A week-end trip to the Quilotoa Loop. The Loop is a bumpy, ringshaped dirt road (most of the way) the starts from the Panamerican highway about 70km south of Quito. Instead of turning east into the Cotopaxi National Park, you turn west towards the Laguna Quilotoa.
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| The two ladies in front of Hosteria La Cienega, a 400 year old hacienda |
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| living room, the fire places great on the cool evenings |
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| veranda around the courtyard |
Just before the turn off from the highway is the hacienda Cienega at the end of a 200 meter eucalyptus lined driveway. 400 years of history, creaking wooden floors, enormous rooms, it housed some of the French Geodesic Mission members who came to Ecuador in the first part of the 1700 the measure the equatorial line and prove the the world was not a perfect round globe.
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| The road twisting through the mountains |
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| The good old means of transport |
The first part of the road brings you up to about 4000 meters, new road which they carve out of the "hill" sites. At times everybody wait for an hour or two while the heavy equipment drop rocks and gravel down from high above. People hang around patiently, some dressed strangely as the guy above, a circus coming through?
the drop from where the "cowboy" and his sweetheart is standing, back and front was kind of scary, but worth it. And a hat is essential when you are this close to the sun and have lost the battle regarding hair cover.
Maybe Shangri La was here and not in the far east
Maybe Shangri La was here and not in the far east
