The crater comes into view on the last day, when your legs have already carried you up and down three river valleys and your breath is shallow in air a thousand meters thinner than what you started in. Laguna Quilotoa is what sits at the bottom of a volcano that blew itself apart about 800 years ago, and the water at the bottom of the caldera is a color that photographs refuse to capture honestly. Turquoise, but not the tropical kind. Something colder, more mineral, the color of glass. The Quilotoa Loop is the three-to-five-day hiking route that connects indigenous villages around this crater in the central Andes, and the walk is as much the point as the view at the end.
The loop is officially a mountainous road linking several high Andean villages and towns around the city of Latacunga, but the walking route that has grown up around it has become one of Ecuador's signature treks. Most hikers start in Sigchos and work their way through Isinlivi, Chugchilan, and finally up to Laguna Quilotoa before returning to Latacunga by bus. Others reverse the direction, starting at the crater and descending. Going downhill is easier; going uphill puts the crater at the climactic end. Either way, you cross the Sigui/Toachi River valley three times, climbing the valley's steep trails on every crossing, and every day of the trek. The reward is a slice of the Ecuadorian Andes that the Pan-American Highway bypasses entirely: communities that still speak Quichua as a first language, weave their own textiles, and farm the same terraced slopes their grandparents farmed.
Laguna Quilotoa sits at 3,914 meters inside a caldera about three kilometers wide. The lake itself is roughly 250 meters deep. Volcanic activity filled the crater with water after the eruption, and dissolved minerals account for the extraordinary color, which shifts with the light from pale green to deep sapphire to something nearly black when clouds roll over. A trail descends 300 meters from the rim to the shore, where kayaks and horses wait for the people who have not yet learned that climbing back out at high altitude is not the same as the descent. The rim walk, a 10-kilometer loop around the entire crater, takes four to six hours and delivers the full perimeter experience. Weather changes in minutes. Snow is possible year-round. The wind across the rim is relentless.
Quilotoa sits a thousand meters above Quito, which means that acclimatization to the capital is not enough. Altitude sickness tablets, typically acetazolamide, help for those prone to the condition, but the best preparation is time. Spend a few days in Quito, then another in Latacunga or one of the lower villages before climbing higher. Hosterias along the route offer all-inclusive packages of $10 to $20 per person per night, which means camping gear is unnecessary. Keep the backpack light. Some of the trail is acrobatic, narrow paths cut into valley walls, and more than one hiker has slipped off a cliff that looked passable from above. Signposting is inconsistent. Wayfinder signs are often missing or confusing, so an offline map application on a phone plus a printed backup is essential. Ask your hostel to trace the next day's route on your map before you set out.
Buses connect Quilotoa to Latacunga frequently, but the more memorable ride between Sigchos and Chugchilan is the milk van. It is exactly what it sounds like: a truck that collects milk from rural farms and delivers it to a processing plant in Chugchilan, with locals and the occasional traveler riding on the back. The canvas top keeps off rain but not wind. The roads twist through mountain passes where the view opens in every direction. The driver expects a small payment, and a little Spanish helps negotiate the stop near the Cloud Forest Hostel. Walking the loop also means engaging with a rural economy where some people will ask for money for a wide variety of reasons: guidance onto a path you were already on, medical expenses, the inadvertent capture of a stranger's face in your photograph. Some requests are genuine and some are not. Travelers have to make their own judgments. Children, almost universally, appreciate sweets.
Located at 0.85 degrees south, 78.90 degrees west, in the central Ecuadorian Andes in Cotopaxi province. From altitude the crater appears as a nearly circular blue-green disk surrounded by a sharp rim of exposed rock, with terraced indigenous villages scattered across the surrounding peaks. The nearest major airport is Quito's Mariscal Sucre International (SEQM), about 120 kilometers north. Cotopaxi volcano is visible to the east on clear days. Weather at altitude changes quickly, with cloud cover common in the afternoon even during dry months. June through September typically offers the best visibility for viewing the crater.