Latacunga

Latacunga sits at 2,750 metres beneath Cotopaxi and has been destroyed by the volcano repeatedly, which is why it is rebuilt in dark grey pumice stone quarried nearby, giving the arcaded plazas and churches a sombre uniformity unlike other highland towns. It is the practical base for two things: the Quilotoa loop, the circuit of villages and markets on the western cordillera, and access to Cotopaxi National Park to the north. Its own event is the Mama Negra, a festival held twice a year in which a man in blackface rides as the central figure among devils, camel-drivers and dancers, a syncretic procession combining indigenous, African and Catholic elements whose imagery visitors find striking and sometimes uncomfortable.

What you actually see

• Grey pumice-stone arcades - the town rebuilt in volcanic rock.
• The Mama Negra festival - the syncretic procession twice a year.
• The Quilotoa loop base - buses out to the western villages.
• Cotopaxi above the town - the volcano that has flattened it repeatedly.

When to go

Year round; the Mama Negra falls in September and November. Half a day in the town. Saturday market days bring the surrounding villages in.

Honest expectations

The town is workaday and grey and few stay longer than a night. The Mama Negra uses blackface, which many foreign visitors find uncomfortable, and its origins are contested locally too. Cotopaxi is often in cloud.

Nearby

Cotopaxi park is north; Saquisili and the Quilotoa loop lie west.