Laguna Quilotoa

We left Quito on Thursday, catching a buses to Latacunga, and then to Zumbahua, a small rural village in the central highlands of ecuador where we spent a night. The bus trips were fascinating, not due to the modus operandi, which amazingly, is very similar to Asia´s buses (which take off when half full, pick up passengers all the way to the destination, from as early as the first corner from the station, have a ´caller´ on board who´s job includes standing in the doorway the whole trip, shouting out the destination like he´s trying to sell it at a market, jumping off to help new passengers load their bags, giving them a push onto the bus, and jumping back onto the already rapidly taking off bus, and which continues to pick up passengers until not another standing passenger can be squeezed into the aisle, and the spaces between)...but it was fascinating because the whole bus was filled with heads sporting peacock feathered panama hats! The local dress is just so gorgeously old-fashioned...ladies wear court shoes, knee-length white socks, velvet skirts to knees, and bright woollen poncho´s with tassles (and a peacock feathered panama hat, of course).

When we arrived in Zumbahua we found a town asleep and devoid of people, shops closed, hostel closed, and no hostel owner in sight. We waited and waited on the steps outside, until eventually the food seller across the street instructed her little boy to escort us to another hostel, the most darga thing we´ve ever seen across the square.

The next day we caught a ride on a real S.A taxi to Laguna Quilotoa, another 14kms away. We arrived in a freezing wind, completely under dressed, and felt suddenly breathless when we realised we were now at 3800m ASL!!! The ´laguna´ is an absolutely beautiful green blue lake in a volcanic crater, and winds chase strange patterns across the surface.

We had dinner at our hostel (Pacha Mamma) with a elderly long-term Polish traveller with the most interesting travel tails to tell, which kept us occupied through the freezing evening around the family´s wood fire, joined by pacha mamma herself and her husband.

Were sure to wrap up like bugs in rugs for the chilly night ahead...and our sleeping bags scored their first use, yahoo!