The hook
Three days walking between Andean villages at 3,500 m, sleeping in a different family's hostel each night, and on the last morning coming over a rise to a turquoise lake sitting inside a volcano.
01Why it's worth it
The Quilotoa Loop is one of the most accessible serious walks in South America, and its appeal is that it does not require an outfitter, a permit, or a group. You start from Latacunga, leave your big bag at a hostel there, and walk village to village — commonly Sigchos to Isinliví, Isinliví to Chugchilán, Chugchilán to Quilotoa — with a small pack, buying dinner and breakfast where you sleep. The route is well enough travelled that hand-drawn maps circulate between hostels and the path is largely obvious.
What you walk through is ordinary working country rather than a park: canyon edges, eucalyptus, potato and barley plots on absurd gradients, and villages where the trail is the road. The Tigua valley here gave its name to a school of bright naïve painting done on stretched sheepskin, still sold in the villages.
The end is the payoff. Quilotoa is a caldera roughly three kilometres across holding a lake whose colour runs from jade to deep blue depending on the light and the minerals in it. You arrive at the rim, and the ground simply falls away. You can walk down to the water in half an hour and take a good deal longer coming back up, because the rim sits near 3,900 m.
On altitude, plainly. This is high from the first step, and people underestimate it because the walking itself is not technical. Spend a couple of nights in Quito or Latacunga first. The cold at night is real too — village hostels run on wood stoves and blankets.
02How to experience it
Three days is the standard, four if you want a rest day in Chugchilán. Book nothing but the first night. Carry cash, water and a warm layer; buy snacks in the villages. Walk the loop ending at Quilotoa so the crater is the finish rather than the start, then take the bus back to Latacunga from the rim.
From the locals
The recommendation on r/solotravel is unfussy and functionally complete, which is why it is quoted at length: "I'd highly recommend doing the Quilotoa Loop — it's a pretty easy 3 day hike through some really pretty scenery, and you top it off with getting to the Quilotoa crater lake on the last day. You start in Latacunga and walk to 2 villages where you stay overnight in some accommodation (there's hostels there) and get some food to get you through the next day. And when you reach Quilotoa you can just take a bus back to Latacunga."
The line that matters most for anyone weighing a guided trek elsewhere in the Andes is the last one: "you can find descriptions of the route online, so you don't need a guide."