One Year Away

Penny

We have added a new photo Album – Ecuador – enjoy!

After a short stay in the town of Latacunga, we headed back to the bus station for another bus ride deeper into the central highlands of Ecuador.  Our destination was Quilotoa Crater which is an extinct volcano whose crater now holds a lake. 

The crater is at an elevation of over 3,800 meters.  Getting there required that we take a bus to the small town of Zumbahua.  From there, we hopped on the back of a pick up truck that would take us the rest of the way.  The pick up ride turned out to be more comfortable than the cramped and overpacked bus ride.

Once at the crater, we settled into a small and basic guesthouse.  We left our large pack and headed to the crater rim to take the 45 minute hike down to the lake.  Once at the rim, we were able to see the crystal aqua blue waters of the lake.  We started the descent into the crater in mid afternoon.  The walk down was scenic and relatively easy but the return trip promised to be a lot more challenging.  We quickly realized that the majority of hikers were opting to take horses or mules back up and the few who did not were huffing and puffing their way up.

Once down at the lake, we took a few minutes to enjoy the views and to make the difficult decision of whether or not to take the mules back up.  At first, the decision was made for us as there were no mules available.  But as we prepared to start the hike up, an 11 year old boy showed-up with two tired mules.  He quoted us a price of  USD $5 per person.  Unfortunately, my fear of heights was getting the better of me and I was not keen on taking the mules.  I know how much they like to walk close to the edge and I was not sure I could put my trust in them.  But the alternative looked long and painful!  With a strong push from Joseph and against my better judgment, I reluctantly agreed to get on the back of  one of the mules.

On our mules, we headed up the crater wall with the young boy who was on foot.  He kept up with the mules the entire time encouraging them up the steep slops with a couple of taps and the constant “Machu Machu” (kind of like giddy up).  Speaking to the young boy, he told us that this was his third trip up and down the crater that day.  He also planned on making a forth trip to pick up another couple we met as we were making our climb.  At $5 per person, his daily take in of $40 was very good when compared to the fact that the minimum wage is $148 per month in Ecuador. 

Thankfully, other than a couple of hair raising moments (mainly do to the fact that my mule was hungry and ready to go to any lengths to get to the green grass) we made it safely up the crater in 45 minutes.  After the hike, we headed back to our guesthouse.  At this point, more and more tourists starting showing up.  At dinner in the guesthouse's common room, we talked to two other couples who we had originally seen in Latacunga.  We realized that we all planned on completing the same five hour hike from Quilotoa to Chugchilan the following morning.  We quickly agreed to complete the trek together and leverage our combined navigational ability to make our way there.