Ecuador: Latacunga (28 May)

After paying a seemingly large amount of money for my Galapagos trip, I checked out of the Secret Garden and headed south for the Cumanda bus station where I boarded a bus for Latacunga. This was to be my drop off for the Quilotoa Loop, which has been described as a must do by many fellow travellers and the book. This was my first real chance to see Ecuador´s countryside and the road took me into the Andean highlands that form the backbone of the entire continent – we passed through many small towns, most of them with concrete shops and houses, plenty of stray dogs, mix of Quichua (indigenous) and Spanish faces and some gleaming churches.

The bus dropped me just off the Pan Americana highway on the outskirts of Latacunga around 5pm so I headed into town and found the Hotel Central which was clean and right in the centre (funny that). The señora and I chatted in Spanish for a while and I am pretty sure she and I agreed that around the world people are getting married later…or possibly we agreed that I would marry her daughter later - either way it was…nice. I set out to find myself a tour for the following day.

As I hit the road to find the right tour, I must say here that two people in Ecuador have already commented that I like to check out tours properly…ok, one may have hinted that I am anal. Of course I killed them for saying that but will also outline my approach so I can set the record straight. First, I always check out at least 3 agents, more often 6-7 and a mix of those in the book and not. In addition to the questions on cost and activities, I check out the guide´s knowledge and languages, the car, whether I can plug in my digital walkman, where and what lunch etc will be. Plus I bargain and get them to write it down on the back of their card. Not so bad huh? Whatever.

All of the operators told me I needed a minimum of two people. This is the worst thing about travelling on your own – ok, there are other things too. The converse is also true that single people can often just jump on a tour that is going rather than having to wait. I hit the pavement again and spied a hombre clutching a Lonely Planet striding down the street. I accosted him and asked whether he was keen to do a trip to Quilotoa. The reply, shaped by a mellow southern US accent, was owned by Jim Higgins, the public lawyer, infamous scoundrel of Kentucky and my partner in crime for the next few days.

Jim and I booked the trip and then met for dinner at La Mama Negra. The owner showed us around this dark decorated and very cool 5-floor colonial style mansion with a restaurant, bar, several function rooms, disco and many nooks and crannies. They served us Latacunga´s speciality ‘chugchucara´ which is a huge plate of soft fried pork, rice, potatoes, bananas, toasted corn plus cheese empanadas all doused with akhi (sauce of chilli, onion, tomato and lime) - all washed down with Pilsener, Ecuador´s light but very drinkable beer. We got an early night as we had to leave at 7.30am for the loop.