We woke up early to gather for breakfast and plot the days activities. Us being a more adventurous group were keen to try tackling every proposal thrown to us. We slept at a level higher than any of us has slept before, 3900 meters (12,800 feet), which made sleeping a little difficult, be we felt good enough to try anything.
The plan turned out to be making the short walk from the guest house to the rim of Quilotoa Crater Lake and then follow the steep, sandy trail to the bottom to check out the lake. It was 300 meters down to the water surface, which, of course, meant a gruelling oxygen deprived 300 meter climb out afterwards! We were given the option of renting mules to get us out afterwards for $8, but any such hiring was required before we were to start our hike – and we were feeling a bit too confident.
The view of the crater from the top was beautiful, with snow cover volcanoes in the rear distance and steep green walls that plunged 300 meters down to the lake surface that were said to extend a further 300 meters below the surface to the bottom. This is an active volcano that still comes to life from time to time, but it was pretty quiet for us.
After our long, endless trek to the bottom, which reminded me somewhat of The Grand Canyon, we arrived at a hostel with a collection of new double fibreglass kayaks available for rent for $2. Our guide mentioned the existence of warm vents from hot springs bubbling to the surface that we could potentially investigate, so me and one of my fellow mountain bikers, a physician’s assistant from Oklahoma City, hopped in to see them for ourselves.
The water of the lake was mostly cold and salty, and the springs bubbling to the surface didn’t really feel warm at all, but we eventually found a hot spring spewing out from the cracks of a big boulder along the banks that confirmed the existence of thermal activity happening below.
After our short paddle, we made the long oxygen deprived steep climb back up the the rim to rejoin a few of the crew who decided not to make the entire trek down. Our ride today was from our guesthouse down a freshly paved smooth asphalt road through a number of old villages and eventually ending up at a small town.
Most of the ride was downhill and cruisy, but we did have the occasional dog obstacles to contend with. We were warned about them before the ride and assured that if we only slowed down and passed them quietly, their chase would become too boring for them to pursue and they would leave us alone. Sure enough, as intimidating as it was to slow down to let a vicious looking dog in hot pursuit catch up to us, the trick seemed to work every time and the dogs just retreated to their farms.
After another nice lunch of traditional tasty Ecuadorian beans with meatloaf and avacodo sliced rolled up in a tortilla, we hopped back into the truck to get a ride up to a ridge overlooking the central valley of the Pan Pacific Highway. Once on the ridge, our truck pulled up a dirt road to unload us for the steep descent through beautiful farmland down to the valley floor. It was another great, exhilarating and beautiful ride to finish up the day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riobamba
That evening we drove into the city of Riobamba and our hotel for the night. Seeing as we were all getting along so well, our guide took us out to a very nice Ecuadorian restaurant for dinner and we stayed up chatting until late before walking back to the hotel to rest up for our final day of riding.
