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Ecuador 2 - Latacunga
Hi there. Well it´s 6th of July and we have journeyed to Latacunga, where we will be staying for a few days. It´s a base really, as we expect to have a couple of trips out of town.
First impression isn´t great - everywhere is closed, but at least we have our hotel booked - so we get a taxi to the Hotel Cafe Tiana. Oh dear, not great. We thought we had booked a room with a private bath, but it tuns out they don´t have any rooms with a private bath, and most of the rooms are dorm rooms. Second problem, the doors use padlocks which is Ok if you are leaving the room, but you can´t lock the door once you are inside, so we didn´t feel very safe, nor could we leave anything in the room, because even if padlocked the doors could be pushed open, as could the windows. We decided to get some lunch, and after a bit of a search we found a chicken place. And right next door was Hotel Los Alomos. We asked if they had a room with a private bath and they did!! We checked in, then hastily retrieved our bags from the Taina and moved in - the only problem was that it was a twin-bedded room - but we moved the beds together (we are newly-weds, you know).
It was a struggle finding anywhere to get an evening meal (it was Sunday) but we did come across a travel place so we booked a trip to Cotopaxi for the next day. Cotopaxi is a high mountain (5100 metres) with a glacier top. The trip was fabulous, with great views as we went through mountains.
Our guide, Ramiro, took us to 4500 metres where we parked the pickup, and we set off for the Refuge at 4800 metres. I´m afraid the altitude took it´s toll, and before we had walked more than a few hundred metres up the slope ( I expect we got to altitude 4650 metres), we were both exhausted. The two others in our party, being younger and fitter than us, carried on, but we couldn´t. Back to the car for us.
The following day, we set off on a two day moutain trip to see Quilatoa, another volcano, which had last erupted in 1797. In the crater, some 300 metres below the rim, was a lovely lagoon. We walked a quarter of the way around the rim, but because of time constraints, we were not able to go to the lagoon. It would have taken us only half an hour or so to descend, but at least two hours or more to get to the top again, and time was against us. The weather was wet and quite cold. We then had a fairly dangerous drive to Chilatoa, where we were staying the night at the Hostel Cloud Forest - though a small room, at least we had a double bed again! (www.hostelcloudfores.com).
At the hotel, we met Susan, a travel writer, ( read her blog at http://selizabeth83.livejournal.com , more interesting than ours probably!), and Lacey and Brandon, a couple of newly-weds. Lacey is an actor based in Chicago, where Brandon is a freelance theatre production manager.
The first night, the local children provided the entertainment with traditional dancing
Like many others, this hotel has an ´honour´ system for purchases from the bar - you simply fill out a form in your room, detailing what you took from the bar! Doubt if that would work well in this country. Anyway, Susan asked us to share her $10 bottle of wine, as she didn´t think she could drink it all by herself, and we were happy to oblige, and reciprocate, with our own bottle!!
Lacey and Brandon had to get an early truck (4am), so they went off to bed early. Susan was catching the milk truck at 9am, so could stay to help us finish off both bottles.
We had a 3 hour horse trek through the mountains booked for the following morning. WOW, such great scenery, and not half as heart stopping as the Mexican horse trek, though of course Lynnette couldn´t get the stirrups short enough for her little legs.
Once we had lunch, we returned to Latacunga. Only problem with the Hotel, was a damned dog that barked half the night! (And the fact that the hotel staff seperated the two twin beds every day, and we had to keep putting them back together!)
Thursday was market day in Sasquilli, a town a few miles away, so we had a bus ride there.
Friday 11 July and we left Latacunga for Baños - a resort town a couple of hours way.
First impression isn´t great - everywhere is closed, but at least we have our hotel booked - so we get a taxi to the Hotel Cafe Tiana. Oh dear, not great. We thought we had booked a room with a private bath, but it tuns out they don´t have any rooms with a private bath, and most of the rooms are dorm rooms. Second problem, the doors use padlocks which is Ok if you are leaving the room, but you can´t lock the door once you are inside, so we didn´t feel very safe, nor could we leave anything in the room, because even if padlocked the doors could be pushed open, as could the windows. We decided to get some lunch, and after a bit of a search we found a chicken place. And right next door was Hotel Los Alomos. We asked if they had a room with a private bath and they did!! We checked in, then hastily retrieved our bags from the Taina and moved in - the only problem was that it was a twin-bedded room - but we moved the beds together (we are newly-weds, you know).
It was a struggle finding anywhere to get an evening meal (it was Sunday) but we did come across a travel place so we booked a trip to Cotopaxi for the next day. Cotopaxi is a high mountain (5100 metres) with a glacier top. The trip was fabulous, with great views as we went through mountains.
Our guide, Ramiro, took us to 4500 metres where we parked the pickup, and we set off for the Refuge at 4800 metres. I´m afraid the altitude took it´s toll, and before we had walked more than a few hundred metres up the slope ( I expect we got to altitude 4650 metres), we were both exhausted. The two others in our party, being younger and fitter than us, carried on, but we couldn´t. Back to the car for us.
The following day, we set off on a two day moutain trip to see Quilatoa, another volcano, which had last erupted in 1797. In the crater, some 300 metres below the rim, was a lovely lagoon. We walked a quarter of the way around the rim, but because of time constraints, we were not able to go to the lagoon. It would have taken us only half an hour or so to descend, but at least two hours or more to get to the top again, and time was against us. The weather was wet and quite cold. We then had a fairly dangerous drive to Chilatoa, where we were staying the night at the Hostel Cloud Forest - though a small room, at least we had a double bed again! (www.hostelcloudfores.com).
At the hotel, we met Susan, a travel writer, ( read her blog at http://selizabeth83.livejournal.com , more interesting than ours probably!), and Lacey and Brandon, a couple of newly-weds. Lacey is an actor based in Chicago, where Brandon is a freelance theatre production manager.
The first night, the local children provided the entertainment with traditional dancing
Like many others, this hotel has an ´honour´ system for purchases from the bar - you simply fill out a form in your room, detailing what you took from the bar! Doubt if that would work well in this country. Anyway, Susan asked us to share her $10 bottle of wine, as she didn´t think she could drink it all by herself, and we were happy to oblige, and reciprocate, with our own bottle!!
Lacey and Brandon had to get an early truck (4am), so they went off to bed early. Susan was catching the milk truck at 9am, so could stay to help us finish off both bottles.
We had a 3 hour horse trek through the mountains booked for the following morning. WOW, such great scenery, and not half as heart stopping as the Mexican horse trek, though of course Lynnette couldn´t get the stirrups short enough for her little legs.
Once we had lunch, we returned to Latacunga. Only problem with the Hotel, was a damned dog that barked half the night! (And the fact that the hotel staff seperated the two twin beds every day, and we had to keep putting them back together!)
Thursday was market day in Sasquilli, a town a few miles away, so we had a bus ride there.
Friday 11 July and we left Latacunga for Baños - a resort town a couple of hours way.
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John&Lynnette |
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, Jul 14 2008, 6:56 PM EDT
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