it felt good, as we carried our backpacks on saturday morning to the bus terminal. it was time to leave quito behind. we took a bus via latacunga to chugchilán, halfway on the so-called
quilotoa loop. the bus had a lot of clearance, soon we knew why. the raod changed from sealed, to pebblestones, gravel and finally dirt. we passed deep gorges and impressive mountains. the grass changed from vivid green to dry brown the higher the bus climbed.
chugchilán is a little village on 3066m. as we arrived, it was raining cats and dogs. so there was nothing else to do than learn some spanish;-) and enjoy dinner:-). luckely the sun was back the next day. early in the morning we catched a bus to
laguna quilotoa (3610m). the volcano, the turquise water of the laguna, the surrounding peaks... mind-blowing!
we hiked a bit along the rim until a path descended down towards chugchilán. from now on the landscape was dominated by deep canyons and steep cliffs, everything looked sort of grey-brown-green - at times very surreal! i loved it, took picture after picture.
back at our hotel, we decided to leave straight away for another walk. this time we climbed a nearby mountain, from which one is able to see as far as the coast in favourable conditions. we didn't see the blue sea, instead a white one, made out of clouds. not bad neither;-)
the next day we hopped on the morning
milk truck to sigchos. we were standing on the back of the pick-up from where we enjoyed 360º panorama views and got a bit of a taste of the country life up here, as we collected the milk along the way. well-shaken, we and the milk (maybe butter by now;-) arrived one hour later at the small town. life went on the ecuadorian way, we had to wait three hours for the connecting bus...
baños hit the headlines in 1999, as the so far sleeping volcano tungurahua gave signs of new activities. in october the township was evacuated. it was a desaster for many. not only did they have to leave behind their houses but were also forced to sell their livestock at very cheap prizes. with no major eruption by january 2000, the people forced their way through the military blockades and returned after some severe fighting to their homes. in september 2002 the alert was changed from orange to yellow and these days most things are back to normal. the tourists returned to enjoy the beautiful surrounding mountainous area and relax in the famous hot baths after which the place is named. naturally we too soaked ourselves - be aware! some baths are so hot, that we felt like a chicken in the soup!
with fresh energies we hiked up to the lookout for
tungurahua. somehow we managed to miss it, eventhough there were signs all along the way - it wasn't a problem though for the volcano was hidden behind clouds. only as we were back in town, we finally saw it. there was even a bit of smoke coming out from the crater and we could hear some scary noises from deep out the earth. no worries! smoke and thunder are nothing special here, guess besides tourists nobody even takes notice of them;-)
the highest volcano, and thus mountian, in ecuador is
chimborazo (6300m). on the bus-ride from baños to guayaquil we passed nearby. it's really impressive how this cone-shaped mountain rises from a flat plateau high into the sky. as we descended towards the coast it became noticeably warmer and humid. suddenly our warm jackets weren't the right thing to wear anymore. we also passed all those rice-fields which are responsible that lunch here (called almuerzo) mainly consists of a huge serving of rice with three pieces of meat, a bit of sauce and a spoon serving of vegies. without exaggeration: we eat more rice in ecuador than in asia;-)
quayaquil is the largest city in the country (exactly 2,117,553 inhabitants). we mainly came here to catch our plane to galapagos. tomorrow we will encounter another world: sealions, iguanas, spectacular birds and who-knows-what-else... we're looking forward to!
posted by christoph 02:58
