Latacunga Travel Blogs | Travelogues | Travel Journals

¡Latacunga Latacunga! This is what the guy who hangs off the bus yells as we take off from Quito. We pick up a bunch of people along the 2 hour ride, along with the many people who come on the bus for a couple minutes to try to sell ice cream and fresh potato chips.  Pretty crazy place. So, Phil´s friend John has been living in Lata for the last two years basically teaching English, and it was really great to meet up with him. He showed us around, and cooked us an amazing vegetarian ...

After a couple of rain lashed days back in Quito, we´ve shifted South to the town of Latacunga. This place is a decent base to get out to a few different places in the central highlands. (One tip though - try not to arrive on a Sunday, very little is open. Having said that we did manage to find a place to serve us the local cuisine, I forget the Spanish name but it´s basically pig, corn, pig, cheese pasty thingies and more pig).  We didn´t think we ...

Two hours south of Quito by bus is Latacunga. Not a very charming town in any regard but a convenient one for visiting nearby Cotopaxi Volcano, the highest active volcano in the world. On a clear day the volcano towers over the city to its south. But the clear days are not so common. So with some reluctance I walked to the tour place in the rain and signed up for a tour to go see the volcano the next day. When I asked the guy at the tour place if it was going to be clear tomorrow he repl...

Time to leave the jungle and start the journey south.  However rather than heading back the way we came, Dave and I decided to try and complete the loop by staying overnight in Esmeraldes on the NW coast before getting back to Quito. David kindly offered to give us a lift back to Borbon to catch a bus to Esmeraldes saving us a few hours, but in return for his favour, the road to Borborn was so bad that the suspension gave way on his 4 wheel drive hire car en route.  We co...

Caught my first bus today!  $1.50 for a 1.5hr journey ... bargain!!  At every stop vendors would get on to try & sell this, that & the other!  We found a nice hostel (Hotel Rosim) where I think we were the only guests!  We set off for some lunch (in the rain!!) & the place was like a ghost town!  Im not sure if it was because it was siesta time or Sunday.  We came across a very friendly place to eat, where Dave & Andy got to practice their Spa...

South America

Our original plan was to go to Cuenca but when we found out that it was an 8 hour or more busride we changed our minds and decided to go to Baños after all. In the taxi on the way to the bus terminal the taxi driver told us that the direct buses to Baños don't stop there but that we needed to go the Panamerica Desvio instead and catch a bus there. I wasn't quite sure how we were going to flag down the right bus but when we got there we saw that there actually was a proper bus stop and all t...

One last painful morning of sorting out logisitics for the Galapagos tour. After checkout it was in to a cab to the new town and a bit more running around.  First a pointless 1 km walk (I'm told) that was about a 2.5 km walk to the LAN office that was shut :( So a cab to the real office where I skillfully used my knowledge of Spanish (i.e. I knew some numbers and dates and could point) to try to adjust my flights so that I departed Guayaquil straight after coming back from the islands. I...