Quilotoa

Thursday 25 August 2011

Today I went on an organised day trip to Quilotoa.  Quilotoa is a lagoon located inside a volcanic crater 3800m above sea level.

After leaving Quito at 7am, we headed south along the Avenue of the Volcanoes and collected our guide.  After about two hours we stopped at Saquisilí, a traditional indigenous market.  We visited the animal market (I decided not to buy an alpaca as it would be a bit difficult to transport it back home!) and the weekly market selling everything from fruit, vegetables, meat and fish to cookers and troughs for animal feed.  We then visited the handicrafts market which was quite similar to the ones I have seen in Quito.  What is typical in this area, however, are paintings painted on animal skin and small pottery vessels encased in straw.  They were not quite to my taste so I decided not to buy anything.

We then headed up to the crater.  It was a very long, twisty road with lots of roadworks on it.  Due to the heavy rain, there were a couple of sections were there had been landslides.  In other areas they are widening the road.  We finally arrived at the Quilotoa.  The first view of the lagoon, down the first narrow stretch of the trails was incredible.  A huge expanse of emerald green water surrounded by steep mountains.  We hiked, or rather in some parts slid, down the side of the volcano to the lagoon.  It took about 30 minutes.  When we got to the bottom we were all covered in volcanic dust!  After a short break for water and to take photographs, we started the climb back up.  This was much harder than the journey down.  About one-third of the way up I started to feel very ill, dizzy and disorientated, so I had to ride the rest of the way up on a donkey.  Quite an experience as the path was very, very steep!    Once we arrived at the top we had lunch (soup, followed by rice and chicken, a typical meal).  I felt a bit better after some food, although as we drove down the mountain I developed a really severe headache, all perfectly normal according to the guide. The journey back to Quito took about four hours.  I was shattered by the time I got back home.  When I took my shoes and socks off, my feet were grey from the volcanic dust!  I had emptied my shoes several times before leaving Quilotoa but there was still rather a lot left in them!

An enjoyable and exhausting day!

Lx