Quilotoa Loop and Baños!

Hello all,

I am back in Quito for one night. We have just returned from our week out of the city. Last week we started with the Quilotoa loop, starting in a small village of Insinlivi. We stayed at a beautiful hostel called Lulu Llama (llama in the back included) and we stayed for two nights. Our first day we hiked to another village to see the market. I have not witnessed an animal market before, its kind of sad really. All the piggies were squealing. We also saw this:

Yes, that is a horse.

That night we were joined in the hostel with 3 more girls which was nice. They gave us directions since we did the loop backwards than what is normally suggested. The directions are similar to following a scavenger hunt... eg. The trail turns to the right and you will see a large rock. The views were incredible, and since we started early we generally had sun, until we got to our next hostel in Chuchuglin. We saw some little girls dance there, and then we had to give them money, sneaky.

From here we hiked to Quilotoa...since we did it backwards, we had to hike up to the crater that looks down onto Quilotoa Laguna, whereas most people have a 4 hour descend from Quilotoa. I have discovered the difference between a BC X-country skiier, and an Ontario downhill skiier...one of us is way slower. 

I was pretty tired, and if I could of I would of stolen this bike:

 But alas, I made it to the top and saw this, so I guess it was worth it.

Next we headed to Baños for two nights. Its a touristy town, but I quite like it, and a good place to be if you are an adrealine junkie. We rented bikes and some classy helmets.

We rode from Banos along "The Highway of Waterfalls". I think there is about 12 within 25 km or so.

Saw some pretty cool ones, we had to pay a dollar for this one, but I guess that is ok.

Unfortunately it started to rain so we bussed it back to Baños...its all uphill anyways, it cleared up pretty fast and we did a short hike up to the view point of the city.

The city also has some hot pools heated by the volcano near by, but there were always looming clouds so we could never see it.  I have seen a photo, so I believe it.

Whoa, sorry for the long post, tomorrow we head on the bus to Lago Agrio. Its near the Colombian boarder and apparently has an abundance of drugs and prostitutes. I live by the wise words of a 16 year old Cory that once said "Seen one boob, seen them all". Do you still feel that way Cory?  Lago Agrio is where all the tours for the Amazon start so it should be ok, we spoke to some people that just came back and said it was all good. Everything is solar powered there and I won't have a chance to write until we are back in Quito next Saturday. Today we booked our flights (with some difficulties) to Panama for the following Monday. Then we can make our way north to see Paige!!!!

Side Note: At last count I have ripped the whole bum out of my hiking pants, ripped a hole in my good hiking t-shirt, ripped a small hole in the crotch of my shorts, broke my watch, and the arm fell off my sunglasses again. At this rate I shall be headed home in the buff with a pair of flip flops on. I am just kidding, that would never happen, I hate flip flops.