Quilotoa Lake day tour
Day 270 – Quito, Ecuador
That was my second organized tour, with the same company, and guess what? I had the same guide. So strangely enough, I knew all about the introduction part about the country and the highway. Yeah! \o/
We stopped first in a fresh-food market, where I loaded up on fresh produces. It’s fun to see reddish bananas or fruits lined up in slim, elongated bags.
You can also find roasted pig heads, fresh -as in alive- poultry, strawberries and grape, rambutan (which I had eaten in Asia previously), and all kind of food.
We stopped after that in an Indigenous family’s home, with guinea pigs bred for food and left to roam in the house as it gather negative energies.
We made a quick stop after that at the Rio Toachi Canyon, created by an earthquake some time ago.
Rio Toachi Canyon
We finally arrived at the Quilotoa volcano. The lake is a crater lake, so we arrived at the top, and had the opportunity to walk down to the lake. There we could take a kayak out for a spin, and if the way back up seemed too hard, we could pay for a ride on a mule or horse.
That seemed good to me, so I extended my trekking poles and started my way down.
The trail is steep, muddy, churned by hooves, and quite soon the mist moved in. I saw some people from my group before me on their way back, and upon their intel that the trail got steeper, muddier, and more slippery, decided that going all the way down was overrated.
By the time I hiked back up, the cloud had completely covered the lake, with a visibility of maybe 50m. So, it was a good decision.
Of course, we had almost three hours allotted to that complete hike, so turning up at the restaurant 2 hours early may have thrown them in disarray. But they -and we- made do.
And then back again to the hostel. Where the staff was cooking a Venezuelan dish for diner, and I succumbed instead of eating my greens bought at the market! It is a burger-sized corn bread, slit in two and stuff with whatever you want… avocado and chicken here, and it was delicious.
