so out of place to have such a wonderful accommodation way out in the middle of nowhere. 

Staying at this hostel was one of the highlights of the hike to be honest. We met up with a bunch of other people who were on the exact same hike as us and it was fun to talk to them and share stories. There was a communal hot tub and spa where we were able to relax our sore legs for a while. As we’re chatting with the other travelers in the hot tub, it turns out that something like 5 of the 8 people sitting there had quit their jobs to travel the world. Some for 6 months, 8 months, or a year. Sometimes I think that people at home think we’re crazy for quitting our jobs to be on this trip, but there we are, sitting in this amazing hot tub at the top of the Ecuadorian Andes in the middle of a three-day trek and we’re surrounded by people who are all doing the exact same thing as us. It makes me feel a little less crazy being around such like-minded people.

Breakfast at Llullu Llama.

After our soak, everyone got together for dinner. Both dinner and breakfast are included in the price of the room. Everything is served family style and the food was delicious. Some people stayed up to have a couple more drinks and play some card games, but we called it a night and went to bed.

Near the start of day two. The sun made an uncharacteristic appearance this morning.

Back at the river again. Like the last time, it only went uphill after this photo.

Some of the scenery from day two.

We woke up the next morning, had another delicious meal, and headed out for more hiking. This morning was the only time that the weather really cooperated with us and we finally got some photos with the sun out. The rest of the time it was overcast with occasional light rain showers. Like the day before, this hike took us further away from where we started, but again going down the valley to the river and up the other side, taking us about 4 hours. There was a seriously difficult uphill section this day, but the views kept getting better the higher we went, with some great viewpoints down into the canyon at the top.

The view after a strenuous uphill section of the trail.

We ended the second day in the town of Chugchilán at the Cloud Forest Hostel. The most memorable part of this hostel was the game room where they lit a fire to kept the room toasty warm while we played a couple games of pool and ping pong. The accommodation was perfectly fine, but it did leave us missing Llullu Llama a bit. Again, dinner and breakfast were included.

The Cloud Forest Hostel.

Waking up on our last day, our legs and shoulders were really starting to feel some pain. I could also feel where my feet were rubbing the wrong way in my boots, which hurt to put on in the morning, but off we went on our third day. This day was more difficult than the others, taking us a bit under 6 hours. We hiked down for a bit, but the entire rest of the day was uphill to the rim of the Quilotoa Lake crater. The lake had been formed from the caldera of an extinct volcano. It was supposed to be an incredible green-blue lake surrounded by a circle of high mountains, but we were never to see it. That day, like the others, was overcast and as we hiked upward we were hiking closer and closer, and then eventually into, the clouds.

In addition to the hundreds of cows, horses, and pigs we walked past, there was also an occasional dog watching over his farm. 

No bridge across this stream. 

We sat there at the top, freezing in the light rain, and tried to gaze at the lake, but we were never going to see it through the fog. We could hardly see the trail and we were certainly not going to see 300 meters down to the lake. Oddly, it didn’t even bother me much that we had come all this way not to see the most exciting part of the trail. We had plenty of adventure just getting there that I was ok with our anti-climactic conclusion. The fog was king of entertaining to walk through anyway, giving the hike an otherworldly feeling.

The view from the top wasn't much of a view.

Hiking around Quilotoa Lake through the fog.

Some parts of the trail were a bit creepy. Walking through burnt brush in the fog made me feel like we were in some black and white Alice in Wonderland world. 

From a town near the lake we caught a bus back to Latacunga, where we checked back into our hotel, took hot showers, and then went out to devour an entire pizza. It was not an easy few days, but it was still a lot of fun. Just a couple days afterwards we were talking about wanting to try something like this again in Peru.

On the bus back to Latacunga after three days of hiking.

Back in Latacunga we devoured an entire pizza, a plate of french fries, two giant beers, and an enormous slice of cake for dessert.