Quilatoa!

I spent the weekend in Quilatoa - the place that I moved here to come back to!  not to exaggerate or anything.  but it was gorgeous as expected and I can't wait to get back there.

Apparently "Quilatoa" is Kichwa (or Quechua?  - I can't remember which..) for "tooth of the princess" because when it was a volcano it looked like it had 3 "teeth."

There are a lot of legends about the formation of the volano and the crater.  One has to do with a god under the earth and another above who were always fighting, and that is when the volcano erupts.

Edisson hiking back out of the crater.  We were the only people hiking out of there not on a donkey!  It's still an active volcano - we found a spot where you can feel hot water bubbling up and see some minerals from the volcanic activity below.

 The lake looks different every minute!  Gorgeous...

 This flower is called Chukirawa - it is supposed to be a flower of hikers ( I think the name translates to something like that in some language...)

To steal a word from Kristan, I am "bajaring" down the crater lake here..

On the bus to Latacunga, we passed by Cotopaxi - the tallest active volcano in the world.  I have dreams of climbing it............

Pichincha

Here are some photos from the beginning of our hike up Pichincha, a volcano on the edge of the city.  It was incredibly cloudy..  but gorgeous!