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Here I am on my own for the next week or so to live the life of the solo female traveler. While it's been great traveling around with a friend, I'm excited to have this opportunity to go off on my own and make my own choices and meet new people I would otherwise never have met if I was with someone else. Just the other day in Baños I was reading in my usual cafe and a woman struck up a conversation with me about my book. We got to talking and I invited her to sit with me at my table, where we proceeded to have an enlightening conversation about travel and self discovery. This is just one of the many small experiences you miss out on when traveling with another person.
After Lauren left for the coast with Erik and Aleah, I hung out in Baños for a couple extra days with Juan and Katie. I finally decided Sunday was a good traveling day so I said my farewell to 2 of my favorite people I've met on this journey and hopped on my afternoon bus north to Latacunga. The journey wasn't very long, maybe like 2 or 3 hours, and I think I was smiling the whole way in anticipation of what was to come. Total freedom was awaiting me; the ability to follow whatever path I alone chose and depend solely on myself to get me there. All very exciting stuff. I arrived in Latacunga in the early evening but it was already dark. Instead of going to a terminal of any sort I was dropped by the side of the road, which is fairly common when traveling by bus, especially if the bus is continuing onward like mine was. I already had a hostel in mind so I figured it would be quite easy to hop in a taxi and have it take me there. The first few taxis I tried said they didn't know the streets or hostel I was talking about, and the few that came after that basically just refused to take me anywhere. I finally asked random people on the street if they knew where the bus terminal was, as I knew that the hostel I was looking for was only a few blocks from it. One woman said it was towards the center of town, which supposedly wasn't far. I set out walking with my big pack, hoping that she was correct in telling me it wasn't far. Indeed it was only a couple blocks up from where I was, and I suddenly found myself in the midst of crowds of people wandering the streets. There appeared to be some sort of fiesta happening that I wasn't clued in on and the city was in full party mode. I wandered a couple more blocks before stopping in at a random hostel, deciding to give up my search for Hostel Tiana as it was dark and I was knackered. The woman at the desk told me she was fully booked, which produced a bit of a sinking feeling in my stomach. With all the people out and such a large festival happening I hoped that wouldn't be the case everywhere. I took a chance and asked if she knew where the streets were that I was originally looking for. She said one of them was only 3 blocks up, so again I set out walking and hoped that I had heard correctly. I did indeed find one of the cross streets for Hostel Tiana so I asked someone else if they knew where the other street was and they kindly led me right to it, it was only a couple streets up in the direction they were walking. I finally found the hostel and they had plenty of available beds, victory was mine! A dorm room with breakfast included was only $10 a night, not bad. I felt that I was coming down with a cold so I crawled into bed early that first night, and decided to rest for a day in Latacunga before undertaking the challenge of hiking Laguna Quilotoa.
I didn't do too much that day in Latacunga except rest and try unsuccessfully not to be sick. I guess 4 nights of partying in a row will do that. The city itself isn't so bad but it's not terribly exciting either. The vegetarian restaurant I found online wasn't open so for lunch I went to my usual fallback Chinese restaurant for some arroz chaufa (vegetable fried rice). I planned to do the lake hike the next day so I hoped I would meet some people in the hostel that were going there as well, though the few people I talked to had already done it. Oh well, I was resigned to having a peaceful hike all on my own.
The next day I awoke early and caught the bus to Quilotoa, the tiny village next to the crater lake Laguna Quilotoa. I had heard there were a couple early morning buses, one at 8, 9 and 11, though the 8am bus only went as far as the village of Zumbuahua. Even though I was warned to take an early bus I decided to take the 9am bus instead because it went direct, though it didn't actually leave until 9:30. It wasn't terribly late but the ride to Quilotoa is 2 hours and I was told the hike around the lake would take about 5 hours, so I was off to a bit of a late start. The bus only cost $2 and the entry fee to the lake was also $2, not too shabby for a day's entertainment. When I arrived in Quilotoa close to noon, however, I saw that the clouds were rolling in fast and it looked like it was about to rain. I walked to the beginning of the trail and pensively ate my lunch, trying to decide if I really wanted to begin a 5-hour hike in this weather. I couldn't see the ridge line at the other end of the lake anymore and the clouds were still pouring in. After 5 minutes I couldn't see the trail at all through the fog and the lake itself was starting to disappear from view. I finally decided I didn't want to embark on this quest in such poor weather conditions as I wanted to be able to actually enjoy the beauty of the lake and the landscape. I decided to stay the night and start the hike early the next morning. I walked back to the tiny, shabby little village and found myself a hostel for $15 for the night with dinner and breakfast included. I think it was called Hostel Pachamama; it was the smallest looking place but had a cosy feel to it. I was hardly equipped to spend the night, having no change of clothes or even my toothbrush, but I was grateful for my decision 20 minutes later when it started pouring down rain. It rained the entire afternoon and into the night, good thing I didn't get caught in all that.
