Quilotoa Crater Lake

January 10 - El Dia de los Volcanes

(Matt)

Let me begin by saying that I am generally opposed to hiring guides while traveling unless absolutely necessary, such as going on safari in Masai Mara, Kenya. Some things you just cannot do alone. Yesterday, because we only had one day to spare to see the Quilotoa Crater, we made the decision to hire a guide. We could have taken a bus, but we calculated two days minimum to see it by bus. Plus, with the guide, we got to return to Baños for one last night. Well, I have to admit that it turned out to be a great decision, and because our guide was so good, we saw and learned a lot, especially about volcanoes.

Our day began at 5:30am, which always hurts but hurt even more because dogs barked and people yelled ¨WHHHHOOOOOOOO!!!!¨ for an unknown reason outside our window literally all night long. At 6am, we met our guide, Angel T. Sevilla, owner of the sole proprietorship Deporturis, who specializes as a mountain guide to climb volcanoes, principally Cotopaxi. He said that he had climbed Cotopaxi over 400 times, and he said that his record for one year was 53 times. Angel loved volcanoes more than anyone that I will probably ever meet. Because of this, he was exceptionally knowledgeable about them. In his office there were up-to-date charts and graphs of every kind downloaded from the national geological service showing different statistics regarding various volcanoes, especially Tungurahua, the volcano hovering over Baños.

We also met a girl from Holland named Sara, who accompanied us on the trip to Quilotoa. She was very nice, and after returning from Quilotoa we ended up going to dinner with her back in Baños. She lives in Amsterdam, which gave us a lot to talk about since I lived in The Hague for a semester. She is on a solo trip to South America for seven weeks and has just arrived.

Finally, a young jungle guide also came. He normally takes tourists to his home village deep in the Oriente, and I think just wanted to visit Quilotoa too.

As we drove out of Baños, Angel began to tell us stories about the 1999 and 2006 eruptions of Tungurahua. He emphasized that Baños proper was safe because the Runtun mountain, where Amber and I hiked yesterday, stands as a protective wall and that the problems caused in Baños by previous eruptions were principally caused by the pyroclastic avalanches washing over the roads and damning up the rivers that provide water to the city. We drove by the remains of a hotel that was covered entirely by one of these avalanches. Only a parrot on one of the hotel signs remains sticking up from the volcanic ash and sand. We told him that we had hiked to the mirador yesterday and that Tungurahua looked and sounded extremely active, but he said that it gets much more active before an eruption. Angel talked volcanoes from 6am until at least 8:30pm.

On the way to Quilotoa, we unexpectedly stopped in the town of Saquisili, where they happen to have been having their weekly market. This was awesome. The Saquisili market is where the area´s farmers go to exchange produce, animals and goods. We got some great pictures, which you can view by clicking on the link at the bottom of this blog entry.

(Amber)

The town and market were incredible. Loud, crowded, and totally full of activity. Whole pigs, sheep skins, pig heads, live chickens, dead chickens, more beautiful produce than you can imagine that was all grown just outside of town on steep mountain slopes....it was awesome. We  bought breakfast from a street vendor. It was called a torta, which was a fried cheese, corn, onion thing. And we drank some hot juice, that I pretended was our morning coffee, that is apparently popular in this market and on holidays. It was thick and made from sugar cane, raspberries, orange leaves, and pineapple. It´s usually served with a small piece of bread in the shape of a person to symbolize Jesus. It was all so awesome. I love being in bustling markets...especially real markets that aren´t there for us and that we can just walk through and try to see how the people here really live. I loved it.

(Matt)

From Saquisili, we traveled to the Quilotoa crater on a very windy, wet, and mountainous road. It should be noted here that the vehicle that Angel drove was an Izuzu Trooper that was the exact model that Amber drove during our terrible wreck in 1994. The only difference really was the fact that all the seatbelts were inexplicably removed from Angel´s Trooper and...it was yellow. Amber was nervous from the beginning.

(This is Amber)

So I really needed, but didn´t have, a valium. Blessing in disguise I guess, because I never could have hiked the crater stoned. Even though it was a rocky ride, the scenery was incredible. Villages as remote as you can imagine, people walking and doing all sorts of really interesting stuff, steep fields, mountains, and volcanoes all around....but the bumpy, winding, steep road with no seatbelts in a Trooper..the first I´ve been in since our wreck.....that squealed around edges where my only view of was of the beauty I listed above along with the steep drop a few feet to my right required me to look deep inside for peace and serenity. I sort of found it, but I´d be lying if I said that no curse words flew out on the journey to Quilotoa. Maybe it was an opportunity for me to face an old fear.....maybe. Anyway, we made it and it was, of course, incredible.

