Beautiful Quilotoa Lake. Ecuador
- Igor Fox
- Dec 28, 2025
- 8 min read
Updated: 2 hours ago
Travel Ecuador. Part 2
Hola, Everyone!
Well, lets continue our joinery around this beautiful and at the same time, so different country.
And this time we are gonna visit a local market, which is about 50km from Quito..., A local 80 years old farmer..., Quilotoa Lake, which is located in a crater of a Volcano at altitude 3518m..., and Baños - the gate to the Amazon!
BTW, to read about the first two day of this trip around Ecuador you can here
Lets Begin the Day 3rd
The Local Market and Local Farmer
The new day has began. Hola! The driver, and the guide in the same picked me up at 7am. The long joinery was waiting for us. The final destination was Baños, which is about 200km..., but, considering the road, and the landscape, even non stop that will take more that 3h to get there. And we had many stops on the way..., so it was already dark by the time we got the place. But first we will begin from the first stop...
And the first stop was about 50 km from Quito. Local market. Well, that was really traditional market... at altitude about 3200m above the sea level. You could buy some local fruits there, which I never seen before, try local food. Btw, it was pretty safe to eat the local food, made on the spot..., I checked it by myself. It was safe and yummy. I got couple of different shooties and some pancake from a corn... and that corn was totally different that we have here, in Canada.
Also I got some local honey. And the taste!.... yummy, yummy, yummy, yummy! And so rich of flavors, and strong. It is one of the best honey, I ever tried, definitely.
And also you could buy here the the famous guinea pig... not as a pet, but as a... food. And the price was much lover, that in city's restaurants. But, I don't eat meat (except chicken), and how you even eat this cute little animal...
The altitude was high, and it was a bit chilly outside, so we continued our trip. And the next stop was... the toilet. Excuse me for this details... But, toilet was not because of the food, I just had, but because the road and the altitude.
I thought I can handle the road well, I drive a lot by myself. And that was only 200km..., but... the road..., those zig zags..., turn by turn..., but that wasn't a problem for me too at another places..., but here... the altitude... We were higher and higher, and my body has started to experience the lack of oxygen. I god dizzy... Opened window in the car helped a little bit. We've reached some canyon on the way to Quilotoa..., it was a nice view there... but... at that time I already was thinking about the different view..., the view which cost 25 cents in Ecuador...
Truly, I felt my self like after spinning roller-coaster... Did not feel myself before for a long time... Uh, this is how it feels like...
I remembered, that I had a pills from a motion sickness, which I took for the Galapagos boat tour. Well, the check them came a bit earlier. And, I can say..., they helped but just a little bit. We continued our joinery. Fresh air through the opened window and the pills brought me back a bit.
After a while of driving... time was stretching for me at that moment... we stopped at some local village. After the short walk from the parking, we reached a tiny and very house, which, doesn't look like a house at all, at least from out point of view. A man, met us there. A farmer, with a kind smile... Hi was 80 years old, and still was working on his land. He couldn't sell that land, it, kind of belonged him and not at the same time. Despite on his age he the man looked pretty well. He showed us his guinea pigs, which was and his food and his heat at his house. Since the temperature could be around 0 degree Celsius at night there, and he did not have any heater..., the little cute animals, which were many inside, were running inside his place at night and producing a bit heat by they bodies. Also he had many blankets on the bed... On the shelves there were different kinds of potatoes, beans, corn. He had very simple and the hard life, but, at the same time, I could feel how happy he was, I could feel his kindness and the warm heart.
I was a good stop, with filled me up with a good and a kind emotions... And for the time there I forgot about my sickness...
...
The road to Quilotoa Lake was waiting..., and we continued our joinery to the volcano...
But the time I got the place I was barley alive... My head was spinning, I was dizzy and tired... It wasn't enough air for me... I was breathing deeply. And , it was foggy and pretty gray outside... Well, it is how it is. We moved to the first view of the Lake. And, Wow, just wow! At the same moment I saw the caldera of volcano, I forgot about the sickness again.
Okay, little bit about this place.
Quilotoa Lake located in an Active Volcano, and the last eruption was around 1280AD.
How it became popular... it all has started from a social network. One tourist came here, before this place was known all over the world. There wasn't nothing there. No hostels, no places to eat, no stores. So the tourist took a picture and posted it on his page... Well, and that was the beginning...
