At this point in the life of Nolan and Jessica, we are basically looking to up our outdoor experience every time we have a spare moment. We’ve hiked many of the major mountains that are not covered in snow, and we are feeling ready to get fully into the backpacking game. A few weeks ago, we had our first four day weekend, and we knew we had to do something big and exciting, but we didn’t know what we wanted it to be. Our friend Maya (who you may be familiar with at this point) really wanted to go backpacking, and while this sounded like the perfect way to get into this new sport, we weren’t quite prepared with the materials. We bought a tent and a double sleeping bag from a friend, but neither of us have the backpacks, the cooking materials, the necessary clothes, or really anything else to ensure a comfortable backpacking experience. So, we did want to embark on this new adventure, but we just weren’t quite ready.
Then, something serendipitous happened. We were talking to Nolan’s grandparents, and his grandma mentioned that she had met someone at a voting poll who had lived in Ecuador and recommended a very niche hostel. While the word hostel does not usually invoke the most positive of connotations, he said that this hostel was spectacular. So, I decided to look it up. This hostel fell on a three day backpacking journey to a volcanic crater lake called Quilotoa. And, lucky for us, most people did this trek while staying in hostels every night of the journey. I did some quick research and what I found was that it was one of the most beautiful hikes in Ecuador, you could stay at cheap and interesting hostels along the entire stay, and it would take three full days, (we had a four day weekend!). The pieces were falling together beautifully. All we needed to do was assemble the perfect squad, which luckily for us is a pretty easy thing to do around here. In no time, we had a group of five, Nolan and I, Maya, and our friends Eli and Keegan.
On the night before the start of our four day weekend, we headed out on a bus to the city of Latacunga. Everyone we had talked to had let us know ahead of time that Latacunga was nothing special. There were no notable attractions, it was just the easiest place to catch a bus to our starting city. We booked a hostel there for the night, fully prepared to find something to eat and then pass out in our hostel. After dinner, we made the walk to our hostel to find the most amazing thing waiting for us. A giant carnival was in full swing behind our hostel. This kind of thing has become one of my favorite parts of international travel over the past few years. You show up to a place expecting to go to sleep early in your cheap and underwhelming hostel, and end up spending hours at a super sketchy and random carnival.
We decided to fully embrace the carnival and wanted to go on some rides. It was quickly apparent that these rides had little safety features and would definitely not be allowed anywhere in the United States. The first ride we saw was the classic boat ride where it swings side to side until it is almost upside down. But, here in Ecuador, instead of sitting in the safety of the locked bar over your head, there are cages where they lock you in and I guess you just hold on for your literal life.
While it looked thrilling, we decided not to go on this one, and instead found something a little more our speed. We found a small rollercoaster with a modest looking drop and some corners and thought, yes, we must do this. We bought tickets and got in line, hoping it wasn’t solely for small children. The man let us on, manually locked the bar restraints, and literally pushed the car on to the first corner of the track. The coaster was pulled up by a motor that was placed right next to the hill and was pumping black smoke into the atmosphere and then, we were off. After a fairly intense drop and corner we thought we were done, but no, the man running the ride let us go around another 3 times. It was hilarious.
We spent the rest of the night walking around the random carnival, also going on a fairly dangerous version of bumper cars, and laughing about the weird yet totally cool situation we had ended up in. We eventually headed back to our hostel to sleep, because we had an early morning and long day of hiking ahead of us.
We woke up and headed straight to the bus station where we hopped on a new bus to the tiny city of Sigchos. This bus ride took about 3 hours, but the last hour and a half of it was one of the most
beautiful drives I have been on in this country. I spent the time listening to my favorite music and dreamily looking out the windows at the stunning green mountain views. We also got views of two new volcanoes to Nolan and I, Iliniza Norte and Iliniza Sur. These mountains are stunning, because even though they are right next to each other, Iliniza Sur is covered in snow while Iliniza Norte is not. We quickly added Iliniza Norte to our hiking bucket list before arriving in Sigchos. We found a spot to eat a hearty meal in this darling little mountain town, and then started the hike.
Lucky for us, Maya had actually done this hike once before, so for the majority of the time we relied on her memory, and her amazing GPS tracker, to get us to where we needed to go. The first day of hiking was actually the shortest with the least amount of elevation gain, so we expected an easy day ahead. What I was unprepared for was even though the elevation at the start and finish were almost identical, we would be spending the first half hiking down to a river at the bottom, and the second half walking all the way back up on the other side. We busied ourselves with good conversation and stunning views, filtered some water for ourselves out of the river, and enjoyed the time in nature. Although the second half was more difficult than expected, we finished the day of hiking in a little over four hours and made it to our first hostel, De La Llama, which was the hostel that Nolan’s grandma had recommended to us!
After the long uphill hike, walking into this hostel was like walking into a dream. It was a mountain lodge overlooking the canyon we had just walked out of. It was stunning, with exposed wood beams, a fireplace, open dining area, and yoga room to be enjoyed. We had booked beds in the
dorm room, and lucky for us, we had the entire space to ourselves. After taking a hot shower, Keegan recommended a quick yoga session to stretch after the day of hiking. We did yoga while looking out through the fog, and I felt completely blissed out. It felt like such a privilege to be on this “backpacking” journey, while also getting a hot shower and doing yoga in probably the most gorgeous yoga studio I had ever seen.
After our yoga session, we realized the best thing. This hostel had happy hour! I ordered a hot mulled wine (my favorite) and found a seasoned and german version of Catan. We sat around the table in a happy and tired daze, playing Catan and spending the best quality time with friends.
