December 22nd to 23rd 2014

The bus ride from Quito to Otavalo is easy enough for anyone to figure out.  Of course it also involves one of the great paradoxes of ecuadorian travel, getting to the bus station costs more than the bus itself.  In this case the taxi costs 8 dollars while the bus ride is 2.20, following the rule of about 1.00$ per hour travelled.

That said the taxi ride is fun as I get to practice my newly acquired Spanish, by the end I wouldn´t be surprised if the friendly driver just wants me to be quiet.  That said the lessons have paid off and I’m several steps closer to where I want to be with the spanish language.

I climb down from the taxi, enter the northern Terminal Carcelen bus compound and find the small office that contains the man yelling Otavalo.  I buy a ticket for 2.20 (exact change appreciated)  and buy a bouncy ball before entering the arrivals section of the station and climbing on to a waiting bus.  We leave maybe 3 minutes later, the bus at best a third full.

The ride is pretty spectacular, winding out of the Quito Valley and up into the Green Andes.  The central roads in Ecuador are stunningly well maintained and the slightly over 2 hour ride passes easily and comfortably..  As we approach Otavalo the bus starts to fill up with indigenous people from the outlying villages bringing their handicrafts into the bigger city.  Of all things I also see an Emu beside to road at one point. Pretty awesome.

On the advice of a friendly teenager I climb down from the bus a few stops before the actual bus station and try to hail a taxi.  The taxi drives right by me but the car behind it stops a husband and wife telling me to climb into the back of their very untaxi looking taxi.  They’re smiling wide so I trust my gut.  50 cents and 10 minutes later I’m outside the centrally located Flying Donkey Hostel.  (3 bed Dorm 9 USD.  Double room Private Bathroom: 12 USDpp)

Anita comes to the door and lets me in showing me to my room.  I immediately head out into town to check out it’s very famous market and a place known as the pie shop, market adjacent.  There I have a lovely lunch.  A chicken Sandwich with Cheese and guacamole and then a slice of blackberry pie a la mode.  Both are delicious and very filling.

From there, after a brief wander through town and a stop at a grocery store, I head back to the hostel and settle into a chair on the somewhat barren rooftop patio and await my brother’s arrival with his  girlfriend Clara.  The time passes quickly as I’m engrossed in Joe Abercrombie’s The Last Argument of Kings, an author and book I highly recommend.

In fact I’ve just finished it when I’m joined on the rooftop by a man I at first think is a strange mexican but turns out to be my brother.  I have no idea why I think he looks mexican, but I do.

It’s good to see a familiar face and we spend the night cooking up a delicious chicken salad in the fully equipped kitchen of the Flying Donkey, and playing connect four and Jenga perhaps a tad too competetively.  We’re joined by an overly enthusiastic 5 month old Golden Lab who might be the most playful animal I’ve ever met.  Except for the Thai Tigers of course.

We also settle our plans for next day, deciding to save the waterfalls for later and head to Lago Cuicocha (Guinea Pig Lake)  which is found by hiking up the side of a dormant volcano, the lake in the actual crater.

Tomorrow’s activity decided we head of for a nighttime wander through town.  Back where the market normally takes place there is a nightly row of food stalls erected selling delicious street meats and other Ecuadorian specialties.  I grab a huge skewer of meat with beef, chicken, two kinds of sausage and lots of potatoes.  It’s cut and bagged for me to eat as we walk and at 2 dollars it’s worth every penny.  The salad for dinner was delicious, but everyone knows salad’s not a whole meal.

We’re up early to beat the cloud cover and by 7:15 were out the hostel door walking the 10 blocks or so to the bus station of Otavalo where we quickly find a big green bus bound for Cotocachi, a small town famous for it’s leatherworkers.  It costs us just 25 cents to climb aboard and climb off again after maybe 30 minutes in a small town on the way to Cotocachi called Quiroga.  From Quiroga it’s a simple 5 dollar taxi ride with our bus drivers friend Willian.  (Online the ride is supposedly 3 dollars, but we tried to bargain and got nowhere, that said 5 divided by 3 is not too expensive for a ride up into the mountains.)

We climb out of his taxi after registering our passport details with the park office checkpoint for cars.  Just to the right of that building is a set of stairs and further right some bathrooms.  Those stairs mark our path and I can’t help but groan a little as I look up.  It’s going to be a damn hard climb.

The dismay dissipates a few minutes later when we come to our first view of the lake.  Nestled in the crater of the volcano, surrounded by more mountains and volcanoes in every direction, the pure blue of the huge lake is stunning.  Enough to take your breath away, even without the altitude.

The lake reminds me a little of the Eyes of the mountains in Durmitor National park Montenegro.  Though honestly I think here might be even more stunning.  After snapping the above photos we study the islands in the lake which give it it’s name, the islands somewhat vaguely mirroring the shape of a guinea pig.

