The Quilotoa Loop is described as one of the best hikes in South America, a walk through some of the more remote parts of the central Andes of Ecuador. It isn't very long, only about 36 kilometres, but it is mostly at an altitude of between 3,000 and 4,000 metres so it takes most people 3 days to do it.

It starts in a small town called Sigchos, which has nothing particular to recommend it apart from being easily accessible by public transport from Quito. The first day's trek is to Isinlivi, a small town high in the Andes, which now depends to a significant extent on tourism, much of it people walking the Loop. There is a very smart 'hostal' in the village, one that charges Western prices and delivers largely Western service. It employs several local people and puts money into community projects. We stayed for two nights and it is undoubtedly a lovely place but when it costs about a week's average wage in Ecuador it is clearly not for local people. Does that matter or is the economic benefit it brings worth it? At least it's not owned by a Western chain where any profits are taken out of the country.

That change is happening in the Andes is evident throughout the walk. Everywhere has electricity, most people have smartphones, there are schools in most villages, many young people are eschewing the traditional dress still worn by most people over 20, there are new tarmaced roads that will be making it easier for farmers to get their produce to market and generally open up communications, new houses are being built and health care has been improved. (Although much of this was the work of the last President, Rafael Correa, and the new one has dismantled most of the social programmes.)

But this is clearly still a country that in many ways is struggling. Farming is very small scale with little sign of animals being used, never mind mechanisation, water is in short supply and there are, apparently, regular disputes over its use. One of the surprising things on our walk was children asking us not just for 'candy', which you would expect, but also water. Poverty is very evident. Especially in the countryside people work until they drop as retirement pensions, where they exist at all, are very small. (Although if you google 'Ecuador pensions' you'll bring up lots of websites advising American pensioners to move to Ecuador because it is so cheap). Many things we take for granted in the West are lacking. One of them is 'elf and safety', that bugbear of many right-winger commentators. At Chugchilan, where we stayed at the end of the second day's walking, a worker was killed just after we arrived when he fell from some primitive scaffolding which had no protection against that eventuality.

Whilst that took the gloss of our stay at the Cloud Forest Hostel the hostel itself was very good, as has everywhere where we've stayed. No complaints when you're paying $30 for a nice warm bed, a good evening meal and breakfast. Chugchilan is the start of the third day of walking to Quilotoa itself. This was a hard day's walk especially in the heat. We were blessed with beautiful weather throughout the three days but there were times, struggling up a seemingly impossibly steep path, when I wished it wasn't quite so hot.

But it was well worth it as the view when you reach the real object of the walk, La Laguna Quilotoa. An emerald green lake in a collapsed volcanic crater some two kilometres wide it has to be one of the most stupendous vistas anywhere in the world. No wonder that it is increasingly becoming one of the must-do trips not only in Ecuador but the whole of South America.

Mind you most people take the easy route - a day trip from Quito. As a result of its popularity the village of Quilotoa is enjoying something of a boom with plenty of new shops, cafes and restaurants springing up on the crater rim. But however crass some of them may be they can't take away from the grandeur of the lake and crater. La Laguna Quilotoa is big enough to withstand them.

Now we are back in Quito and getting ready for what should be the highlight of our trip, a cruise around the Galapagos. But walking the Quilotoa Loop will take some beating.