Quilotoa, Ecuador 🇪🇨 

I’ve booked to go to the Quilotoa crater today, fortunately a British couple, Joel & Kate, also want to go and so the tour is on.  Sat eating breakfast as the guide walks in, bizarrely it is Fernando ‘messy’ who was our raft guide on the river a few days ago. We set off by car (nice change from mini vans) and Messy talks us through the villages and towns we pass including Pelileo which is the main commercial market for the region and mass producer of jeans. We stop briefly at a lake and then at Tio Toachi canyon. This canyon is pretty cool, it was actually formed by lava flow. Messy makes me stand on the edges for photos which I do nervously.  

Our arrival at Quilotoa coincides nicely with lunchtime and we sit in a cute restaurant with a wood burning stove eating quinoa soup and chicken. The crater lake view is amazing, the minerals keep it a lovely blue with brighter edges. I hadn’t fully realised we would be at 4000masl until we walked a bit and I felt it in my lungs.  

Our hike took us down to the lake edge, a steep 300m down on a sand path. The lake was really peaceful and tranquil, we spent 20minutes down there before starting the climb out. Jeez, that was the tough part. The sand path and gradient was exhausting but we took it slowly. I was red and knackered as we made it back to the top but still smiling. We drove back to Baños as it grew dark and I took Joel & Kate to my favourite Italian for my last night in town.