Welcome to Ecuador! Crossing the border from Colombia to Ecuador was, for a change from border crossings in Central America, really smooth and easy. After a few days at a cozy campsite to get used to the new country, we now head towards a crater lake – the Cuicocha lagoon.

Circumnavigation of Laguna Cuicocha

Like so many other places in the Andes, this lagoon, or rather the Cuicocha crater lake, lies at an altitude of over 3,000 meters. Despite the previous days of acclimatization, the altitude is slightly noticeable. We are curious to see what effect the altitude has on hiking.
Due to the exposed location of the crater lake and the fact that it is still the end of the rainy season, many clouds are already gathering around the crater rim after midday. So, the decision is easy for us and we start the approximately 12 km long circumnavigation of the Cuicocha crater lake early the next morning.

We can only really see the special feature of Laguna Cuicocha about a third of the way around: In the middle of the crater lake there are two twin islands that literally nestle together. Only locals are allowed on the islands, but the weather doesn’t exactly make you want to swim to the islands.
Nevertheless, the view of the islands is really beautiful – coupled with the 4-hour hike around the crater – a great experience.
We’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

And the travel adventure continues southwards, soon we will be able to cross the equator from the northern hemisphere to the southern hemisphere in our own car. But not quite yet. We’ll write more about this soon!