Just as I was leaving my room trying to figure out what the hell I was going to do with myself for an entire day (I didn't bring my book or any form of entertainment) 2 guys stepped out of the room next to mine in the hostel. I recognized them from the bus, where we had chatted very briefly. The timing couldn't have been more perfect, I found some friends! I asked if I could tag along with them for the day and they amicably agreed, they seemed like decent enough fellows. Ben and Win were a Brit and a Chinese guy that had met a week earlier on the Colombia/Ecuador border and had decided to travel together for awhile. They had an interesting relationship that involved cursing at each other a lot and it was entertaining to observe. We all went out to find a place for lunch because the guys hadn't eaten yet and I learned that neither of them spoke much Spanish at all, even though they've both been traveling for a few months. That meant I got to be the translator, which was fine by me. I'm always looking for an excuse to practice my Spanish, I'm nowhere near as fluent as I'd like to be. We got to know each other over lunch and then sat around trying to figure out how to kill an afternoon. It was only about 1:30 at this point and the rain was still coming down like crazy, which thwarted any plans of walking down to the lake like I would've liked. We decided beer was the answer, so we set out trying to find a bar or someplace that would serve us cold beer. We succeeded in finding a small shop with a 'bar' sign out front so Ben got excited. A bit too excited I would say. Upon entering we found that the 'bar' sold nothing more than slightly cold beer, and he only had about 5 beers to begin with. Seems about right to me. We hung out drinking the beer and playing cards all afternoon, puzzling over the horrible freezing rainy weather outside. The village of Quilotoa really is a bit of a depressing place, made no better by the pouring rain and freezing cold. One of the locals told us it was the first rain of the season. Sounds about right, that's usually my life. We had dinner later that night at the hostel and then the boys stayed up drinking while I crawled under the 7 heavy blankets on my bed and went to sleep.
The next morning was clear and beautiful like I hoped it would be. After breakfast we got an early start hiking around the lake, since I had a feeling the bad weather would return in the early afternoon again. The scenery surrounding the laguna was incredible; the trail followed the ridge line in a series of jagged peaks and the blue green of the water far below reflected the fluffy clouds above. On the other side of the ridge the valley spread out for miles, blanketing the mountain sides with various shades of green. We began the hike easily enough with plenty of energy. We were told it took other people about 5 hours so the boys thought we could do it in 4. It seemed reasonable at first but we soon realized that was probably a bit ambitious. We took short breaks along the way to drink some water and take plenty of pictures. At first glance the hike doesn't seem so challenging, but then the constant uphills and downhills mixed with the high elevation start to take a toll. It was nice having company on the hike, the boys helped me to keep a good pace and pushed me onwards when the uphills started becoming steeper and more frequent. The steepest and most difficult part of the hike is at the end; first we climbed up to the highest point and then we had to scramble down a steep rocky decent, only to climb up and up again for what seemed like ages for the final push. By the time we got back to Quilotoa we had officially done the entire circuit in 4 hours and 50 minutes and we were exhausted. It was great timing since the weather was starting to take a turn for the worst. We immediately hired a truck for $5 to take us to the next village where we caught the bus back to Latacunga. At the bus terminal the guys immediately got on a bus to Baños, while I went and ate a late lunch and collected my things from the hostel. I decided I would go to back to Baños as well (it seems nothing can keep me away from that place) and then take the night bus the following evening to Montañita to meet up with Lauren, Erik and Aleah. That meant I got a whole day in Baños to relax and unwind after the killer hike, which by the way was probably the 2nd toughest hike I've ever done.
The next day I visited the thermal baths, went to all my favorite eateries and watched a movie at my favorite restaurant. My bus for the coast didn't leave until 10pm so I just spent the day in relaxation mode. I'm looking forward to seeing the group again; traveling alone can be fun but it also makes you appreciate how fun it is to travel with new friends as well. I'm excited to visit Montañita, a little surf town on the central coast of Ecuador. Lazy beach days here I come!
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