Quilotoa Loop #2 :Horse-ventures Edition

In February, my friend Emily and her partner, Brad, visited Ecuador and Brad hiked the Quilotoa Loop while Em and I did little day hikes in the area. The scenery was incredible and I wanted Kyla and Talia to experience it as well. Of course, Kyla actually wanted to do the three-day through hike, while I was more interested in soaking in the views without all that needless schlepping up and down mountains at altitude. Talia and I road horses around the various locations while Kyla hiked and we met up every evening at inns along the way. It was a truly magical experience!

We started our adventures at at gorgeous horse farm (haciendalaalegria.com), where Talia and I took our first legit horseback riding lesson. For all of our other rides in Ecuador, we’ve just jumped on the horses with no instructions. It was great for us to learn some real skills, and Talia gained a lot of confidence in her ability to communicate with her horse (and she also learned how to ride backwards, balance with no hands, etc.).

After some practice in a ring, we took off for a gorgeous ride around the countryside while Kyla took a taxi to the start of her hike in Sigchos.

After our ride around the mountains, we came back to the farm and had a chance to learn about caring for horses and training the foals. We eventually grabbed a car to meet Kyla in Inslivi, the first stop on her hike. More on that in the next post.Baca lagi