Yes! Chugchilán!

September 9th, 2008.

Latacunga to Chugchilán via Saquisilí y Sigchos: 5.6 ***. The two-hour bumpy ride’s most dangerous element is desiring to stick your head out the window to get even closer to the vistas are amidst for the entire bumpy trip! The people on the bus were nice and the seats more comfortable than they look.

Chugchilán: 5.10 ****. This is a classic 5.10. Everyone on the Quilotoa Loop wishes they had more time at this lovely, quaint town that functions as a base for many possibly grueling hikes.

Today we wake up and take turns electrocuting ourselves by using slightly wet hands on the shower knob – the electric shower knob. Next is coffee. We roam the market and hit the far end of the square where we sit for Alisa’s coffee. The woman sitting opposite us breaks into conversation, beginning by asking if Alisa is my guide. I get coffee con leche. After a good smiling conversation and a thank you and take care to the woman working the stand, it’s breakfast in bed. A shop no more than a block or two from the hostel happens to have yogurt. We each get one with fruit to go with our granola. They are joined for the eating party by our spoon-fork-knives. This is their first use, and I’m now glad I got one. Before this, I didn’t think it’d be handy. Boy did those dudes who stole my Leatherman and left this trio miss out on a deal! This is three for the price (weight; space) of one!

Packed stomachs and full bags, we walk to the bus terminal, ready to leave Latacunga and its strangeness. We buy a double-ticket for Chugchilán via Sigchos (and before that, Saquisilí). This is a stop on the Quilotoa Loop that, according to Lonely Planet claims the first place prize for the best base for travelers who love scenic and challenging hikes. So we have decided to go to Chugchilán this Tuesday and stay through Wednesday in order to return to Saquisilí. Our unorthodoxical backtracking occurs because the Thursday market in Siquosíla is heralded as one of the most important markets in Ecuador at which indigenous tribes descend upon the valley town in red ponchos. That sounds awesome to me.

Already today, arriving in Chugchulán via unpaved, cobbled, under construction, single-lane, two-way mountainous, winding roads on a well-used bus feels like we’ve accomplished something wild. We arrive, compare hostel rooms and prices, get one, and a good two-hours before dinner leaves us time for a spectacular hike!
Our hike is more of an intermittent jog. We jogged on thick, soft sand trails that were anything but close to level at practically any point! The trails were very different from everything around us: hillside pastures, green pyramids, stretching hand-tilled fields and sandy black-and-white canyons. This is a blast and we are out-of-breathe, laughing with glee, and loving the views and the memories in a box that our camera is giving us.

In the last little incline, I stay back in order to get a faraway panorama picture of Alisa. She's a little more than a dot to the far left on the sin-curvy white trail. Click on the picture to enlarge and see what Alisa's actually doing! We’re also back an hour before dinner! Did that much funny really only take an hour? I am surprised. So, we don’t go back in to our room just yet. We head up the street and buy a $1.50 5-litre container of water for two reasons. First, we need more water since we’re running low. Second, we need 5-litres of water because tomorrow we plan to hike up to the Laguna del Quilotoa, around the rim of this volcanic crater lake as much as we can, and back! Each section – to, around, and fro – is estimated as taking 4 or 5 hours. We hope to make much better time than that, and not necessarily hike entirely around the 4-hour rim of the lake. Also, if we get tired once there, we can catch a 2:30pm-departure bus from the village of Quilotoa, which happens to be another one-hour hike from the lake! You can do the math to see how much this will be. I could be mistaken, but I believe the hike up to Laguna del Quilotoa from Chugchilán gains 400 meters.

Right, back to Chugchilán, though! We haven’t left and I’m already talking about tomorrow’s events! After getting our water, we hike further up the hill from our hostel and the shop where we bought it and catch a bit of a volleyball game. This game overlooks mountains and valleys. It’s awesome and I’d love to join in, but there are probably many better suitors for the game: there are maybe 20 spectators! It’s getting darker now and time for dinner. We eat and speak English with other travelers over and beyond dinner. Now we relax, listen to some NPR, write about the days previous, thank goodness, itself that we are no longer in Latacunga, and prepare ourselves via dreams and conversations for the morrow.