Latacunga – 
We get up quite early and pay for the night in the hostel (32 USD) before we lock our backpacks in the storage room in agreement with Tiana. We put a few valuables in one of the lockers – as usual we have enough padlocks with us. The next two days we will manage with our daypacks – where we actually for the most part just stuffed with snacks and electrical stuff .
Before we head towards the bus station, we have to overcome another hurdle: Finding an ATM we can get money at. We almost spend an hour walking through the city and have already tried 5 different machines, each with 3 different creditcards, until a bank employee gives us the suggestion to visit the “Parque Vicente Leon”. ATMs from different banks are lined up here – and we are quite lucky: It clatters, rattles and the banknotes appear out of the slot.
Terminal Terrestre Latacunga
Will we reach the bus station in time before the early bus to Quilotoa departs? We get ourselves a taxi ride to the terminal and are in luck: Although we are officially too late for the 8 o’clock bus, the bus ride will not start until 8:30 because there are still too few passengers present. Excellent .
There are quite a lot of free seats available during our trip, and I really can’t tell from which side the view is better, more breathtaking, more beautiful… We drive past Pujili and the landscape gets hilly – some clouds create a play of colours on the pastureland…
Passing Tigua, we reach Zumbahua – As it is Sunday, there is a huge market here. Unfortunately we can’t get off the bus spontaneously, because it’s not sure when the next bus will go to Quilotoa – also… we have planned to visit Otavalo anyhow, where the weekend market is supposed to be even bigger .
Quilotoa –
The small village at the edge of the Quilotoa crater consists of about 40 houses – so finding our lodge is quite easy, as it is located quite in the center. By the way: “Runa Wasi” means “house of man” and we were welcomed very heartily by Olympia, the daughter of the owner (with a hot Canelazo – you really notice the altitude difference here. It’s really chilly after all.). After a little chat, we bring our stuff to our room, which has a small fireplace right in front of the bed – cozy… It will definitely get cold tonight .
