I barely have a couple of days to travel and without planning I go out to my next adventure, In these days I turned in my head climb the volcano Cotopaxi and go to Quilotoa. So I decided to travel and I went to Latacunga.
To get to Latacunga we can do it in several ways, if you are in Guayaquil you can take a bus that travels directly to Latacunga like Santa or Cooperativa Latacunga with a value of $ 10 in any bus that you decide to travel.
If you are in Quito you can go to the terminal of Quitumbe and take a bus to Latacunga is relatively close with an hour and a half trip.
To get to Latacunga from I live in Salinas, province of Santa Elena, I had to take a bus that took me to the city of Ambato, in my case I took the last bus to Baños that departed at 10:00 p.m. with a value of $ 13 and a travel time of 8 hours.
When I arrived at the terrestrial terminal of Ambato I had to take another bus that took me to Latacunga and with a value of $ 1.15 and after an hour of travel I arrived at the city of Latacunga at 7:00 AM, then I asked in the windows which bus took me to Quilotoa, I decided to have breakfast at Latacunga terminal, a full breakfast with milk, bread, cheese, egg, dry lamb and a glass of juice at $ 2.75 and after that I was ready to take the next bus. People’s kindness is huge the person to whom I had asked what time the bus was leaving, she went to look for the restaurant to indicate that the bus was leaving in 5 minutes. So I grabbed my backpack and I went straight to the bus.
I left at 8:00 sharp on the way to Quilotoa, the ticket to Quilotoa is $ 2.5 and an estimated time of 1h30 minutes. There are buses that run every 30 minutes to Quilotoa. The bus leaves you at the top of the village and you must walk about 300 meters to reach the lagoon.
When I arrived to Quilotoa and I observed the great changes that the community has made in its own good, you think that sustainable tourism exists. Actually you do not have to pay the entrance to Quilotoa but if you go in your own transport you will have to cancel the value for the parking.
I had already been to Quilotoa on a couple of times and the change that occurs in both accommodation and eating places has been great. Quilotoa is one of the places most visited in Ecuador.
This lagoon has been considered one of the most beautiful of the world due to its blue-green color that is due to the amount of minerals in it and the impact of the sun that it receives.
Although my plan was not to visit Quilotoa, because I had previously visited the trekking that can be done when descending to the crater to the volcano is a really gratifying and a tired experience, enjoy the calm of the lagoon, to be able to do kayaking, to ascend there is the riding option paying a value of $ 10.
There is a place very little visited by tourists in Quilotoa and it’s the viewpoint of Wood and glass that was built in the community of Shalala, I had Heard about it and I decided to visit it. I seen this beautiful viewpoint that gives a new perspective to the lagoon of Quilotoa, the view of the lagoon is closer than in the village of Quilotoa.
I was Inquiring about Shalala Viewpoint and people told me that I had to walk on the edge of the volcano for about 40 minutes or an hour or take a pick up to take me there, so I decided on the second, the pick up, I paid $ 7 to get to Shalala you must take a secondary road that is in acceptable conditions and after about 15 minutes of travel you will arrive to Shalala, if you want to go on foot are 7.3 Km away from the main road.
Shalala is a community that has started with sustainable tourism, here we will find some cabins where we can stay and a restaurant that offers typical dishes of the region.
Shalala is visited mostly by foreign tourists, the national tourist visits it in a smaller way, due to the small amount of people that arrive is a quiet place to admire the different colors of this lagoon that enchants.
It was time to return to Latacunga and the road was a long way to go, I wanted to rest a bit and walk around Latacunga. I had in my mind to go to the Cotopaxi which I wanted to ascend but until that I would have to think about my new route.
