PowerCycle

It’s Sunday and everything is closed so I spent the day walking around town and eating. Had a great dinner out last night with 4 of the other guests here. K&M made it this afternoon but the hostel is full so they are next door.

Tomorrow we try to rent a truck to head back to Tumbaco. If that fails I’m planning on riding.

Karin gave me all the recent pictures she took with me in it so here they all are. Now I don’t have to try to take any of myself for a while.

01/29 Long day but I’m pretty happy that I made it to Latacunga if only because I wanted to make sure I could still ride 50 miles in the mountains. The weather broke this morning and I had a great view of the crater lake. Yesterday was a wet one– rain all day so we just hung out in the hostel next to the fireplace.

Today was cloudy and when I crossed over the 13,000 feet mark the wind knocked at least 15 degrees off the already chilly 60 F. No rain which was a treat. Nothing broke either. New altitude record of 13,182 feet.

The road from Quilotoa to Latacunga was paved all the way and the climbs, although very long, were not very steep. Had a pack of 5 dogs come running after me including one very big St. Bernard.

Staying in the Hostel Tiana for $15 (I had to get a double and they charged me an extra $5 for it). The city seems pretty big but I’ll have to check it out tomorrow. Need a beer now. The backpacker couple that stayed at the hostel in Quilotoa just showed up here. Small world. K&M might have stopped outside town because they wanted to check out the market in on of the towns. We’re thinking about either taking a bus back to Tumbaco or hiring a truck. Maybe Sunday we get back there but more likely Monday. Zdenek emailed me and said my frame hasn’t arrived yet.

Here’s a GPS track (GPX format) for the entire Quilotoa Loop .

GPX track

01/27 After a somewhat grueling climb up an often rough and wet dirt road I made it to village of Quilotoa. Just a short walk across the only road in town and you can look down at a huge volcanic crater lake. The afternoon clouds had already come in so I’ll have to wait until the morning to get a good view. According to the locals the lake has no bottom but geologists came along and ruined it by determining that it’s 820 feet deep. This might be the only time I had to pay an entrance fee to get into a village. $2 wasn’t a huge dent in the pocket book but it seems odd to charge a fee to come into a village where 70% of the buildings (maybe more) are hostels. If they are going to charge a fee maybe do it at the museum that overlooks the crater.

Speaking of pocket books, the zipper on the small pouch thing I use to hold change broke so I bought a fancy new handmade one from a girl selling them in one one of the many booths. I’m looking forward to having a day where something doesn’t break on me.

This Quilotoa Loop route is shaping up to be one of my favorite areas on the entire trip. The scenery has been spectacular almost the entire way. Normally I’m not a big fan of populated areas but it’s hard not to appreciate how hard the people living here work just to make enough to scrape by. Every inch of cultivable land is worked in some way whether it be for growing crops or grazing sheep/llamas. The altitude has an odd effect on the kids. Their cheeks are incrediby rosy. It’s not a healthly looking red either; more like a the color of a deep bruise. Their hands are also the same color.

Karen found out some info on the family that runs the hostel. It’s a dad, mom and 2 young kids (under 6). They get $100 a month from the owner to run the place. They don’t have to pay to live there (no rent/electric/water expenses). Food is also provided. The four of them stay in one room in the basement and share the same bed. There is no stove to warm the room like in the guest rooms.

Hit a new max altitude record (12864 feet).

GPX track

01/26 No cobblestone today but the dirt road was rough in spots. The last mile before Chugchilan was being grated which meant a very hard climb up soft dirt. No big hills either; just a few steep spots and lots of slow climbs up and slow rides back down.

My rear tire died. The sidewall had a nice tear in the sidewall so I had to stop and replace it with a spare. I think I sideswiped a sharp rock. At least I didn’t puncture the tube. Since I only had one spare I emailed my warmshowers host in Quito to see if I could get back the 2 tires I left with him. They both have a couple thousand miles left on them and would make great spares.

Staying at the Cloud Forest Hostel. $12 a night with breakfast and hot showers. The wifi is broken but the router has some LAN ports so I should be good. The vilage is very tiny; just a church and maybe a dozen buildings or so. An older lady was selling a plate of french fries with a fried egg on top so I tried one of those. Pretty tasty.

K&M are at the next hostel over. Guess they took a rest day. Karin gave me some good news. The black dog that followed us to the volcano made it back OK.

GPX track