The surface of lake is located at altitude 3518m. The caldera rim is highly irregular and reaches its maximum elevations 3,810 meters to the N, 3,894 meters to the NW and 3,915 meters to the SE, at three lava domes. It is a half-hour hike down from the viewpoint (and 1- to 2-hour hike back up the 280-metre vertical ascent), and very basic lodging down in its bowl. My guide told me that the depth of the lake is around 400m, but other sources on google says that is around 250m depth. And the is no fish there, all because of the depth.
And, it's 178km from Quito, or a bit more than 3h drive..., or 154km from Banos, the same 3h drive.
And this place definitely worth visiting!
Well, let's continue...
I took couple pictures of the Quilotoa Lake at the top. Fortunately for me there were not many people. It was cloudy and suppose to be a little rain. But, still, the place was beautiful. The guide asked me, do I wanna go down. I was hesitating a bit, still didn't feel well.
Okay, I told my self, since I'm here, at least I have to try to go a bit lower. We went down. It was 1.7km trail down..., and up after. The difference in altitude more than 250m. Since I've started to walk, I've started to feel better. All of a sudden the energy came. Emotions of happiness filled me up. Little rain has started, but nothing could stop me now. I was on my way to the lake!.. And, O, Miracle! The Sun! Little by little the place has started to be brighter and brighter! I could see the blue sky... It was a gift for me from Mother Nature. The way down was fast, and by the time I reached the Lake, it was sunny already. Wow, so beautiful!!!
At the bottom there were a little kiosk, where you can but some cacao to drink, or a tea from coco leaves..., also you could buy coco leaves by itself. Chewing leaves or drinking a tea suppose to help from the altitude disease and give some energy. I choose the tea. Cheers!
And, yup, I started to feel better. I spend about 20 min there, just being the, with the Nature, enjoying the view... So high, so quiet, so calm...
It was time to go back... I said Goodbye to Quilotoa Lake and started to go up. And that is where the hard part has started. Before this hike up I thought that I am pretty fit. You, sure... I could barely walk after 100 meters... and another 1600 meters were waiting for me. The energy from the tea just disappear somewhere, the energy before the tea has gone long time ago... I barely could walk. And, that considering I spend all day at work on my feet, in heavy safety boots. Well, definitely I was not ready for this hike.
Little by little, with a long rest in between, I was going up. I can say here - it was definitely my hardest hike ever, despite of the short distance. But, at the same time, it was cool - lots of good memories and emotions it left inside my heart.
Yup, around 15 - 20 min down and... around 1- 1,5h up. Now I understood, why so. My muscles just did not want to work. They just refused to do any activity... Lack of the oxygen in my body because of the altitude was the reason for this.
And at that moment I understood that the mountains higher than 3500m are not for me. Oceans, forests, jungles - yes. But high altitude mountains... Maybe, once in a while, very very seldom... :))
So, my joinery up was continue... Actually, there is another option there to go up... Horses... Yup, there were people with horses there, not big hoses, but still, for which you can pay and they will bring you up... It is very convenient ride, so people with any age and physicals condition could visit this place.
But, I still used my feet to go up.
And, finally, I'm here, at the top again! Uh, I made it!
At this trip lunch was included for me, and, by the time I got up my guide already was waiting me with a food which I ordered earlier. But... I got dizzy again, and just couldn't look at the food at that time at all..., despite I spend lots of energy there and, kind of really was a bit hungry...
Anyway, I took the food with me and we started to drive to Baños...
And on our way there was one more stop. We were at PanAm Highway, there is... a Town of Ice cream! Yup, real town of an ice cream! Yummy, right. I just couldn't miss this place. By the time we got there I started to feel better, the altitude was lower and lower. And, I got the ice cream. The ice cream was made from four different layers, with a taste of local fruits. Don't ask me, what kind of fruits, the name of some of them I heard for the first time... But... it was soooo yummy...!!! Wow! The taste was delicious! Not fatty, not very sweet... everything was exactly in a right proportions...
The day was just amazing!
By the time we've reached the Baños it was getting dark already..., but it's gonna be another story in another post...
So, stay tuned, and
All The Best!
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