laguna de quilotoa | A moment of bliss

When: year-end 2015
Where: Ecuador

A 2015 year-end sudden trip to Ecuador....Apart from Galapagos another bucket list item was the Avenue of the Volcanos; given the time I had, I decided to go for the 'avenida de los volcanes' (Ecuador doesn’t require a visa for Indian passport, hence made it easier).

On day 3 of my trip, i visited the Quilotola Lake (or Laguna de Quiltola) in the Cotopaxi region. It was an old volcano crater which got blasted into a caldera via a volcanic explosion and essentially the crater hole became the lake. From the lip of the crater it is a pretty steep hike down to the lake (vertical drop 300 m) which can be done either on foot or on horseback…I chose to go down on foot along with a travel friend and took almost 1 hr to get to the lake…

As I stood at the top itself the Quilotola lake vista was as stunning as it could get…in the middle of the Volcanic Andes, the blue-green volcanic walls of the crater and the emerald green water shimmering within it! We couldn’t wait to get down and hence when we reached the crater lake after the steep hike we couldn’t wait to get into the water. The water was too cold to swim and hence I chose the kayak way…

And there while I paddled away to the middle of the lake Quilotola - it struck me…I was experiencing one of those what I call 'A Moment of Bliss'…that moment when time stands still in suspended animation, the surrounding ceases to exist and when you seem to touch a moment of Nirvana within yourself.

There while just floating at the center…I paused to take a shot of the view right upfront over my outstretched legs in the kayak; I looked around, I thought back to the full year I had…moments of joy, sadness, anger…that is where I tried to forget the bad memories, relive the good ones, was thankful for all that I had in terms of family, friends and blessings and all that I am able to do….and let the rippling waters carry me gently towards the new year of our lives!

A wonderful destination - Ecuador. If you ever get a chance, do visit.

i owe at least another visit to this wonderful country of wonderful people that i have met to experience the  Galapagos...inshallah sometime soon.

That's my treasured Panama, bought from it's country of origin - Ecuador!

I did end up taking a horse ride back to the top...was too exhausted

The entire volcano caldera- now a lake

(some parts of this piece i had written for an India-based traveler-group blog, modifying it into a blog piece for my page)