Quilotoa Tour from Quito to Volcanic Crater Lake
This quilotoa tour from quito takes you 180 km south through the Avenue of the Volcanoes to the turquoise crater lake of Quilotoa, a volcanic caldera formed 800 years ago at 3,914 meters elevation. Quilotoa Lagoon tours combine high-altitude hiking with indigenous Andean villages, offering photo stops at the rim viewpoint and an optional descent to the lakeshore. Most quilotoa tour from quito tickets include round-trip transport, bilingual guide, and time to explore the rim trail or kayak the mineral-rich waters.
Quilotoa Lagoon fills a volcanic caldera formed roughly 800 years ago when a catastrophic eruption emptied the magma chamber of what geologists call the Quilotoa volcano, part of the Western Cordillera of the Ecuadorian Andes.
The collapse left a near-circular crater three kilometers wide and 250 meters deep, which over centuries filled with mineral-rich water that refracts light into the turquoise and jade tones visible today. Indigenous Kichwa communities have inhabited the rim villages—Quilotoa, Chugchilán, Sigchos—for generations, farming quinoa and potatoes on steep terraced slopes and herding llamas along footpaths that predate the Inca road network.
The crater lake sits at 3,914 meters above sea level in Cotopaxi Province, roughly 100 kilometers southwest of Quito via the Panamericana and unpaved highland roads. Mineral salts dissolved from volcanic bedrock give the water its characteristic color, which shifts with cloud cover and sun angle throughout the day. No fish inhabit the alkaline lake, and the water temperature hovers near 11 degrees Celsius year-round. The rim trail, a five-kilometer loop starting and ending at the village overlook, traces the caldera edge past fumaroles and ancient lava flows, offering sight lines across the páramo grasslands to Cotopaxi and Iliniza volcanoes on clear mornings.
A steep zigzag trail descends 280 meters from the rim to the lakeshore, a descent that takes thirty minutes and a return climb of sixty to ninety minutes depending on acclimatization to altitude. Mule service operates on the ascent for visitors who struggle with the elevation. The community entry fee, mandatory since 2019, funds maintenance of trails, restrooms, and a small visitor center displaying Kichwa textiles and pottery. Weekend artisan markets in the village plaza sell wool blankets, alpaca sweaters, and painted wooden masks, with prices negotiated in Spanish or Kichwa. The access road from Latacunga, paved only in the last decade, winds through páramo ecosystems where Andean condors and caracaras soar above endemic shrubs and wildflowers that bloom between November and March.
10 hr
