Mindo and Latacunga (Including Cotopaxi and Quilotoa)

From Quito, we took a 2 hour bus to Mindo, a village in the Andes popular with backpackers. On arriving, it seemed like a generic backpacker centred place; one street with a zillion hostels and tour agencies. We walked to the guest house we had booked, collecting dogs who were sleeping in doorways who suddenly perked up and followed us when we passed. We must have smelt of dog biscuits or cats or something. We arrived at our accommodation, and were greeted by the loveliest old couple ever who owned the place. We had no idea what they were saying half the time, but couldn't help but smile at their happy faces. They left us to unpack, and 5 minutes later when we walked out of the property, they were sat on a bench making out. So adorable!

The dogs in Mindo want all the attention

The quick black dog jumped over the... other black dog

The options for activities in Mindo were- hiking, coffee tours, a hummingbird sanctuary and nature walks. Seeing as we had already done a coffee tour and a hummingbird sanctuary, we decided on a hike. There was one which apparently would take us an hour each way to a waterfall, the pictures showing crystal clear water and children swimming in the pool at the bottom. Sounds nice. We packed our swimming stuff and towels in case we fancied a dip, and started the uphill hike.
Mindo is known as 'the cloud forest' and as we walked, the clouds started to surround us, so any viewpoints we passed were pretty useless. An hour and 15 minutes later, we arrived at a wooden building with a sign to the waterfall, and were charged $6 for the entrance. The guy at the entrance asked us if we would like life jackets when we jump from the platform into the water. We reckoned we would be fine without.

A forest full of clouds

We then had to walk another half an hour down a steep rocky path to get to the waterfall, in which time it had started to rain pretty heavily. But we had paid our $6 and the waterfall might still be nice. We arrived at the waterfall, the only ones there, and discovered muddy brown liquid flowing at great speed, ending in a ferocious waterfall. If we had tried to swim in it, it would have forced us onto the rocks. We decided not to risk our lives.

What the waterfall was supposed to be like

Didn't really fancy a swim in this

Platform on the right in case you wanted to jump to your death

After taking some shelter for a while, the weather still did not clear up and in fact the rain just got heavier. We had about an hour and a half before it would be dark, so we had no choice but to brave it back in the downpour. At least most of it was downhill.

The hostel had 2 hammocks in the communal area which were calling to us, so much of the next day was spent chilling. We did however, drag ourselves out and booked a night time nature walk with a nearby tour company, which it turned out we were the only ones doing. We were lead towards a pick up truck, and driven about 20 minutes up the path we had hiked up the day before, and came to a stop in a shelter just off the track. We were then met by a Canadian guy who seemed to have the same reactions to bugs as we do to puppies- 'oh hi little guy, what you doing?'. It turned out to be trails around his land, and he gave us torches and we followed him, looking for nocturnal creatures. Not too long into the walk, Jonno realised that this also included many spiders, but we were already committed. The guy also stopped every so often to have a chat with the frogs. Here are some of the creatures we found:

Grasshopper

Centipede

Interrupting private time

Spiders

This beast is in the same family as spiders (Tailless whip scorpion if you want to look up a better photo!)

Stick insect

Moths with a surprise inside, just like a kinder egg

Praying mantis

Froglets

We also saw how pineapples grow and discovered that bananas also come in pink.

We had 2 other points on our map that could have been done as day trips from Quito, but there was an area between the two that was closer and gave us a chance to see another place, Latacunga. To get to Latacunga from Mindo we first had to get back to Quito to change buses. And typically, the first bus dropped us off at the North terminal, and the next bus left from the South terminal. It should have been fairly easy to get from one terminal to another, but the bus we thought was the right one turned out to not be going to the South terminal, so we asked someone local on the bus and they suggested to get off at the next stop and change bus lines. We got off, and were directed to another bus stop further down the road, which then turned out to be closed. Unsure what to do next, our only option was to start walking in the direction we wanted to go to and hope there was a bus that would pass by and would pick us up. This was not for about 2km, and pretty much all of it uphill with all our bags. The bus that picked us up was not even the right one, but it took us to another main stop where we could get the right bus. Then another few hours to Latacunga.

A tasty snack of fried banana stuffed with cheese

Latacunga itself did not have that much going for it, but we didn't plan on spending much time there anyway. Our first day trip was to Cotopaxi Volcano- The second highest active volcano in the world at 5,897 metres above sea level. We had been offered an organised tour from our accommodation for $90 for both of us, but had done a bit of research and apparently you could get a public bus to the entrance of Cotopaxi national park and find guides with pick up trucks who could do the tour cheaper, so this is what we went for. There was no bus stop at the entrance of the national park, but the bus driver stopped at the side of the highway so we could get off. There, we found a line of pick up trucks, all eager for us to take a tour with them. We managed to haggle one down to $50 for both of us, using our best Spanish, and the guide explained completely in Spanish what the tour involved. Once we were in the vehicle, he then started telling us about the history of the area in almost perfect English, it was the fastest we have ever seen someone pick up another language! It was a 45 minute drive to the start of the hike, with a few stops to admire the scenery which was impressive with all the surrounding mountain ranges.

So beautiful

Views on the way up

Once we got to the car park at 4,400 metres, the guide told us the first part of the walk would take about 45 minutes, but this would feel difficult because of the altitude and lack of oxygen in the atmosphere. As soon as we started walking we found ourselves out of breath, but we had reached the first stop after about 30 minutes and went up even further to the start of the glacier at 5,000 metres, the furthest point you can walk to without specialised gear. After a moment to catch our breath, we took in the amazing sights, then walked back down to the first stop where we had some coca tea in a cosy hut, me buzzing from the endorphins and Jonno just relieved that we didn't have to walk uphill anymore.

First stop

We made it to the start of the glacier- 5,000 metres

The guide then practically ran us down to the car park, and after making a stop at the visitors centre and time for the guide to have a quick nap in the car, he dropped us back off at the main road. All we needed to do was to hail a bus to take us back to Latacunga- easy. What we hadn't accounted for was that it was a main highway, and all the vehicles were passing us at 100km per hour, and none of the buses wanted to slam on their brakes in the middle of the highway as we were waving at them. After about half an hour a bus passed us at a slow enough speed to stop, and again even though it wasn't the bus we wanted it at least took us close enough to where we could get the right bus.

And after a day of hiking, Jonno was extremely eager for another day of hiking, he just LOVES it. So the next day we took a 2 hour bus to Quilotoa lake, a crater lake at 3,800 metres which was formed after the Quilotoa volcano last erupted in 1280. There was an option of a 3-4 day hike around the crater lake (This was definitely the option Jonno wanted) or a 45 minute walk down from the top to the bottom, and then back up again. Seeing as we didn't have enough snacks to last us 3-4 days, we opted for the second one. The walk down was fine, just very sandy, but the walk back up was definitely more difficult, again a breathless walk due to the altitude. We had also dressed for colder weather as the internet told us it was 5 degrees when it was actually more like 28. When we reached the top, we had our picnic lunch,  where we had a few pairs of puppy dog eyes around us who guilt tripped me into sharing my lunch, and caught the bus back to Latacunga.

From the top of Quilotoa

Quick break on the way down to appreciate the view

At the bottom

Llama blocking the path