LANDING IN QUITO - the second highest capital in the world.
THE OLD TOWN OF QUITO is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and contains the most beautiful colonial architecture in South America.
VIEW FROM BASILICA DEL VOTO NATIONAL, the tallest church of Ecuador, on the hill EL PANECILLO (“the little bread loaf”) and statue of the Virgen de Quito.
GOLDEN GATE OF LA COMPANIA implies what will follow inside.
LA COMPANIA DE JESUS was built by Jesuits in 17th - 18th century and magnificently gilded by seven tons of gold and is told to be the most beautiful church in the country, if not on the whole continent.
Visiting LA MITAD DEL MUNDO and taking a picture on a line which gave the country its name (equator) is tourists’ must. But it’s extraordinary boring too.
MUSEO INTI NAN is the place where the fun starts. It claims that the equator really runs through its property and you can experience many equator-related experiments here (like balancing an egg on a tail) on your own here. You will not get bored for a while during about 1 hour long guided visit.
GUINEA PIG (“CUY” IN SPANISH) is a traditional meal in many south american countries, but is very difficult to find in bigger cities.
WHILE “SECO DE POLLO” (pieces of chicken with rice and plantain) is offered everywhere. This one was bought from a vendor on a bus from Quito to Latacunga.
LAGUNA QUILOTOA is a 3 km wide emerald-colour crater lake. You can take about 4-5 hour hike around the caldera or 30-minute hike down to the lake.
Way back up the 280-meter vertical ascent would take about 2-3 hours on foot. But as we were not yet well acclimated for almost 4000-metre altitudes, we decided to use mules for the climb up. It was fast and fun, but also adrenaline-filling when the mules decided to eat the furthest grass on the cliff. And it happened several times.
THE MULES OWNER grabbed one of the mules’ tale and ran up the crater with us without even being out of breath.
LATACUNGA IS THE BEST BASE TO EXPLORE QUILOTOA AND COTOPAXI AREA. One afternoon we were extremely lucky to spot Cotopaxi without clouds on our way from bus station to our hostel.
COTOPAXI NATIONAL PARK with a variety of vegetation zones from preventing snow to humid mountain forest and Paramo grasses.
COTOPAXI IS A SECOND HIGHEST MOUNTAIN IN THE COUNTRY AND WORLD'S HIGHEST ACTIVE VOLCANO with its 5897 m height. And it is often called KING OF THE ANDES for its beauty.
COTOPAXI CAN BE CLIMBED TO THE SUMMIT with a tour guide and appropriate equipment. Most of the visitors take 4x4WD trucks to a carpark at 4600 m and hike to Jose F Ribas Refuge at 4810 m altitude. This hike took us about 40 minutes and was really difficult due to high altitude, strong freezing wind and occasional snow. Hot chocolate in the refuge seems like the most delicious one after the climb.
IF YOU HAVE ENOUGH TIME, YOU CAN MAKE A PLEASANT 2.6KM WALK AROUND LAKE LIMPIOPUNGO on our way down the mountains. And if you are lucky enough, Cotopaxi will occasionally peek through the clouds to say good-bye.