The Sigchos bus ride
Patrick and I discovered that the main way of getting out of the village of Chugchilán, is by catching a bus that heads for Latacunga — via the very poor road that goes through the village of Sigchos — and that leaves Chugchilán at 3am! We weren't too happy about it, but we had few other options — and it meant that we'd be back in Baños nice and early, without losing the day — so we took the graveyard-shift bus this morning. Not a fun ride at all: but hey, now we've done the full circuit of the Quilotoa Loop; and now we're back in Baños, in time to party all weekend long!
We dragged ourselves out of bed, and out of the Cloud Forest Hostel, at about 2:30am — having already checked out, paid, and received some take-away breakfast last night — and waited for the bus to leave, in the freezing cold of the so-early-its-still-last-night morning. The bus driver (who'd been sleeping all night in his bus) finally woke up (with some help from us), opened the door, let us on, and began the drive.
It seems that whichever way you go, the roads on the Quilotoa Loop are bad. The road via Sigchos is no exception. Unpaved most of the way, and really winding. And the bus didn't help one little bit: freezing cold, and uncomfortable seats. However, I was so dead tired, and it was to dark, that I still (miraculously) managed to get a fair amount of sleep on this ride.
We made it into Latacunga at around 6:30am, where we proceeded to hunt for a second bus, to take us straight on to Baños. We discovered that all the buses in the Latacunga terminal only go as far as Ambato. However, the conductors on these buses didn't seem to care about that. Ecuadorians really can be pr$#ks sometimes: they do not give a rat's about where you're going, they just want you on their bus. You ask the conductor "are you going to Baños?", and he hurriedly says "yes, yes — quick, get on, fast!"; then when you get on, and ask the same question to the driver, he says: "oh no, only to Ambato".
After working out the situation at the terminal, we walked down the street for a few blocks, until we found a bus that was going straight to Baños, en route from Quito (the same bus that we took to get here from Baños on Thursday, only the reverse), and that picked us up when we flagged it. Standing room only for the first hour — but at least it was warm, and it was comfortable too, when we got seats — and it got us to Baños by 9am, in time to have a reunion with our beloved Patty, and to grab a bite of overdue breakfast.