Latacunga Travel and Tourism Guide

¡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...