My last week in Ecuador I am spending up in the mountains. I am hoping the high elevation will take the place of the running I have not been doing due to my lack of shoes. It is nice to be cold again, to snuggle in blankets near a fire and enjoy a warm cup of coffee or the obligatory Ecuadorian soups. Early in the week Adam and I left Latacunga to spend a night up at the Quilotoa lake. We got up there in the afternoon and for a few seconds the clouds parted revealing an unreal blue-green lake situated on the top of a mountain. According to local folk tales, Lago Quilotoa is a bottomless crater lake. The mountain seems to have blown off its top and been filled with the clear freshwater. It is beautiful. Just as soon as the clouds parted they closed up again, hiding the lake from view and leaving what appeared to be just another mountain.
The trail down to the lake is getting worked on, but only about a quarter is done. The rest is a slippery mudslide to the bottom, made especially slippery in 6 year old dental floss flip-flops. Ecuador hiking is straight up and straight down and I am beginning to think switchbacks are a North American thing. Although it made for a good cardio workout, the trail was suffering from some major erosion. We slid down the slopes and at a certain point passed under the clouds. There the view of the lake was clear and it only disappeared from view once again.
Adam and I wandered around the bottom for a bit, taken in by the beauty of the lake and the contrast to the rugged mountains. Scrambling down we had passed six people that were headed up, but after that we did not see another soul. Under the clouds that had hid the lake from above, it felt like a haven. Sheltered and invisible to the rest of this world time did not seem to pass in this place. I imagine that is what it would feel like to be the last person alive. Peaceful, yet eerily empty. Silence, not even an echo to answer back.
The next day we only wandered partway down. Still under the clouds so that the lake would not be shrouded from view, but we did not venture down the steepest mud slope. I think I could have sat and thought in front of that lake for days, but Aliye was waiting in Quito with our Manu Chao tickets so we did not linger for too long. A truck ride and a rather long and scary bus ride landed us back in Latacunga, where we said a heartfelt good-bye to Nora. (Adam was sick at the hostal a few days before I got there, and Nora was one of the ladies at Hostal Tiana who brought Adam breakfast and tea when he was sick and called a doctor for him). From Latacunga we took another bus to Quito, found our way to a hostel and then to the concert just in time. The next morning I said good-bye to Nick and Caitlyn as they headed back to Seattle after their short week in Ecuador. It seems that this last month has been filled with good-byes.
Not being a big fan of big cities, I stayed in Quito less than 24 hours. Currently I am in the Imbabura province, hoping to hit the famous Otavalo market on Saturday and buy gifts for myself and my family. There are dozens of lakes up in this area, and from our hotel roof two volcanoes are visible on a clear day. The people up here are very friendly, and while chicken and rice is still the easiest thing to find, there is a delicious pie place I am keen to try out. It is funny how lonely it can feel in the middle of a city in the middle of the world. Although I will be sad to end this trip and to leave this country, home is beginning to sound sweet.