Our last four days - Pasochoa, Quilotoa Loop

We have finally arrived at decent time at a village with Internet access so I´ll update what we have done since we went into the Pululahua crater.
Last Sunday we went to climb our first summit: a volcano called the Pasochoa. We left the house early-ish and got some avocados from a street vendor, who was thrilled by the price - even after haggling - the twinkle in her eyes told us that we are not as good as we think at this bartering - however she was happy and we were happy, what can be better than that! Once our purchases had been done we got  on the bus to a village called Amaguaña and from there got a lift in a truck to the beginning of the walk where we started our climb. The weather wasn´t quite with us hail and rain most of the way but we were totally determined to get to the top and after a few hours of walking and feeling our hearts thumping in our throats - we could really feel the altitude -  we reached the summit of the volcano. What greeted us was a gigantic witches cauldron, the crater  was filled with mist which sometimes went over the sides just like if it was boiling and overflowing. 

Have a look at two pretty elated women who had just climbed up  to 4,200mt  and what made us even more excited is that we saw a glimpse of Cotopaxi in the distance!! soon we will be walking its slopes!

Luis with Kath at Quitombe bus station

On Monday we went to collect the bikes for our round trip of the Quilotoa Loop. Luis with whom we are staying in Quito insisted in helping us with collecting them and taking us to the bus station, his generosity and that of his family is really moving and we feel totally pampered and looked after by them all. Not only he took us to Quitombe bus station, more than an hour away from the house but he insisted in coming with us and making sure we had the right tickets and that we went to the right bus which we did. This is the bus that took us all the way to Latacunga, nearly a two hour trip from Quito for the extortionate amoung of $1.5 - public transport is heavily subsidised in Ecuador and the buses are always full. I wish it was like that in England. Our bikes ended up on top of the bus rained on; it seems that we have come just at the begining of the rainy season. The trip on the bus was a bit of a variety show with sellers jumping on the bus any time it stopped, whether at traffic lights or at the entrance of the motorway we had DVD sellers who sold all types of films from cristian DVDs to comedy and scanty dressed women produce- it was fascinating to see how he selected what he offered to each person (he offered us none!) - he clearly knew his customers, singers who doubled up a Mars bars sellers, chicken stew sellers and banana chips sellers, we always buy from the later.

Once in Latacunga we had some lunch before starting off on our ride and then the process of loading the bikes started with locals fascinated by the process. The honest truth is that Kath is carrying most of the stuff, she is just absolutely amazing! Have a look at a very practiced woman making sure the load is balanced. I carry a rucksack with the food, water, warm clothes and a couple of bits more. The ride to Pujili was great , we cycled amongst massive eucalyptus trees and the smell was wonderful. Although most of the ride was up hill we seemed to manage it quite well, the sun was shining and that really helped our spirits after the rain we had the day before in Pasochoa.

Maruja and Blanca best friends!

Pujili is a small village in the foothills of the Andes, really clean and well looked after. Once we settled ourselves in our room we went to explore the market, chatted with stall holders of all ages, tasted a handfull of fruits we had never seen and had a great time with one of the stall holders who tried to charge us $1.00 for one avocado!!! as if!!! Jokingly we pointed out that she was a bit out of order and in a really good humoured way she halved the price and then having an after thought tried to give us change as she realised she had charged us a bit much - we ended up being best mates!!!