Quilotoa

The starting point for the Quilotoa Loop is a town called Latacunga, and when we got dropped off there from Banos we had to walk a short distance to the main bus station. I wasn't sure what our next destination would be, as there are lots of options, but just as we came up to the bus station an approaching bus had a sticker for Quilotoa village itself. So we flagged it down and just hopped aboard and settled in for the 2 hour trip to the main attraction of the whole loop (options included staying the night in a different town before Quilotoa and then hiking for a bit, or overnighting in Quilotoa itself, etc.).

The full loop is 200km, and apparently can be down by hiking, bike or local buses, but the local bus option entails a number of awkward connections - no bus goes all the way around the loop.

So after the lovely journey through the mountains, Quilotoa was an impressive looking volcanic crater lake with strangely green water (nice photos here). We strolled down into the crater of the volcano and around the lake side for a bit before climbing back out and then trying to get transport to the next place (there isn't much to do, or much else to see, in Quilotoa). An option was to spend the night in Quilotoa and then do a full-day hike to another town, but with our rucksacks that wouldn't be too comfortable, and we couldn't get reliable information about any buses back to Quilotoa from that town. In fact, we couldn't get any reliable information about buses to anywhere, Sarah's Spanish just wasn't up to understanding the locals.

Luckily though Sarah got chatting to an Ecuadorian guy who had just come back up from the lake, and it turned out he and his mates had hired a pick-up trick, and there was room in the back for us if we wanted to go back to Latacunga with them. So we took the offer, and rode in the back of the pick-up, something I don't think we've done since Africa. Although it wasn't very comfy, we at least got great unobstructed views on the way, and luckily the rain held off. We even got to see Cotopaxi in the distance, one of the most beautifully famous volcanoes in Ecuador (unfortunately it was the only view we got of it, as later it was shrouded in cloud).

So back in Latacunga bus terminal we got a ticket for the next bus straight to Quito, which naturally enough was leaving in about 4 minutes. So all-in-all it was another hectic but great day travelling, and we managed to get all the way from Banos to Quito in one go, and got in the best bits of the Quilotoa Loop too (well, apart from the hike part).