I fell into...

The Ring of Fire is an interesting place for a girl form land-locked Nebraska to find herself, but if there's one thing that Ecuador does well (and there's more than one) it's shifting plates and volcanoes. Two weekends ago we visited Quilotoa, a volcanic crater located several hours away from Quito.

We pulled up to the rim of the crater Saturday morning, and the view... the view of the crater is just overwhelmingly beautiful. The rim of the crater offers about a five hour hike, and it's probably another hour's hike down to the lake.

I mean.... look at it.

Ready for adventure... obvi.

My companions decided to hike part of the way around the rim and then down to the lake. You might remember an earlier post in which I described my relationship with mountains. That being said, I chose to avoid the upper part of the volcano and go down the nicely paved path to the lake.

Look at this well-maintained path.

This is me, excited to get started down the path.

Little did I know, the supposedly "well-paved" path was one the greatest lies told in my lifetime. A fraction of the way down, the path turned into a crevassed and loose sand slant. When I wasn't paralyzed by fear or sliding precariously down the incline, I was being passed by Ecuadorians who were basically RUNNING down the path as they led horses. I'm not exaggerating. A few, kind Ecuadorians took my hand and helped me down some of the scarier parts, which was really adorable and really embarrassing.

When I finally did make it to the bottom, which took much longer than it should have, there was almost a round of applause, as if the Ecuadorians were saying, "Oh look, the crazy gringa made it." When the same man wasn't following me around and incessantly asking if I wanted to take a horse up on the way back (which I did... but as I kept telling the man, I needed to wait for my friends), I was able to enjoy the beautiful view from the lake.

Eating lunch

Yes, sir, I want to ride one of your horses... geesh.

Eventually, my friends joined me, and we ate a quick lunch before climbing (or riding) out of the crater. Then we headed home, of course, not before Hugo (our trusted driver) almost ran over a herd of sheep.