Quilatoa

Up early, about 7:00, showered and had breakfast. Not in a hurry, the first bus to Quilatoa doesn't leave until 10:00am.Walked to the bus depot around 9:30 and almost had to stand on the bus, we arrived just in time to get the remaining seats. 2.5 hour bus for $2. The guy (local) sitting beside Lisa had bad armpit smell.Got to Quilatoa (elev. 3850 metres) around 12:30 and a little boy convinced Lisa to come to his parents hostal (Hostal Pacha Mama), $12 each, includes breakfast and supper. It's pretty cold here, gaining lots of altitude.We wandered around town, which is nothing more than one street and maybe 20 buildings. Lisa and Kirsty each bought a sweater from the local market, then we ate.Quilatoa is a tiny village, population 50 people. It's a tourist place because of a crater lake. Most hostals are just extra rooms the Quechan locals have in their homes. You're really staying with the locals here.We then made arrangements for horses to take Kirsty and me back up from the crater lake. $5, and so touristy, but oh well. Lisa decided to hike back up. The three of us hiked down, about a 30 minute hike, quite warm on the way down, out of the wind. Once down, we waited for our horses, then went back up. My horse was nursing a foal, Lisa figured she was not being fed enough and she was pretty slow getting me back up. I was the last out of about 12 horses to get back to the rim.We then visited a local artisans shop and bought some small paintings, then hit the local supermarket and bought some Oreos. You can find Oreos anywhere on this planet, along with Coke and Heineken.Watched a game of handball.About 5:00, back to the hostal, wrote in journal, played cards and made protest signs supporting the new elephant statue at the Calgary Zoo. ("We support all elephants!", "Keep Ganesh at our zoo!", "Equal rights for all gods!")Electricity and running water only in the evenings here. He turns it on for us to shower, but it was off all other times. We collected quite the mix of pee in our toilet. Fortunately no one had to poop.