Quilotoa

We rode to the next town in the back of a camioneta (Spanish for ute). Quilotoa is a village on the shoulder of a volcano that last erupted a couple of centuries ago. The last kaboom rearranged the landscape in a dramatic way, diverting rivers and creating a shiny aqua lake where once was the sulphuric grey clay found in the earth's pressure valves.

The walk to the lake's shore was a pleasant 300 metre descent. The thin air and the steep, sandy ascent made for an exhausting, breathless one and a half hours.