loop-de-loop

so after an slight electronical absence, we are back. and from reading that one anonymous post left in our absence, i can tell you all missed us dearly. (thanks anonymous poster, we love you too!) but anyway, after some distribution of work, i have been assigned to enlighten you all on the trails and tribulations up in the ecuadorian highlands. and this is where the quilatoa loop comes in. the loop travels through, well, mostly nothing... but that's the point. it's a wonderful chance to get up into the highlands, do some hiking, and see some amazing views. yeah, well, on the down side, it does involve a number of bumpy bus rides that bring you a bit too close to a rocky death.. and yes, there was the one time we had to catch the 3am bus out of town, but ehh, that's part of the fun. so yes, the loop. we left lacatunga on tuesday morning, happy to get out of out dusty construction-filled hostel and took the three hour trip up into the hills. the trip was beautiful and we arrived around noon at quilatoa laguna. we checked into our hostel, a cozy place with winding rooms filled with cots and wood heaters, and then headed up to the main attraction, the caldera lake. at this point we were at the top of the ring of mountains that surround the greenish-bluish-blackish lake, and so after taking about 20 pictures (that is, after i took 18 and amy took 2), the three us us started to walk around the winding path that cut through the top of the mountains... to our left was the steep decline to the lake, and to our right we passed llamas and grassy plains and horses and small children. basically, there is not much else to do there aside from appreciate the lagune, so we spent the rest of the evening bonding with other travelers and forcing them to play cards with us and take part in our "word-of-the-day bonding" (it was "controversial teachers" that day, fyi). they all loved us. after warming ourselves with countless cups of tea, a home cooked meal, and wood stove fires, we climbed under our five blankets and went to sleep. the next day we hiked down to the lake to see it from another angle. and yep, still breathtaking. that morning was another reminder that hiking down crap is pretty fun, but hiking back up is not so much. but definitely worth it. that afternoon we caught the one bus to a town an hour or so down the road... a place known it´s hiking trails. we immediately went to check out one of the recommended hostels, but the woman who ran the place was too shrewd a business woman for us. after refusing to change the price, she told us to go down the road ("what are you doing here? it's only 5 dollars down there") so we took her advice and stayed at the lovely cloud forest hostel. well, stayed is just a relative term. after wandering around and forcing more card games and stories on unsuspecting tourist (this time, fire stories), we had to turn in early since we were waking up at 2.30 am to catch the only bus out of there. our last stop on the loop was three or four hours away to see the thursday market at yet another town i can´t remember the name of. it was interesting, yes... but we were sleepy and cold and by the time the mid morning rush hit, we were already on the bus back to the start of the loop, lacatunga. we gathered our bags, headed for the station, the made our way to the lovely baños...