This morning we had to finally face the task of finding our way out of Quito to the south. This was always going to be somewhat of a challenge as the city is hemmed in on the east and west by mountains and hence it stretches south/north a long way. The challenge was increased by the fact that we only had a tourist map of the city and a map of the country. Nothing that showed the outer parts of the city in detail. It was around 8:30 by the time we got underway and over the course of the next hour we tried in turn each of the four main north-south trolley bus routes, starting with the eastern most and working our way to the west. Why did we do that? Not by choice. We either came to a police blockage to south bound traffic - to give north bound vehicles more lanes, or simply took the wrong turn. But in time the western route got us to the southern boundary of the city and back onto the PanAmericana. We must be becoming seasoned travelers as all of this was done without arguments or angst between driver and navigator.

The next challenge was to find the turn off to the town of Saquisili, renowned for its Thursday market and also part of the Quilotoa Loop. Again without good maps we had to rely on a degree of guess work, detective work, and the old strategy of follow the buses or pickup trucks full of people because on a market day everything is either going to or from the market. This worked and about 11:00 am we arrived in Saquisili. It would not be accurate to say the town had a market, but rather the town was a market. We visited as least three large squares that were full of vendors and many of the connecting streets were also crowded with vendors of one sort or another selling their wares. Moreover this was definitely not a tourist market, one could tell that at a glance by the merchandize. Tourists rarely want to buy second hand shoes, used car parts or tools, new beds and mattresses, 2 ft diameter bowls made out of used truck tires, or live guinea pigs for the nights dinner.

From Saquisili we headed back to the PanAmericana and onto Latacunga looking for the turn off to Pujili our entry point to the Quilotoa Loop. Well it took a couple of tries but we found the turn and started the road to Zumbahua, where we would turn north to the lake. To say this drive was stunning would be a vast understatement. Immediately out of Latacunga the road climbed from 9000' to 13000' all the while affording great views of Latacunga below in the valley and Volcan Cotapaxi (the second highest mountain in Ecuador and a perfectly cone shaped volcano) to the north east, though with cloud shrouding most of the snow capped summit. From the top of the climb the road meandered across the plateau west for many kilometers amongst cultivated fields, herds of sheep with their traditionally dressed Indian shepherds. Along the way the road made two spectacular descents, the first into the valley of and across the Tigua River, then back up to 13,000' before descending again into the village of Zumbahau. From the village a poor quality sealed road traveled 14kms to the parking lot of Laguna Quilotoa at 12,745'. It is a forlorn place, even in the afternoon sunshine it was cold and windy - though later we would get a taste of the strongest winds we have felt on the trip.

From the parking lot one cannot see the lake. To get a view requires walking 50 yards up to the lip of the crater - did I forget to mention that Quilotoa is a crater lake - or walking 100 yds down a narrow defile that leads to a path that descends down to the lake shore. We did not venture the walk/climb down to the lake.

At the parking lot there are a number of souvenir stalls and a number of hostals - as they are called here. Immediately we got out of the vehicle we were approached by a number of hostal owners offering us rooms for the night. In the end we paid $2 for parking and use of toilets (toilets that did not work). Later in the evening we had a drink in the hostal and chatted to a New Zealand couple traveling the world.