Luck and the Quilotoa Loop

Banos to Quilotoa was a relatively easy journey, although we could have been caught out early on as buses to Quito don't leave from the main bus station in Banos, but the main road outside. But we did make our bus and a couple of hours later were dumped on the side of the road in Latacunga. A short walk to the main bus station (but still with time for a stranger to run down the road after us, just to give us the business card of his hotel) and we managed to make it through all the people telling us that there were no direct buses, and on to a bus bound for Quilotoa.
We didn't have time to do the whole Quilotoa loop, as it takes at least 3 days, so we decided to come to Quilotoa to climb down the crater, before heading on to the infamous Sasquili market the day after.
Quilotoa is high up at ----m, and it's therefore FREEZING! The first thing we did was get under the many blankets on the bed, just to warm up, and the sight of a small wood burner in the corner of the room was a welcome one - we would definitely be needing that later!
After lunch we geared ourselves up, to climb down! The star attraction of Quilotoa (for me) is the huge caldera, it's bottom occupied by a lake. You can walk the circumference in about 5.5 hours or hike to the lake at the bottom and back up (or take a horse back up!). POur hostel was just opposite the main entrance to the reserve.