Black Sheep Inn, Ecuador - An Eco-Lodge Best for Backpackers
Written: Dec 27 '05 (Updated Dec 28 '05)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Very cheap, eco-lodge, many activities, very scenic, meals included
Cons: A little too rustic/geared towards backpackers, too isolated, several issues
The Bottom Line: Although we were very excited about visiting the Black Sheep Inn, we realized it wasn't for us - this place is pretty rustic and geared mostly towards backpackers.
|
|
|
| Javelina's Full Review: Black Sheep Inn, Chugchilan, Cotopaxi, Ecuador |
In planning a trip through Ecuador, my husband and I did lots of searching on the Internet. One of the places that kept popping up was the Black Sheep Inn. It is an ecologically friendly hotel with very low room rates, so it was only natural that we decided to book some nights there. This Inn has gotten some press – Outside Magazine rates this as one of the world’s 10 best eco-lodges.
“The Black Sheep Inn is an inexpensive ecologically friendly hotel high in the Andes Mountains of Ecuador. The Black Sheep Inn is an inexpensive ecologically friendly hotel high in the Andes Mountains of Ecuador. ”
Getting There
From Quito, the second largest city in Ecuador, we got transportation to Hacienda San Agustin de Callo (quite wonderful, I might add) near Cotopaxi Volcano (south of Quito). There is no “straight line” from Quito to the Black Sheep Inn – you either make a loop to the left, or to the right. Cotopaxi was to the left of Quito, so we headed up through Latacunga, taking time to stop at the Latacunga market. There are about 3.5 hours of driving from the Cotopaxi Volcano area to the Black Sheep Inn (since we had already come 1.5 hours to Cotopaxi). The roads twist and wind around mountains. They are all dirt, and very bumpy.
We stopped along the way at Laguna Quilotoa, a large volcano with a caldera that is filled with bright greenish-blue water. After two days of altitude sickness, we had no intention of doing any major hiking, including to the bottom of the caldera.
We passed through “downtown” Chugchilan, the town in which the Inn is located. It is a tiny little town, not consisting of much other than some local shops, school, and a phone booth. We headed up the road to the driveway of the Black Sheep Inn, which warns that it should only be attempted by 4x4’s.
The Black Sheep Inn is approximately 5 hours from Quito, which is especially why we wanted to do some excursions along the way.
Black Sheep Inn
The Inn consists of a main lodge and then the rooms. The lodge is a nice building, where dinner is served, and there are several resources such as snacks, drinks, books, etc. There is a bulletin board where travelers can share their information or find information on things to do in Ecuador.
We were greeted by Andres, who owns the Inn with his wife, Michelle. The couple are backpackers turned lovers of Ecuador, eventually starting the inn about 10 years ago.
What makes this an ecological hotel are its many environmentally friendly aspects. There are the basics, such as the simple concept of “reduce, reuse, recycle”. One of the bigger projects at the Black Sheep Inn are the composting toilets. There are several of these located on the premises, with the two main ones being at the lodge and another up by the room we stayed in. They also practice permaculture (a very sustainable farming practice) and organic gardening. In fact, they grow foods to serve to guests. Another basic practice is conservation of energy and water.
The Black Sheep Inn sits on many acres of land. There are the main buildings, but also areas with animals, farming areas, and so on. The name of the place actually does refer to several black sheep that they own (all of which are very cute – just avoid the one with the biggest horns!). There are also llamas and other animals, which we had fun "visiting".
Our Room
Room rates are very cheap. We paid $30 a night!
To get to your room, there is a small hike from the lodge. The path is a flight of stairs that runs up the side of a mountain. Coupled with altitude sickness, it was a pretty horrible “climb” to our rooms. There is a switch at the top and bottom of the stairs to turn on some little lights along the path for when it is dark out. I would not recommend the “small hike” to anyone who is older or who has health/physical issues.
The bathrooms and shower are in a separate building from the rooms. They consist of a shower and a composting toilet. To conserve water, you are supposed to take the quickest shower possible. The toilet is “eco-friendly”, so after going to the bathroom, you are supposed to scoop wood shavings into the toilet. To wash your hands, they have special eco-friendly soap, and the water from the sink drains into an indoor garden.
The bathrooms were alright except for sharing them with other people and trying to take a really fast shower when the air temperature ranges from maybe 30-60 degrees F when we were there.
Our room was in a building consisting of a row of rooms. Fortunately, our room was on the end (to minimize noise). The room was small, and had a loft with a mattress on it. We had a bed, wood stove, small desk, and a chair. The view from the room was gorgeous, looking out over the valleys and mountains.
Meals & Food
Meals are included in your stay at the Black Sheep Inn. You get breakfast, lunch, dinner, and unlimited tea and water.
The dinners were pretty good. The first night, there was a Mexican themed meal, so we had a plate with rice, beans, etc. The second night, we had some sort of eggplant dish – both very good, and served with salad. Lunch was simple (we had bag lunches) and consisted of plain sandwiches (cheese and lettuce on bread), fruit, a cookie, and a carrot.
Breakfast consisted of muesli, milk, a toasted hamburger bun (in lieu of a muffin), and fruit juice. The juices were great, but the other food wasn’t so good. The stale, toasted hamburger bun passed off as an English muffin was pretty awful. The muesli was ok but a little powdery and very sugary. The fresh fruit juice was good, and they also served fruit on the muesli, but it was just too much and too much of not very good. They didn’t really ask what we wanted, and we don’t generally eat breakfast, so we force fed ourselves a lot of food so that we didn’t waste it. Not the best dining experience.
