After selling the Quilotoa loop to Tijs and Jacqueline, I (Simon) was a bit worried when we arrived into a very ugly looking town, Latacunga, where we would stay one night before attempting the loop. Thankfully Latacunga had a small colonial centre hidden behind the highway, a really nice hostel and a fantastic cafe run by an American-Ecuadorian where we had lunch. We spent the rest of the day preparing for our three day hike (and being lazy) and were glad to hear that the bus times meant that we could tackle the loop going predominantly downhill.

The next day we all (us 4 plus Maria (Russian) and Lindy (Australian) who we met in the hostel) arrived at the bus station for the 9am bus, which ended up leaving at 10. Amazingly we found out that Maria used to work with our friend Jenny Cornbourgh near Cheltenham! The 2 hour bus took us up to the Quilotoa crater lake passing small villages, dramatic scenery and lots of cacti. At the rim of the crater we were at 3,800 meters and could look down onto the beautiful water. From there we walked a third of the way around the crater before descending into the valley. The first day's hike was 11km to the tiny town of Chugchilán at 3,200 metres, which we did in 5 hours. On the way we passed farms, a little village where girls were playing football and crossed a 400 metre deep canyon with a rickety bridge at the bottom. We had left a lot of our stuff at the hostel in Latacunga but by the end of the day I wish I had left more. The hostel in Chugchilán was a great place to relax at the end of the day with hot showers, hammocks and a table tennis table which I enjoyed beating Tijs on 4 games in a row.

On the second day we had another 5 hour hike (12km) to the even smaller town of Isinliví. This town was back across the other side of the canyon that we had crossed the previous day but the going down and the hard climb up was definitely worth the amazing views that we got and we all agreed that this was the best hike. When we arrived, in the early afternoon, I was really wishing that I hadn't brought so much stuff but the clean clothes were nice. We treated ourselves with frozen chocolate covered bananas and chips and sausage street food. The view from the hostel was fantastic and the price of $26 included breakfast and dinner for the both of us - bargain.

On our final day we hiked to the town of Sigchos, 3.5 hours and 14km away. Again this town was back on the other side of the canyon that we had crossed the two previous days but again it was well worth the effort. Although it was a shame that most of this walk was on the road. We arrived in the town at noon and expected to have to wait over 2 hours for the bus back to Latacunga but a pickup truck was going that way so we hopped in. The girls got the seats inside while Tijs and I got a bumpy hour and a bit on the flat bed but as we had come to expect from this area the views were fantastic.

Over the three days the weather held for us and we had a mixture of beautiful sunshine and clouds with minimal light rain. This was much better than we had hoped for given the heavy rain in Latacunga. If we had known we wouldn't have brought so much stuff but at least it was good exercise for me.

On the hike we passed many locals wearing traditional clothing who were very friendly to us. Near the crater (I guess the more touristy bit) we were asked numerous times for chocolate by the kids and twice for money. The chocolate request is the easy one as dental care is either none existent or expensive and as we didn't have any we didn't feel bad about saying 'no'. But generally the people were very friendly and interested in us and wanted to know where we were going and where we had come from. I was so glad that we made the effort to complete the loop and the pain was definitely worth it.

Simon