Quilotoa And Latacunga

On the 17th February, we left Ambato and headed North back along the road to Quito in our journey towards Colombia. We got to a city called Latacunga where we took a small local bus around what is called the Quilotoa Loop. Named after a village on the loop, this mostly touristy route circles around through mountainous and forested regions through numerous villages and past several pleasant attractions.

We decided to visit one of them – the Quilotoa crater. This crater is now surrounded by tourist shops, restaurants and hotels, but is not as welcoming as it sounds. From the moment we arrived the people were trying to rip us off with inflated prices and nonsense. We managed to get to the crater however, and we were pretty impressed. The crater is over 2 km wide and filled with glistening blue water in the sunshine of the Andes. Formed over 800 years ago when a volcano collapsed, nowadays it is possible to bathe in the waters, kayak, and even hike around the rim.

We decided not to leave any of our tourist dollars in a place filled with hideous locals who were so greedy, and so we made our way back to Latacunga. We had seen enough mountains already anyway.

Latacunga was OK, but the fact that it was still carnival time for some people and they were still spraying water on every was annoying. We did try some of the local food which we found to be fairly interesting – chugchucara. This consisted of fried pork, plantains, meat empanadas, and, strangely enough, popcorn. All of this and the local spicy aji sauce made for a nice dinner.

We stayed in the main hostel in town, and noticed, disturbingly, that the trend for backpackers to spend all of their time on their gadgets rather than talking to each other had fully taken over – as had the worrying fashion of people dressing like douchebag hipsters.

We made our way to a few local attractions – but there was not much to see in Latacunga. The casa de la cultura held some old antiques, and some models of the local fiesta de la Mama Negra. This carnival takes place twice per year, and is a mixture of both Spanish and African influences. It venerates the Virgin Mary as she is said to have stopped an eruption of the Cotopaxi volcano in 1742. It is not made clear how she stopped it, or why she did not bother to stop it the 50 times it has blown since then, but that is faith for you. Total crap. The carnival has a parade of course, and the Mama Negra is the person who passes through last. They have their face blacked up and they throw milk over everyone, so typically South American and strange.

When we were in Latacunga it was Ash Wednesday, were everyone fasts and a cross is drawn onto everyone’s forehead at mass. This gave the town a creepy feel, and gave me an excellent idea for a short story. We found a bus going to Quito pretty easily and we left later that day. Maybe next time we pass by this way (by car), we will do more in the National Parks of Ecuador, and try to drive the whole of the Quilotoa Loop.