Hiking to Laguna de Quilotoa

After a bone shaking four hour bus journey we've arrived safe and sound at the Black Sheep Inn. It's absolutely beautiful here and we are enjoying the relative luxury of the hotel. We arrived to a very warm welcome from the owners and staff and have been enjoying good food and good company ever since. The hotel is set in the middle of nowhere (quite literally) and it feels amazing to sit looking out of the window into the clouds while uploading my blog via wireless internet!!! Our room is really pretty with a wood burning stove which kept us warm during the cold night. We woke this morning to a pancake breakfast and then set off in a large group of 12 to hike around the Laguna de Quilotoa. We rode in the back of a pick-up truck to get up to the lake which was a bumpy but fun hour and a half long! When we got there it felt as though we were on top of the world. The temperature had dropped considerably and we felt very lucky that although it wasn't sunny, there was not rain and little cloud. We were therefore able to enjoy what was a spectacular view of the lake. The hike back to the hotel took us four hours and was at times quite gruelling. The altitude makes what would normally be fairly easy, a bit of a struggle. However some of the climbing that we did would have been challenging at any altitude. It's good acclimatisation for our attempt to summit Cotopaxi in a weeks time though.

We were fairly exhausted when we arrived back at the hotel but had that wonderful post-exercise feeling that we'd really earned our dinner this evening. After a hot shower and a cup of tea, I'm sitting in the lodge of the Black Sheep Inn which really feels like a home away from home.

Tomorrow we plan to visit the cloud forest and hunt for orchids. We've decided to take a truck up to the forest and hike back down - giving ouselves a bit of a break after today's adventure. In the meantime I'm looking forward to a hearty meal served around a big table and getting to know some more people who've just arrived.

Signing off...exhausted but happy.
S