Quilotoa Loop 2 +3 Plus Papallacta

After a night at LluLlu Llama, we sent Brad off on a hike to Chugchilan and Em and I did a short day hike right from the hotel (see the last post for Emily declaring that yodeling was meant for the hills of Ecuador). After our hike, we had an excellent lunch and then took a taxi to meet Brad in Chugchilan at the Black Sheep Inn (highly recommend this place too). I woke up to a beautiful sunrise (see photo), and, after breakfast, Em and I waved goodbye to Brad once again. We then took a truck to Quilotoa (a huge crater lake on top of a volcano), did a bit of walking and had a picnic lunch right on the rim of the crater. I had already visited Quilotoa once before, but I was still blown away by the views. Eventually, Brad emerged from the trail and we hopped back in a truck for back towards Quito. We landed at a hotel with amazing hot springs in Papallacta (thanks for the recommendation, Michelle).

My time with Em and Brad was full of hilarity and spontaneity (meaning neither Em nor I plan anything in advance). It was so, so good to spend time with an old friend. I was bummed that Kyla and Talia couldn’t join for the Em-Brad leg of the trip (especially since Kyla would have actually done the full hike)—I’m hoping we can go back.

Talia has the following update on what she and kyla did while I was gone:

So back in Olon, me and mommy had fun. I went back to school. School is always fun. The other kids went to the river but me and one of my friends did not go to the river. The other kids all got into the river without pants or a change of clothes.

I painted my nails with my babysitter in the afternoon. Also, mommy and I did more fun things like we went out to brunch with one of my friends and her little sister and big sister. We had a very good time. We did other fun things too, like we swam in the pool at sunset and me mommy watched two movies. That’s all I want to say.Read more