10/1: Enjoying Cuicocha Laguna, a Crater Lake near Otavalo, Ecuador

Thanks to a phone app new to us called Whatsapp, we were glad to be able to meet up with Emmy – the Belgian woman we’d met at Parque Condor yesterday afternoon – after all at 8 in Otavalo's central plaza. The three of us had made plans to visit Cuicocha Laguna, a 2-mile wide crater lake with two islands rising up from the depths in the middle of the lake that wasn't too far from Otavalo. 

How much more attractive the plaza looked on that Sunday morning in the sun than in the rain a couple of days beforehand.

Even dogs were welcome at Sunday Mass at the Iglesia San Luis.

A few photos on the way to the bus station to catch the bus to the town nearest the lake.

Vendors hadn't yet set up their handicrafts and other products in the Plaza des Ponchos when we walked through the square.

The bus only cost 40c each to the nearby town of Quiroga.

An enterprising taxi driver – really, a pick-up truck once again - was waiting by the bus to take us to the information center at Cuicocha Laguna, located about a half hour away, for a nominal fee. We couldn’t beat the price and the knowledge we’d managed it on our own with no complications. Not a small feat when you can barely get by in the language! That compared to $10 quoted by a taxi driver yesterday.

Before doing any hiking or visiting the lake, the three of us wanted to stop at the visitor center as it gave the geological history of the area. We learned how the lake was formed, when the volcano was last active and the history of the native people.

I read that the dramatic Cuicocha Lake, tucked into the caldera of the Cotacachi Volcano in the equatorial Andes, might be Ecuador's most photographed body of water. The sparkling blue crater lake was formed about 3,000 years ago, when the crater of the lake's namesake volcano collapsed during an eruption. 

The crater was covered with snow, which eventually melted and formed the lake. When the Incas came here, they thought that one of the islands in the middle looked like a cuy or guinea pig, hence the name Cuicocha in Quechua or Guinea Pig Lake.

We appreciated Emmy's willingness to take photos of both of us at the visitor center with the beautiful lake in the background.

None of us wanted to hike for at least four hours around the lake but the prospect of getting out and enjoying a decent hike in the fresh air sounded appealing even though the elevation was 10,000 feet, which could make breathing a bit difficult.

There were lovely views everywhere we looked, not just at the lake.

The hike was almost entirely uphill so the change in altitude affected all of us. We welcomed the chance to take a break after hiking for about 40 minutes.

At the solar calendar there was almost no shadow about ten in the morning.

The flowers along the trail varied somewhat the further we hiked which made us glad we'd made the effort to come and hike at least part way.  

The next viewpoint was a lunar calendar.

We loved that there were some viewpoints along the way as that meant we could take breaks without appearing to be old and out of breath!

We didn't know what the ancient people offered at the Offering Site nor how this Bathing Ritual area was used as it was far from the lake.

This is what the hiking trail looked like along the mountain top.

From this vantage point, we could clearly see one of the islands in the middle of the lake.

We did not exactly have the narrow trail to ourselves as you can see!

Since we had a pretty clear day, we were rewarded with stunning views of Cotacachi Volcano in the distance. 

After hiking up to the ridge for a while, the three of us decided we’d had enough and walked to the pier to wait for one of the boat tours around the islands in the lake.

We didn't have to wait long for one of the tour boats.

The weather had been glorious when we were hiking; in fact, a little too hot as Emmy realized when she got burned. But the clouds started rolling in and it got quite chilly quickly as our boat ride began.

The 45-minute boat ride circled both of the islands but we didn't see much of them because the three of us happened to be sit on the outside part and thus away from any island views. Some of these photos were taken by fellow Americans who had snagged seats on the other side of the boat and therefore could see everything.

The big island was called Teodoro Wolf and the small island was Yerovi but your guess is as good as mine which this one was!

Along the shores and in the shallows, we did catch a glimpse of the totora or reed used in the area for making baskets and floor coverings.

The only wildlife we saw were a few ducks.

But hey, at least we saw something as we had no sense of the size of shape of either island from our seats on the boat!

A good sense of what the two island looked like was from the pier!

I liked the different shades of color in the island and the mountains surrounding the lake.

Our boat ride ticket included complementary hot sugary tea after we disembarked which was quite welcome as part of the ride was cold on the open water. 

We then piled into a truck taxi back to Quiroga where a bus was waiting to return to Otavalo. I think we were all surprised that there were quite a few vendors selling their wares in the Plaza de Ponchos but there were no people buying a thing that we saw.

Emmy wanted to look for a gift for her sister so we wandered through the artisans market together for a while. We showed her The Pie Shop right on the square where we'd eaten 'dinner' the night before before saying goodbye. Emmy was heading out on an adventure through the Ecuadorean part of the Amazon next. We hope to meet up with her next year in Brussels if our very tentative plans for the fall of 2018 pan out. Failing that, Emmy knows she always has a place to stay in Littleton.

More photos of Otavalo's street lamps:

This was my favorite one.

We picked up our packed bags at the hotel and headed back to the bus station where a bus for Quito was about to pull out of the station. Our luck was still miraculously holding for buses leaving just as we arrived!

We were heading back to Quito for the night before flying out in the morning to Cuenca, our next destination in Ecuador.

We had come to Otavalo for the famous Saturday artisan market and everything else would be gravy in our minds. Looking back, though, I think, much as we enjoyed seeing the hundreds of vendors and all their fantastic wares, I much preferred just watching the people of Otavalo going about their normal activities in their native dress. Discovering Jose's weaving shop in tiny Peguche, walking to the falls, strolling among the hawks and owls at Parque Condor, viewing the incredible raptor display and then our few hours spent getting to and at the pretty Cuicocha crater lake with Emmy were what I will remember most fondly about our time in Otavalo.

Next post: Discovering the origins of 'Panama hats' in Cuenca, Ecuador.

Posted on October 21st, 2017, from Cusco, Peru.