Quilotoa Crater Lake & the Quilotoa Loop

High in the Cotopaxi highlands, lies Quilotoa Lake - a massive lake in the middle of a volcano. It has a gorgeous emerald green color from the volcanic minerals, and the color dramatically changes throughout the day - especially when the sun shines down on it. The crater measures 2 miles in diameter, with a circumference of approximately 6 miles, and estimated to be ~800 feet deep.

Perhaps it is due to Covid, but there are hardly any tourists around. We stayed at a hotel at the top of the crater and ate at empty restaurants overlooking the lake. All are run by the local Kichwa indigenous women who do it all - own the hotels, run the restaurants, and hawk their local, artisanal wares at stalls in the central market. These women work hard!

Our goal in coming to the area was to hike the Quilotoa Loop. This is a 22 mile loop over 3 days - sounded easy enough, as we spend our weekends hiking around Marin and skiing in Tahoe. So, we repacked our bag to have layers for the cold and minimal things to lighten the load - and off we went! I carried 30 lbs with baby Zander and a bag, and Jonah carried 50 lbs with Imogen on his shoulders and a bigger bag.

Day 1: Quilotoa Lake to Chugchilan

At 12,000 feet in elevation, this hike was no joke. Let me put it into perspective. The major traversable pass in the Alps are around 2.5k meters (~8k feet) with a few at about 3.3k meters (~11k feet). The Quilotoa Loop is around 12,000 feet. Despite the high elevation, there is no snow, yet there are farms and vegetation. It’s pretty amazing that plants can be grown and beans harvested at such an altitude. Habas are the most popular and earn the most money for farmers - they also have pretty purple flowers as they grow. I have never seen such vertical farms before. They seem to be at an angle of 45 degrees

Our hike started around the crater, and then went deep into the ravine where we traversed a river and walked up the other side. It's around 3,500 feet down and 1,400 feet up.

The views are "gorges"! We walked through the clouds rolling over Quilotoa Lake, a "creepy" foggy forest (in Dashiell's words), down to the valley below and then up to the towering plateaus on steep mountain tops. I didn't capture it all in photographs, unfortunately.

You can't feel the intensity of the challenge in these pictures. With the kids on us and heavy bags, the altitude, and the steep climbs, it took us 6 grueling hours to arrive in Chugchilan. At home, Jonah can run 7 miles in 1 hour through the steep Marin Headlands.

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This was a moody, cloudy day. We walked in-and-out of the clouds and spats of rain. Eight-year-old Dashiell was amazing, powering through and hiking with a smile the whole time. The image below of Imogen walking is the only time she walked - she was lucky to have a bird's eye view from Jonah's shoulders the entire way. Zander was always with me. At the end, a car offered us a ride for the final stretch to Chugchilan. Jonah and I were exhausted, but Dashiell made the call to walk all the way there. This is coming from a kid who barely walked 2 miles at sea level before this trek.

Scroll to see all images: 1. Imogen walking (she was not so happy to walk) 2. Dashiell leading the way along a steep path on the side of the mountain 3. Dashiell, Zander, and me on one of the only flat parts of the walk.

Takeaways from Day 1

Dashiell: I liked seeing the crater lake and the fog roll into it. And the fact that it looked so small but It was so big. I liked hiking all the way up to the next place. I liked seeing all of the animals pass by - especially the baby sheep because they were so cute.

Imogen: I liked being on dad’s shoulders.

Jonah: I'm never doing that again!

Jill: Always wear tons of sunblock at high altitudes, even on cloudy days. Poor Zander fell victim to the thin atmosphere and strong solar rays. I'm too embarrassed to share a picture of him. #badmom

Day 2 - Chugchilan to Isinlivi

We woke up with aching muscles. With the freezing cold temperature, it was hard to warm up and motivate ourselves to go. Should we abandon ship or push through? We found the best of both worlds - doing the hike via horseback!

Day 2 is even more grueling than Day 1. I'm sure that we could have made it by foot, but it would have been a painful 8-hour trek, with the kids riding us like horses! Horseback was much better - we had an excellent guide, Umberto, and learned about the land and local community along the way. Plus, the sun was shining bright. Turns out we were lucky to have moody skies the day before - this scorching sun was hot at this altitude!

The day started with a quick stop at Umberto's house to change up a saddle. We met his grandson and saw a quick glimpse of his family home. Then we continued on through muddy paths and past local farms.

We continued through paths down to the river below.

Note: I love the photo below - my family on horseback with nothing but nature. This is my favorite kind of travel. You never know what is next and have to figure it out as you go. I feel fortunate that I can still travel like this with a family in tow.

The most fun part was going over the river with the horses. Note that the mountain horses of Ecuador are tiny. They look like ponies. Jonah is far too big for his horse. Imogen's favorite memory of this trip was going over the river. Check out her happy face when they reached the other side. (Jonah was so careful to hold Imogen on tight that he got tendentious in his hand after this ride!)

After this, we went up, up, up, up, up to the other side of the ravine. I can't overemphasize how high this climb was - it seemed to go on forever and the horses were heaving on the way up. I was relieved not to be climbing this with a heavy load.

We finally made it to the top! An1,800 foot climb from the river below with an elevation of 9,500 feet. This is where we stopped to have lunch. But we were wrong to think that this was the top - there was still more climbing beyond!

At last we arrived in Isinlivi! Here we found a local hostel which had llama's hanging out in the yard. Imogen is obsessed with llamas, so she was psyched.

Day 2 Takeaways

Imogen: Cows eat grass and llamas eat grass and sheep eat grass. I eat grass sometimes too, right mom?

Day 3: Isinlivi to Sigchos - cancelled

We ditched the last day of the trek. We had 2 magical days. It was enough. We went back to Quilotoa Lake to pick up "Bishi" (the car), and were off to Banos to soak our aching muscles in hot springs!