How to do the Quilotoa loop without a guide

The Quilotoa loop is a hiking route starting at either the town of Quilotoa or Sigchos. If you start from Quilotoa you will be descending at altitude, if you start from Sigchos you will be ascending.

I left my bags at hostal Tiana in Latacunga and then caught a bus to Zumbahua followed by a collectivo four wheel drive to Quilotoa.

You can get paper maps along the route but I would highly recommend downloading the app maps for me, and then downloading a trail map from wikiloc.

Quilotoa - Chugchilan (Recommended time 4 - 6 hours, it took me 6 hours)

Accommodation in Quilotoa: Quilotoa Cabanas. They asked $25 a night but we bargained down to $20 including food. The rooms were good but the food was pretty average and served much later than we agreed. There is limited accommodation options in Quilotoa, I would recommend staying at Quilotoa Cabanas but do not get food included, either order of the a la carte menu or eat at a different restaurant.

From Quilotoa Cabanas you walk towards the crater lake and to the left of the mirador you will see a sign indicating Chugchilan. The first couple of hours you will trace around the crater lake, you need to keep an eye out for red or yellow spray painted arrows that indicate the correct route. Eventually you will reach a corner of the lake with a little bench and what looks like a shop, to the left of this is a sign indicating Chugchilan.
You follow this all the way down to the town of Guayam, be warned there is nowhere to get lunch here so ensure you take enough snacks. Walk through the town and turn left at the sign to Chugchilan, this will lead you down a path through some forest until you eventually get to another sign saying Chugchilan where you will have to begin descending a canyon. It gets a little tricky in parts here but the path is easy to follow. Eventually you reach the bottom of the canyon and have to cross a sketchy looking bridge and climb to the top. Once you reach the road you need to keep an eye on the map as there is a very easy to miss continuation of the walking path, if you miss it you will have to take the road which is longer. Eventually you rejoin with the road and you follow the map to find Chugchilan.

Chugchilan - Isinlivi (Recommended time 4 - 6 hours, it took me 6.5)

Accommodation Chugchilan: Cloud forest for $15 per night including food. Really good value and very comfortable beds with fires inside the room.

To start the walk to Isinlivi you turn left from the hostel and walk along a road before descending in to the valley. I missed the first turn off so had to take another turn further down the road, keep an eye on the GPS to see where you need start descending in to the valley. Once you have descended the valley you will come across a small village, you will need to find another trail to descend to the river bank where you will follow the river for about half an hour before starting your ascent. This part of the walk is quite difficult in parts but eventually you come out to the town of Isinlivi.

Isinlivi - Sigchos (Recommended time 2 - 3 hours, it took me 4)

Accommodation Isinlivi: Llullu Llama, easily the best accommodation I stayed at in Ecuador and a steal at only $18 a night including food.

From Llullu Llama you follow the map to the road leading to Sigchos. You will walk along the road for about 25 minutes before you see a small rock with a red arrow pointing to the path descending the mountain to the valley. Eventually you will come to a small village which you will need to go through to descend to the river. Crossing the river is where I got lost so make sure you keep an eye on the GPS and keep an eye out for the painted rocks. In general you should never go further than ten minutes without seeing a yellow or red marker on the whole trail. After walking along the river you have to cross two mountains until you eventually pull into the town of Sigchos where you can catch the bus back to Latacunga. Check with Llullu Llama about bus times.

I am a lady and did this hike with another lady without any local guide and felt very safe.

Wonderful. Thank you. I was there during the pre-smartphone age and got lost trying to find the path out of the crater without a map, but this is great info for a possible return trip someday.

You're welcome! I put this together because there wasn't a lot of information online when I was researching how to do it so I thought I would put one together myself. I wouldn't have gotten lost alot more often without my online maps! It's definitely worth a return trip :)

Thank You so much for the write-up. I am planning to go there at the end of the month and I think will follow your route. So if I understand it right, you took 3 days to complete it, walking about 6 hours a day.

Thanks again.

Heya, yes it took three days and the times are listed next to each day as to how long it took :)

thanks for the post.

did you happen to see or hear about any additional hikes in the chugchilan or isinlivi areas?

Thank You very much.

There are numerous day hikes in the Chugchilan area. We did two from Black Sheep Inn (very wonderful place, but more expensive than Cloud Forest, does include all three meals though) . One up on the ridge above the town. Another through a canyon and up onto a great plateau.

Chugchilan hikes: the one up to the plateau leaves from what I think of as the "bottom" end of the town, that is, on the way out of town if you were going to Sigchos. The "top" end being where you arrive from Quilotoa.

If you stay at Llullu Llama at Isinlivi they have a whole book on day hikes you can do around the area, however I didnt do any of them. I would highly recommend basing yourself at Llullu Llama and undertaking some day hikes from there, I believe they also have tours to local communities. Get in contract with Llullu Llama directly for more information.

This is excellent information. I will almost certainly use it if we get to Ecuador with enough time left on the trip to trek around the Quilotoa loop. It's high on my list, but we have limited time, and Ecuador is the final stage, so might get moved to a future trip. But great info all the same!

Oh, and for further info, I use AlpineQuest on my mobile phone, and find it absolutely fantastic as a cheap GPS app. Obviously not comparable to a separate dedicated GPS, but can download maps in advance, load a vast range of tracklogs, and it graphs some fun statistics such as average speed (and more useful: altitude) over time. I used the free version first, but the paid version is worth it. To make your phone last almost as long as a dedicated GPS, download the maps in advance, and then switch off all antennas (except GPS, of course. Airplane mode works well for this, and then switch GPS on again manually). Dim the screen so you can just see enough to undim it in bright sunlight. So far I have gone 4 days with my phone as a GPS (although I did switch it off for some stretches). Under intensive screen use, in horrid misty conditions in rocky terrain with no clear trail, I have gone 2 days. Under "normal" city use, my battery lasts less than 24 hours.

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