Laguna Quilotoa Off The Beaten Path

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You can do some nice walks into the surrounding hills, one to a local cheese factory but carry a walking stick and some stones as there are territorial dogs along the route that unfortunately ruin what otherwise would be a serene walking experience. You are walking on small roads but don’t expect much traffic aside from the ubiquitous political rally trucks with their tinny speakers blasting indecipherable ramblings. The trip up to the cheese factory is about three hours. The local hostels will set up horse riding trips that go there which will ensure that the factory is open. Otherwise, get a very early start as it seems they close quite early. We got up there at 1 PM and there were no signs of life. We were not too happy as we had planned on getting some cheese to flesh out our lunch of fruit and a few rolls. From there you can continue along in a loop and get back to town in about 1.5 hours though its not impossible to get on the wrong road so be sure to keep asking locals for directions. Of course, for locals it’s not entirely impossible that they take a different route than the one you might choose!

We got to try the excellent cheese at the hostal thanks to a generous fellow traveler. It's much more robust than typical Ecuadorian cheese which tends to be bland.