The Curse of the Coffee Sugar

Today we are in the small spa town of Baños and as I write this Max and Alex are getting a massage whilst eating chinese food, after the previous few days of trekking the Quilotoa circuit.


Let me take you back a few days, we wrote our previous post from the small market town of Latacunga, in our intense explorations of the town we discovered an interesting substance which was not dissimilar to Kendal mint cake, although instead of mint it´s coffee flavour, this was ultimatly to prove to be Alex´s demise, but more on that later. We set out from Latacunga onto the village of Zumbahua, where by coincidence there was a festival at the time of our arrival. After observing the celbrations, meeting the friendly local who offered us a lift in Quito from Latacunga to Quilotoa, and consuming a good sized portion of chickens foot soup, we began our walk to Quilotoa village a few hours away. After an hour or so we saw a sign saying ´Quilotoa 7km´ with this we felt like we were indeed getting closer to our destination, so we were severely dismayed when an hour later we asked a local man how far it was and he replyed ´seite kilometre´ exactly the same distance as an hour before. Fortunatly the next woman we asked told us it was only 1km a much more accurate estimate, it must be said that the Ecuadorians seem to lack in accurate estimations of either time or distance.So finally we arrived at quilotoa village and find an comfortable hostal (albeit with some disturbing features) where we rest and await dinner. After our hearty meal, the hostal staff light the wood burning stove, it was then a matter of minutes before we noticed the sickly smell, and the noxious fumes coming from the heating apparatus. As it turns out amongst the rocks resting on the burner had been a lump of the dreaded coffee sugar, looking extremely similar to a rock, it had melted giving off toxic fumes, making even breathing hard in the upstairs of our cabin...which just so happened to be my area. Eventually the air cleared and we managed to get to sleep, despite the heavy odour of coffee in the air.

The next day we had decided to walk around the entire rim of Quilotoa, and set out early after breakfast. Earlier that morning Alex had come to the horrible realisation that he had lost his wallet containing all his cards (although fortunatly only $30 in cash) in Quilotoa village we had no way of contacting the banks to cancel the cards, so we decided the best thing to do was wait until a more convienient time. As we walked to the rim a sign forbodingly warned ´must trek in groups of 4 or more´ a warning we decided to ignore. Suddenly we could see the fantastic vista of the Lago Verde in the basin of the volcano.

We continued to trek around the ridge, scrambling down craggy rockfaces, passing only the odd group of indiginous people with their flock of sheep. It was over half way round when we realised that we had bought too little water and that we would be wise to ration it. We passed several shepherd women, and then we saw one on her mobile phone, and Alex decided to take advantage of the tempermental signal.

Eventually after all the spectacular scenery we had made it back to the village, It was here that we bought a cheap lunch (as we were now running fairly short of cash without a cash machine in sight) and had a reasonable snooze. The next day we began to hike to Chugchilan (bringing far more water with us) Max assured us that todays hike would be far easier than that of the previous day due to it being entirely on a road. This considering the initial bit didn´t seem that easy with us getting confused in a maze of paths on the side of the volcano and eventually having to pay an indiginous woman (Maria) to take us to some woods where we could follow a road of sorts. She offered persistantly to take us to our final destination for only $10 but unfortunatly we had only $3 in change which would get us as far as the woods. Nethertheless this was indeed a worthy investment, and between shouting up the mountain to her friends in a mix of Quichua and Spanish about her sale, and emptying out her plimsole of sand and mud, we made excellent time through the maze of fields and ravines.

From here she estimated that we would arrive in Chugchilan by 1.30pm only 2 hours from then. So we set out in high spirit along the road. Several hours later the road ended abrubptly at a ravine with a plank for a bridge, and a bulldozer with an audiance merely sitting there the next step being unclear. It was obvious that we were not going to reach the destination by 1.30 as it was now 2.00 and despite being able to see it it was across a massive ravine, as we descended passing heavily laden donkeys treking up the ancient pathway we passed several traditional water holes, and after an hour or so we were down, only having the imminent ascent to look forward to. Eventually we made it to Chugchilan and our hostal, where we met some Canadians who were planning a similar move for the next day via the bus to the deserted town of sigchos from which we could get a bus back to Lactacunga. It was here that the curse of the coffee sugar struck again. In one swift move it removed alex´s tooth from his mouth (although a false tooth) which meant we were going to have to visit a dentist. Eventually we arrived in Latacunga and set out in search of a cash machine. The first one we came across failed to work, and the situation was getting desperate with sixty cents between us. A 20 minute walk later and the second one failed to work with Max´s card. Fortunatly it did work with mine, and we were back in business on the bus to Baños via Ambata, we arrived at our current location, where we remain until this day.


For those interested Alex´s tooth was fixed for a very affordable rate, he is now considering getting all his dental work done in Ecuador. AND we have also managed to upload lots more pictures including the Amazon, onto our Flickr Account, which can be accessed via the tab at the side of this blog.