Laguna Quilotoa in Ecuador

On October 3, 2017February 20, 2018 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn South America7 Comments

Volcanoes are a common sight when you visit Ecuador and we decided to visit several of them during our visit. Although many of them are still active, Quilotoa hasn’t erupted for several hundred years. One if its last eruptions was violent enough to create the enormous crater or caldera that has since filled with water that is 800 feet deep. You can either hike around the rim of the crater or hike down the steep trail that takes you down to the lake. We ended up doing a bit of both, but we didn’t go all of the way down to the lake itself. If you want to, there are kayaks for rent if you want to go out on the sulfur laden water, but that didn’t sound too appealing to us.

The trail down to the lake is actually deep sand and not an easy hike going down and even harder going back up. There are mules available for $10 per person if you don’t want to make the difficult hike back up the side of volcano. The spectacular views more than made up for our exhaustion when we made it back to the top. Fortunately there are a couple of restaurants on the rim, so we were able to stop and have lunch before deciding to hike partially around the rim. Going around the entire rim would have taken us about three hours, so we only made it about a third of the way before turning around and heading back.

Visiting Quilotoa is only about an hour and a half drive from Quito and we would definitely recommend going there to anyone who travels to Ecuador. We arranged our private tour through the tour company, Happy Gringo, and our driver picked us up from the hotel. Since the tour was private, we were able to customize it to our needs, which was quite convenient. This was the first of three volcanoes that we hiked on or around during our time in Ecuador, but it was also one of the most memorable. The colors of the water and the sheer size of the caldera are quite impressive to see. We were fortunate to have beautiful weather, although hiking the trail can be very dusty when it isn’t raining.

Going Down was Easier than Climbing Back Up

The Food of Ecuador

On September 27, 2017 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Recipes, South America4 Comments

We definitely enjoyed a variety of food during our time in Ecuador. Similar to other places in South America, having both rice and potatoes with a meal was a common occurrence. There was also a variety of seafood and ceviche that is definitely worth trying. We mentioned prior to our trip that we weren’t sure if we were going to try the guinea pig, which is called cuy. In the end, we ended up giving it a try and we actually enjoyed it very much. The restaurant district of Quito is called La Mariscal and there are a lot of wonderful choices for trying Ecuadorian food. One of the best was a restaurant called Achiote, which is where we tried the guinea pig that had a bit of a curry flavor.

Some of the other specialties that we tried was the potato and cheese soup called Locro de Papas as well as a soup of beef feet and hominy called Caldo de Patas. Honestly, neither of those were our favorites, but we wanted to give as many local dishes a try as we could. No visit to Ecuador would be complete without at least having empanadas once, so we made sure to have a nice variety of them. Another interesting thing that we tried was Tamal de Gallina, which is a corn pastry with chicken that is steamed in an “achira” leaf. Almost every meal is served with a spicy salsa that you can add to your dish if you enjoy a little extra heat and they were all quite tasty.

We also had a lot of wonderful food at the eco lodge in the jungle, but we were too tired from our long days of exploring to take pictures of the buffet. If it wasn’t for all of the walking that we did during our time in Ecuador, we probably would have put on a few pounds from all of the delicious food that we tried. It didn’t stop with the food either, we also tasted several Ecuadorian wines and beers to accompany our meals. We definitely tried some foods in Ecuador that we haven’t seen anyplace else and were glad that we tried so many different options.

Adventure on the Amazon River

On September 26, 2017 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Photo Challenge, South America11 Comments

Just traveling to and from our lodge in the Amazon was as much of an adventure as the time we spent doing the various tours everyday. After landing at the airport in Coca, we went to the dock where we boarded a motorized canoe. Considering the heat and humidity of the jungle, having the breeze blow through the canoe was definitely a relief. We saw a variety of birds, but that was just a tease for what we would see later during our time deeper in the jungle. We passed oil refineries as well as barges carrying trucks up the river and our anticipation grew the further we traveled. After two and half hours, our canoe pulled up onto the shore and we were told to remove our shoes as the water was too shallow for the canoe to take us to the smaller, paddle canoes that would take us the final three hours to our lodge. Once we reached the paddle canoes, it was time to make our way through the narrow stream towards the lake with the lodge.

It did not rain while we were in the jungle, which was good for us, but made the travel in the stream more and more difficult as we left for our daily excursions. On the final day at the lodge, we boarded the canoe at 5:00 am and started making our way to meet the motorized canoe. About thirty minutes into the three hour journey, it started to rain. We put on ponchos that were provided by the guides and then the skies truly let loose and we were being pounded by a torrential downpour. Nothing could keep us dry, but fortunately our bags were wrapped in thick plastic in order to keep all of cameras and electronic equipment dry. It was a good thing too, since we had over two inches of water in the bottom of the canoe before we got out of the canoe. By the time we reached the location of the motorized canoe, it had rained so hard that the river had risen more than three feet. The beach that we had crossed on foot just the day before was now covered in water that was deep enough for our canoes to take us all of the way to the motorized canoe.

We transferred ourselves and our belongings onto the motorized canoe and began our two and a half hour ride back to Coca. The water was choppy and water sprayed over the sides of the boat even with the side-curtains down. We were no longer thankful for the wind that whipped through the boat as the heat of the jungle had been replaced with cold, rain-soaked air that chilled us to the bone. We arrived back in Coca, completely soaked, before getting on the plane that would take us back to Quito. We were definitely glad to get back to our hotel and change into dry clothes. The canoe rides to and from the lodge may not have been the highlight of our time in the Amazon, but it was definitely part of the overall adventure.