Quilotoa adventures

When the sun rose over the volcanic crater lake of Quilotoa, we were on Day 31 and almost halfway through our trip. We were staying at a hostel that had made the chilly night seem cozy, in our big blanketed beds and with our little stoves burning wood in the corner. The hostel was right outside the entrance to the very small town that thrives off of tourism. The crater itself has a 14 kilometer rim that takes approximately 5-6 hours to hike around, but also has hiking trails down into the crater. 6 from our group decided to do the rim hike and woke up bright and early to begin the long trek. The rest of us decided to hike into the crater and kayak in the lake. The lake is a gorgeous shade of aquamarine with dark spots of cloud shadows constantly moving across. The depth is a little under 900 feet, making it almost half a mile deep, and the intense color comes from all the dissolved minerals. Apparently many of the locals don't believe there is a bottom to the intriguing crater. We started hiking down after breakfast. We stopped a few times for pictures and to a lookout with a swing that goes out over the lake, then had some extra time to sit on the docks and shoreline before the kayaks were available. When it was time to go out we paired off, grabbed paddles, and pushed off. The wind was extremely strong and we initially went against it, so that coming back would be easier. We hugged the shoreline and would group up every once in a while just to float and soak it all in. We had varying boat names that we came up with, from the SS Diarrhea to the Big Hot Red Boat. We made it back to shore around midday and all except two of us decided to rent a mule for the walk back up. It was only $10 and the experience was definitely worth it. We all met back up in the village for lunch and got our bags on the bus before saying adios to Quilotoa and starting our journey to Baños. It was a very special place - and more so, to see how far we've come since we met 4 weeks earlier!

-Brittany Loveless