Quite a View

As I look to my right I groan at the jagged peaks and steep ascents ahead of us.  The trail is said to take 6 hours and there are significant sections of uphill, though if you’re in any kind of decent physical shape and haven’t had a blood clot and complications in your right leg it shouldn’t be too hard.  For me it was… well it was quite a mountain to climb.  Of course I don´t like turning back so I suggest we get going before I decide otherwise.

The trail is lovely and offers countless different vantages of the lake which is said to contain a lot of sulphur as well as water.  We spot what looks like a turtle in the water below us but in truth are more captured by the stunning 360 degree panoramic views around us, the lake only highlight of many.  Coming early was a good decision as the skies stay clear for the first half of our walk giving us entrancing views of snow capped mountains, and villages below.  We even think we may see Cotopaxi in the distance.

View from Cuicocha Lake

My pride is a little wounded as we allow a large group of German tourists passed us before a series of particularly steep ascents.  Still better to go at your own pace, and the thin air at 10,650 feet certainly isn’t helping my cause.  Still, like most things in life that are difficult, this hike is undoubtedly worth doing.  Clara and Russell are mercifully patient with me which also helps.

My pride gets a little boost when the group of Gemans come back towards us heading back the way they’ve come, the full cicuit too much for them.  So at least there’s that.

We continue along the edge of the lake, on towering cliffs with the background a jagged mountain and the foreground more rolling green mountains behind the lakes, two other volcanoes, and a snow capped mountain or two in the distance.  It’s an unbelievable vista and the camera probably comes out a tad too often.  Though it’s rare that I use it as an excuse to stop.  I just genuinely want the pictures. Like this one.

Eventually the path curves away from the lake and into a thick jungle like forest.  Some flowers bloom around us and we take particular joy in a plant with massive leaves on stalks thicker than any rhubarb I’ve ever seen with a flower of sorts in the middle of it all.  It looks almost out of another world, one of my favourite elements of travelling.

I groan as the path leads us down and down, knowing that it’s only going to mean more uphill, which is the only part of walking that gives me trouble.  Still with a few more breaks I manage the ascent and we eventually walk through a grove of pine tress and emerge out at the trail exit onto a well paved road.  We walk the last 40 minutes of the trail along that road, through stunning green farmland built into the lower slopes of the andes.  Buses come by to try to tempt us with rides back to Otavalo, but we persevere, a boat ride on the lake in mind.

As we walk we pass countless cows and horses and even a few friendly Ecuadorian farmers who call out salutations, or just smile and wave.  There are a few hostels up on this road which tempt me but I can’t afford the time, knowing I have to make it through the rest of ecuador and Peru down to Santiago by march.

At any rate we find our way back to the Park entrance and ask if the boats are still running.  She nods and we head off down the gravel road in the direction she’s pointed us.  On the way we find an abandoned information center still very full of information about the local flora and Fauna.  Further along the road is the pier, a well reviewed restaurant, and a hostel right on the lake.  Another temptation.

Brotherly love

Sadly we find out that the boat ride for 3.25 USD requires 8 people to fill the boat and we’re the only three waiting. We decide it’s not worth the indefinite wait and get a local to drive us back to Quiroga  for 5 dollars.  I again get to practice spanish and he recommends both the waterfalls were planning to visit, and a small town to get cui, or guinea pig, a specialty of this part of south america and what served as the main source of protein for locals  before conquistadors arrived.  They´ll be more chances as other meals took precedence this time around.

We climb out of his car at the main square in Quiroga and 2 minutes later the green bus back to Otavalo arrives and we clamber in, each experiencing different levels of exhaustion, but each endlessly happy that we made the trip and saw this stunning lake paired with the unbelievable vistas around it.

Back in Otavalo, after a quick gatorade stop (They have it in glass bottles in Ecuador which is awesome)  we head back to the Flying Donkey for a rest before heading out on a quest for Mexican food.  Taco Bello, the best reviewed and cheap options is frustratingly closed as the owner works on a new ocation in Cotocachi.  If only we’d known.

Next attempt is Chimichanga’s a very fancy looking placed which is busy hosting a private party.  disheartened we head back to the hostel and look up some other options.  Anita tells me of a small hole in the wall taco hut and Clara and Russell find a restaurant with supposedly the best burritos in town called Balcon de Imbabura.  Sadly the hole in the wall is closed monday and tuesday and so we head to the trip advisor recommendations.  The shared nachos and strawberry milkshakes are delicious, the burritos, which of course we all order are far from it.  Heavy on the beans which somehow taste as if they’ve barely been cooked.  It’s a pretty big dissapointment and we head back to the Flying Donkey in a less jubilant mood than before.

That said it’s Christmas in two days, and I’m glad I get to spend it with Russell and Clara.  I know we’ll find a way to make it a special day, but that’s the subject of the next entry. You won´t have to wait long.