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Latacunga, a small city between a huge lagoon and a massive volcano

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The centre of Ecuador is full of lagoons and volcanoes. If you stay to Latacunga you can easily reach the fantastic Quilotoa lagoon. It's inside of an inactive volcano erupted hundreds of year ago. The colour is amazing. You can go around the crater for a walk of about 4hours or go down to the lagoon which takes 3hours in total. Don't forget you are at about 4000mt above the sea level. From Latacunga it's possible also to reach the second highest volcano of Ecuador, the Cotopaxi. The park is huge, and it's not possible to enter walking. You can book a tour right outside the park or, as I did, hitchhik. On the way to the volcano there's a lagoon too. Cars will take you to about 4500mt,  then you need to walk to the refuge. You will reach the 5100mt. After this point, it starts to be icy so a specific equipment is highly recommended, if you want to reach the 6000mt.

El Altar, Chimborazo and the indigenous protest

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Riobamba is a strategic point for the most challenging trekking you have in Ecuador. El Altar in fact is just half an hour from there. It was my first solo trekking so I was very nervous. I guess I took with me food for 5 days, although I supposed to stay just 2 nights. But I was so excited to go that I corrupted a taxi driver in order to take me to the Hacienda Releche, the starting point of the trekking. At that time all the streets were already blocked for a national protest. We had to leave my place at 5am, hoping noone was around at that time. And so it was. The trek is very demanding. The first 3hours it's all about trying to stay on. A lot of mud and very slippery. On top of that, the refuge wasn't available so I had to camp. All alone for 2 nights. Started walking at 9am, arrived at 4pm, tent on, some food, a beer and some sleep. The 2nd day I could have seen the laguna Amarilla and leave but I decided to stay there for one more day. It doesn't really happen oft