Our reservation at the hostel also came with dinner, and we were not disappointed. It was a feast, with an amazing soup to start, lasagna and bread for dinner, and cake for dessert. As if our day couldn’t get any better, after we finished eating we threw on our swimsuits, and dashed through the cold mountain air to the spa that had a jacuzzi, sauna, and steam room. It was perfect.
The first two hours of this day were very easy and absolutely beautiful. We were winding around the canyon with stunning views, going in and out of towns, I saw a church and all of my farm animals doubled, it was perfect. Then, we came across a straight uphill cliff trek. We decided that for the betterment of everyone’s pace we wouldn’t stay together, and meet up at the top. Nolan,
Keegan, and Eli set off ahead, and Maya and I hiked up at a very sustainable pace. Although this cliff was huge, it was actually so much fun for Maya and I because we got to have some amazing one on one conversation while staying at a pace that felt comfortable. We made it up to the top with very little problems and felt so accomplished by the views at the top. The last 30 minutes of the hike was along a road, and honestly this slight uphill on the pavement ended up being all of our least favorite parts of the day. But, we pressed on and eventually made it to hostel number two: Black Sheep.
One thing about Black Sheep that we had been talking about ALL day were the FREE banana bread and brownies that they offered. Unfortunately, we walked in the door and immediately ate all of the banana bread and brownies that they had available, leaving no more for anyone else (or ourselves later). But, they were delicious. At Black Sheep we also booked the bunk room which we also had all to ourselves! The bunk room here was the cutest A frame cabin with three stories up tiny ladders. It was so cozy and adorable.
But, potentially the most important thing about Black Sheep was that it had the ONLY DISC GOLF COURSE IN ALL OF ECUADOR! If you know Nolan and I at all you know that we LOVE disc golf, and even though we had been hiking for two days straight, we were determined to play this course! We had been carrying all of our discs this entire time, and we forced all of our friends to come play even though everyone was tired. As we approached the first tee we remembered that not only was this the only disc golf course in Ecuador, but it was also the highest elevation disc golf
course in the world! How cool! It was a fairly simple 9 hole course, and it was super fun to show our new friends the game. There were also llamas on the land that the course was on, so it was quite fun to disc golf with them around us as well. We headed back down to our cute hostel where Eli taught us a Quiteno card game called Cuarenta that quickly became a new favorite of ours. We had the dinner the hostel provided, another feast of soup and pasta, and headed back to our A frame cabin to sleep for the night.
This is where our story took a bit of a turn for the worst. I woke up that morning with horrible stomach pain. I darted out of our cabin to the outdoor composting toilet and spent most of my morning there feeling terrible. The third day of the hike was the day we were supposed to climb all the way to the top of Quilotoa. It was going to be a day of hiking straight up, gaining over 2000 feet of elevation. This was about all I could think about as I looked at my potential breakfast with absolutely no hope of eating it. I tried to drink as much water as I could, and I wanted to eat, but the idea of it made my stomach curl. I had an extremely hard time this morning because the past two days had been perfect. This was by far the most beautiful part of Ecuador I had seen yet, it was so fun hanging out with friends, and the last day of hiking was the part where we would make it to Quilotoa. After taking some medicine and drinking some water, I decided that I needed to give the hike a try. I was hoping that after starting the hike my body would realize what it needed to do and kick into gear for the day.
The first 30 minutes were down hill, and I was honestly feeling a lot better and gaining hope that the day might turn around. Before starting the first uphill section, Nolan told me that it was important to try to eat something, so I ate a cracker hoping that it might give me some fuel. For reference, we had each been eating three big meals a day with many snacks in between. It was what our bodies needed in order to finish these big days of hiking. So, a cracker would really be the bare minimum. After only 5 minutes I knew that the cracker was not sitting well, and I was sick on the side of the mountain. I still had some hope that I would start feeling better, so I continued. However, we quickly reached a huge uphill section, similar to the one we had done the day before. We slowly started to climb up the hill. The sun was so intense and there was almost no shade. I tried to keep up with the group, but I needed to take breaks every few minutes. By the time we were close to the top, I couldn’t go more than a few steps without taking a break. At one point, Nolan told me I should grab my water out of his backpack, and it felt almost impossible to lift my arm up to grab the water. At this point, it became very clear to everyone that there was no way I would be able to make it up to the crater. Luckily, at the top of this hill there was a teeny tiny town, and my wonderful friends had found the number for a taxi at the last hostel. We called the taxi to come get us at the small town, and Nolan and I bid our friends farewell as they continued to finish the day of hiking.
It was super hard for me to admit that I just wasn’t well enough to finish the day, and I felt really down about it for a while. The taxi took us to our final destination, a small hotel in the city of Quilotoa, and I spent the rest of the day in bed. I continued feeling really terrible for the next few hours, but around 6 pm I started to feel a bit better. We congratulated our friends on finishing the hike, and played more cuarenta in our hotel that night. Luckily, our hotel was just right across the street from the crater lake, so in the morning before heading back out to Latacunga, we took the short walk to look at the stunning lake. It wasn’t quite as sweet knowing that we hadn’t been able to finish the hike, but it was still gorgeous.
Although the last day of the trip took a turn that we hadn’t expected, I still consider this to be one of my favorite trips that we have been on so far. The quality time with friends, stunning views, amazing hostels, and everything else about it had been so incredible. Nolan and I are already determined to go back on another trip to finish what we started.
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