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Contribute Feedback What James W likes about Laguna Cuicocha:
This is pretty lake, easy to get to if you don't take the short cut. The hotel and concessions were closed. It looked fairly permanent...maybe due to Covid. No admission charged but you must check-in. There were tour boats but they were also closed down. View all feedback.
Free admission. The route is about 5 hours if you walk really slowly and rest along the way. The weather is unstable. Hot moment, very cold moment. You should bring at least 3 liters of water and food because there is no place to buy anything at the entrance. To get here you can take a $25 round trip taxi from Otavalo . Or take a bus to Cotacachi and from there a taxi for $5 one way. There is no reception in the area, so you should schedule a time with the taxi driver to return.
The hike around the Laguna is about 12km and took us 5:45 . So beautiful lots of places to stop amazing pictures
A beautiful lake in a caldera. Great 12 km hike around the rim of the lake with lots of wildflowers and great views of the lake and surrounding countryside.
Absolutely beautiful crater lake with 4 active volcanic domes (don't panic they haven't erupted in a long time) so if you want to say you have been inside an active volcano's caldera, this is an easy place to achieve that. The main volcano vent at the mountain summit (Volcan Cotacachi) is inactive. In Dec 2022 it was only a $6 taxi ride each way.
It is a very pretty lake but a long adventure to do in a day trip from Quito.
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