Recap....Highlight Two

Highlight Two

After Cotopaxi, we crossed over from one side of the Andes to the other. The views as we drove along the most zig zag road I have been on....this made some of the Alpine crossings we have been on seem like kindergarten stuff.....were incredible. The last photo in the gallery of Cotopaxi was in fact taken on this drive. It took nearly five hours to reach our destination. At times we were convinced our driver, Enrique, had gone the wrong way. Fortunately, he was right, we were wrong! Our destination.....the Black Sheep Inn...a good hike from the Quilatoa Crater. A volcano that many years ago blew its top off...and is now a lake. One of the "must see" sights...in fact rather underwhelming.

We were staying at the Black Sheep Inn at my insistence. I had read all about it online. Well as we approached, the rest of the Noyes family, tired from what had been a long day...riding in the morning...then this long drive....was questioning Dad`s judgement. The Inn is vegetarian and is a proper Eco-lodge. In other words they have genuine compost loos, solar heating etc. The combination of vegetarian and compost loos was causing the most anxiety. We were met by Michelle, one of the North American owners, who was very welcoming and equally clear on the "green nature" of our stay. Well as only true Brits can, the scepticism level went up a notch, to reach maximum levels as the dinner menu was read.......Broccoli soup followed by Shepherds Pie.......Nut and Lentil Shepherds Pie.

By calling this Highlight Two, I have of course given the game away. We had a lovely three nights here, with Robert announcing as we left, that he wanted to stay longer! The Inn is situated on the hillside, with great views (see below). The food was excellent of course. The company of fellow travellers and our hosts (Michelle and Andres) was just that...good company. We discovered disc or frisbee golf (This game is made for Wales and especially Hendre Henydd). Generally it was just a great few days.

We hiked one day with a Belgian school teacher, Martine, who regularly includes as part of her holiday, volunteering with local charities. She had some very interesting tales to tell. Staying at the Inn were an English Dad, Simon and his 16 year old son Adam. They were from Doncaster and this trip was Adam`s reward for studying so hard for his GCSE`s. They were good company and not surprisingly Robert and Adam got on well and had some good games of Frisbee golf. They also encouraged us all to have a go on the "Death Slide"!

We also travelled in the back of a cattle truck to get to the Quilatoa lake, to which we all "yomped" down and up...about a 500m climb!!! This was despite it being very hot. We were offered a mule ride back up!! This we forcefully declined. And after Robert had been man or mad enough to swim in what was a surprisingly cold lake, we climbed back up. It was good to say we had done it, though in truth the lake itself was a disappointment. A lowlight in fact. But not the Black Sheep Inn...this was definitely a highlight and as we drove away, apologies were formally offered to Dad and scepticism put away for another day!