Quilatoa... Takes My Breath Away

The three-day week before Easter, it seemed everyone was asking the same question: "WHERE are you going?" Naturally, I went to Puerto Lopez as was written in the previous blog. One person who I had this exchange with was Jeanine-- my Milwaukee counterpart at work. She recently purchased a car here, and was feeling interested in a weekend getaway soon. Seeing as the first week of the new partial/grading period was a four-day week... why not then?

Soooo we didn't have the week off for Easter because it was "used up" during the February break. Honestly, we all could use it now! At least this first week back was a four-day week, because Friday was Teacher's Day. Yes, teachers are actually honored on one day of the year in Ecuador. It is a day that also honors Ecuador's great educator, Juan Montalvo Fiallos. So we get Friday off (but not the other schools weirdly enough), in short.

Anyway, Jeanine and I briefly tossed around ideas of places to go. Quilatoa was the one that stuck. This is a dormant volcano turned crater lake south of Quito, and we thought it would be easy to reach. Jeanine organized the itinerary, mas o menos. Along with us were David, Brenda, and Joe.... basically a completely upper-Midwest reunion at a volcano. To set the mood, in honor of Teacher's Day, click play on the video and read on:

Quilatoa

Friday morning, David and I woke up and trekked to our meeting point with the others. This led to my FIRST bagel I have eaten since moving here. If you didn't know, I have a bagel addiction. And these were amazing. "Mister Bagel" in Quito, check it out. After stopping there and inhaling my everything bagel and parmesan bagel, the others arrived. We packed our stuff in the trunk and made like a tree...... we "leave."

One highlight of the trip was seeing Cotopaxi in the distance. This is a rare sight from Quito because the clouds have been covering the primo views during this wet season.  Anyway, we made a couple of stops including a tienda for some adult beverages because they are always overpriced if you get them at a bar, hostel, whatever. After these brief pit stops, we finally made it to the loop that one has to take when going to Quilatoa. Because this volcano is smack-dab in the middle of the Andes, there are only two ways or reaching it. At first, we attempted finding the North Route, but we got lost in a small town called Lasso. After driving back-and-forth a few times, we resorted to the South Route via Latacunga. These views are absolutely stunning. STUNNING. PUNTO. On top of this, most of the women in this region still dress in the traditional garb. This was very clear when we stopped after about 4 hours of driving in Sigchos.

Another hour of driving from there we arrived in Chugchilan at the Black Sheep Inn. Long story short, this is a place I recommend to stay at. Although it is relatively expensive, especially by Ecuadorian standards, they help you to plan your plans for the following day at dinner, arrange anything you need to help you with the itinerary, and prepare three full meals each day. Check-out is at noon, and they still prepare lunch for you for the ride out. The Black Sheep Inn is super quiet, about 5 minutes outside the quiet town of Chugchilan. Seriously, I cannot even begin to describe it all. Some highlights of the inn are: hot tub/sauna ($15 total to use, and heated using wood stoves); weight room; yoga studio; water slide; zip line; wood-burning stoves in the rooms; llamas; vegetarian meals; AND the world's highest frisbee golf course.

After arriving, Jeanine had a scheduled massage. The rest of us ventured to the frisbee golf course. This was my first time playing and it was fun. Especially meeting the llamas face-to-face and hopping over fences to get stray discs. Low points included my disc rolling 200 meters down the STEEP mountain and losing a disc on the last hole. But it was super fun. Later on, because we are the midwest crew, we ended up playing a few games of cribbage.... so good to do something familiar. It was a long day of travel though and we had an early departure to Quilatoa so we all ended up in bed early.

The following morning was our hike. With the five of us were a Slovakia (Mikah) and a Canadian (Stephan).  We were driven about 45 minutes away from our inn to the top of the volcano. The views were stunning. STUNNING. Literally, I have never seen something like this in my life. The walk, although simple, was kind of difficult because the terrain changed frequently between sand, dirt, grass, and rock. But that was part of the beauty and adventure. Almost right before our descent, we passed going against us two men with a dog. The dog wouldn't leave us alone! We thought he belonged to the guys so I was running up and down this (practically) cliff to get him to go back. But he followed us on our hike.

After walking about 1/3 to 1/2 of the way around, we began our descent to Guayama, the nearby town which would also serve as a potential pick-up point if we chose not to continue. The dog was still with us, and the we thought we lost him around the time we stopped for lunch when he RAN DOWN THE MOUNTAIN AFTER A SHEEP TETHERED TO A ROPE... we swore the sheep's leg was going to rip off before the rope actually ripped out of the ground. It was shocking and entertaining. At this point, we thought we had lost the dog and we continued our descent down the volcano. Yet, the dog found us shortly after the incident and he kept walking with us. It ended up being about three-and-a-half hours to reach Guayama. Everyone decided to take the truck back to Chugchilan except for David, the Canadian and myself.

The rest of the walk was breathtaking, literally and metaphorically. We had to continue walking downhill for about 2 more hours, all the way to the bottom of a gully or canyon, before walking uphill to the inn. One highlight during this exhausting hike was getting to pet a litter of piglets. In total, we hiked for about 6 hours, start to finish. This meant a reward of ice cream once we got back to the town, The dog was still with us but turned off into "Hostal Mama Hilde," another lodging a quarter mile before ours. We later found out that the dog actually lives there, so we didn't steal someone's dog OR pickup a stray after all.

This place is seriously amazing and reminds me so much of the Boundary Waters. You're isolated in nature, it is serene, and it all allows you to really consider and think about things. .. and it definitely got me thinking about things I have shut away since moving to Ecuador and haven't had the time to really consider. It was good to be there to remember that I can actually take a step back once in a while and take care of myself. I am also incredibly proud of myself for making it through an intense 6-hour hike all the way down this mountain and straight up. I've forgotten how awesome and powerful my body actually is.

I can't wait to make it back there. More pictures are on my Facebook page.