(Matt)

We drove along the Quilotoa loop and saw some really amazing  scenery,  providing a view inside the lifes of the indigenous people in Ecuador live. Every inch of the Andes in this area is farmed, and it looks like an amazing patchwork quilt traveling up and then over the steepest mountainsides. The farmers mainly use large hoes and their hands to do all their work. We literally saw one tractor all day yesterday after hours of travel past many hundreds of farms. The reason is probably because the land is so steep that, even if tractors could be afforded, they would not be practical. Tractors would just topple down the mountain unless a farmer was lucky enough to have flat land.

We finally arrived at the Quilotoa Crater, which is a volcano that exploded 400 years ago and left a lake inside. It had been raining for several weeks before our arrival, and it was greener inside the crater than normal, said our guide. It was very beautiful. Be sure to check out the pictures of the crater at the link at the bottom of the page.

There is not a big production at the site of Quilotoa. There are a few hostels at the crater´s opening, but it is a modest set up. We hiked down into the crater to the lake. It was very beautiful and very big. Some indigenous children ran horses and donkeys down to the bottom of the crater ahead of us hoping to give us a ride back to the top. Once at the bottom, Angel pointed out that the volcano was not entirely dormant. Bubbles still rose to the surface in several places in the lake indicating volcanic activity. We declined a donkey ride back to the top but bought hot Cokes from the children and watched them play with a token llama placed at the bottom of the crater. The llama would spit at the children, and they would hang on it like a living jungle gym. It started out cute, and we took pictures. But then the kids got a little abusive with llama. So we decided to start the trip back up to the top.

On the way up, the altitude was such that we were really sucking wind. It took about an hour for us to climb out. The guide estimated that it would take us two hours. So I guess we weren´t as out of shape as we looked. We then went to eat lunch.

(Amber)

We were in such a poor area, so our lunch was what the locals could grow or kill. It was a thick greasy soup with the joint of some animal...probably cow or pig...floating in it. Soup was followed by a runny egg, rice, and noodles cooked in a animal fat. We cleared our plates, but it wasn´t the best meal we´ve had. All part of the real experience though.

(Matt)

I did´t really clean my plate, but I made decent showing after pouring as much aji (Ecuadorian hot sauce) on my plate as I could handle.

As we were eating, the jungle guide, whose name I never caught...he sat in what is essentially the trunk of the Trooper, behind the back seat on a tiny plastic stool...got a call on his mobile phone (a technology which is surprisingly prevalent here, even in the indigenous communities) that Tungurahua was erupting. This made the rest of the day a race to get back to Baños and to get information about the eruption and status of the road between Ambato and Baños. The concern of Angel was obvious. There was concern on our part about not getting to our backpacks in Baños and then, after getting to Baños, about getting evacuated during the night to a safe house, which we heard on the radio was a possibility.

(Amber)   

We made the harrowing drive back to Baños. One incredibly sad scene that has haunted me...We passed through a tiny village on a dirt road in the mountains on the way down. I can´t emphasize how remote we were....hours from even a sub par hospital. This town had farms and about ten tiny homes. As we passed, all of the women and children were running. One was holding a child who appeared unconscious and was bleeding badly from the head. We don´t know, but it looks like he may have been hit by a car. We didn´t stop, because a truck was already there and could get them to help....it was heart wrenching. I had just been talking about how the kids here...even from a very young age....work, walk between villages, catch the bus, etc...and it looks like this might have just been a hideous consequence of that freedom. And it also reminded me how incredibly tough and resilient these people are to live so totally on their own and somehow survive. I have to believe he´s okay. It was an awful awful sight.

We continued the drive...stopping randomly to look for news about the eruption. We never found a TV or radio, so we just kept going. When we got near Baños, we got news that the volcano was not erupting to an extent that made immediate evacuation necessary, so we could get back, although we might be evacuated during the night. Before bed the alert level was changed from yellow to orange. Our guide, the volcano guru, stopped several times at key locations, and we stood in fields to watch and listen to the fiery volcano do its thing. It was beautiful...and a little scary. But mainly awesome.

Made it back to town and slept through the night with no evacuation.

On the way out of town, much more frequent explosions could be seen from our bus. I think we made a good decisions to leave when we did. We´re on a bus now to Otavalo....leaving a very alive looking volcano, amazing town, stunning mountains, and incredible people in the rearview mirror.

Click here for photos of our trip to Quilotoa:

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p.s. A Spanish version of Hotel California is playing loudly in my ear. Wait...now it´s a Spanish version of ¨My Heart Will Go On¨from Titanic. Great.