Contrary to the meals served, they offer other foods and snacks that you can buy. For example, banana nut bread is $2 a piece – very good. A brownie is $1 or so – very good. You can buy a glass of soda for $1. There is a whole list of things you can put on your tab to pay at the end, from alcohol to mugs to food to shirts. You have a little “tab” sheet that you get when you check in, which keeps track of how what you buy.
Activities
When we booked our stay at the Black Sheep Inn, we had our days jam-packed with activities. I wanted to focus on Laguna Quilotoa and visiting the local cheese factory. They have tons of activities outlined on the Black Sheep’s website.
It turned out that on our way to the Black Sheep in was Laguna Quilotoa. We had our guide stop, and we stayed at the rim for a little bit, taking pictures. After hiking parts of Cotopaxi and having altitude sickness, we were no longer interested in hiking to the lagoon – which meant we were already crossing our top activity off our list.
At dinner our first night, Andres comes around as dinner is wrapping up, and does a briefing for the next day to get an idea of what everyone is doing. We wanted to go on their horse trek to the cheese factory and cloud forest, and so did two other people, so it was set. It was nice to have them coordinate those events for us. Everyone else was doing backpacking, which seemed to be the case for both days we were there. Most of the visitors were hard core backpackers, but the thought of spending my vacation backpacking on some pretty tough terrain just was not appealing.
The horse trekking was wonderful. After breakfast, Andres let us know that Humberto was ready for us at the bottom of the driveway. Sure enough, we walked down and there were our guide waiting with our horses. Most people who were there just wanted to go on hikes. So although we originally created a schedule jam-packed with activities, things like the Laguna were crossed off our list of to-dos, just by stopping at it on our way in. We decided to move on, see new parts of Ecuador (and instead went to Bellavista Cloud Forest).
Issues
I had really good feelings about the Black Sheep Inn, but after arriving, it wasn’t long before I started feeling rather unhappy about the place.
For starters, I was disappointed in our room for several reasons. For the most part, it was clean and neat, but I had issues far aside from that. One was the curtains. We had two windows, and the curtains were not wide enough to cover the whole window. We did everything we could to at least stretch the curtains for maximum coverage, but that still wasn’t much. With several neighboring guests in close proximity constantly walking back and forth to the bathrooms and the lodge - so much for privacy! Not only did the curtains not cover the windows, the door had a gap around it, letting cold air and bugs into our room.
As we were getting ready for bed, I found a stain on the sheets. It was white and looked disgusting (I won’t speculate, because I don’t really want to think about it). Of course, it was near 11pm so I wasn’t about to find the owners to get a new sheet. The next day, we asked if we could get a new sheet because of the stain, and Michelle didn’t have anything to say except “we can change out your sheets if you want”. No apology, no nothing. I think the sheets had been hand-washed in their hand-washing system, and I don’t think their system is very good. I don’t really care what the reason was, but that was a really awful experience. When you run a business, the least you could do is say you are sorry, especially when it is your fault. (Did no one see a white stain on a navy sheet as they were making our bed?)
The thing that makes my blood boil the most is the attitude they had at the Black Sheep Inn. When we booked our stay there, we visited their website and found they were in need of donations. I was able to get an older laptop from work to donate (still in wonderful working condition, only about 3 years old). I was excited, despite having to drag almost 10 pounds of laptop (with case, mouse, etc.) to Guayaquil, the Galapagos, Quito, Cotopaxi, and all the other places we visited, before going to Chugchilan. I was excited to present the laptop to Andres, but when we did, he didn’t seem enthusiastic. While he was turning it on, he was talking with my husband, who mentioned a program that exists to provide low-cost computers to those in need. Andres basically went off about how “people think they need to force computers on third world countries”, on and on. He proceeded to tell us about how they basically don’t even need them at the Black Sheep Inn because they don’t go to much use. He said that they have donated them further outwards in the community, but that they end up pretty much useless (such as the police station using a really antiquated computer).
What makes me mad is that they constantly ask for these computers. For example, on their website: http://blacksheepinn.com/Contact.htm#Community%20Aid. Then, every single time I went to use the bathroom, the shower, or the sinks, or visited the lodge, there would be a sign posted, asking for donations such as computers. We went to so much trouble to donate, for what? I lugged this laptop all over Ecuador, left things at home I needed, to be treated like it was nothing. Andres did say thank you after he looked at the computer, but the negativity had shrouded the whole experience.
My impression of the owners was not going well at this point. Even if you aren’t particularly thankful for something, it is a really rudimentary concept to say “thank you” and act like you mean it.
My husband and I noticed Michele snapping at people as well – we watched as she chastised Andres over something while we were sitting in the lodge.
So we decided we had enough of the Black Sheep Inn and decided to stay two nights instead of four. As we are getting ready to leave, Andres talks about settling the room bill. My husband and I look at each other – hadn’t we already sent in our payment? Andres comes back and says that he sees we already paid, so we’re set (even though we have a “tab”). Nothing about their policy to refund us or not for the two extra nights we’ve paid. I mean, no giant deal over $60, but we did donate a computer, and he wouldn’t want to throw us a free $5 mug or shirt?
Not everything was a disaster – Andres did help us with making a phone call in Spanish – they seemed to have their act together running the hotel – but the things that did happen seemed to unravel the experience pretty fast.
I’m used to businesses trying to make a good impression on their customers, and you would think, especially for a place like this that practically on the map, they would want to promote word-of-mouth.
Overall
We were really excited to go to the Black Sheep Inn, but after the “white stain on navy sheet” incident, I pretty much wanted nothing to do with the place. Every time I went to the bathroom (or just about anywhere) and saw the signs asking for computers, I could feel my blood pressure rising. I think the concept of the Inn is great – sort of a glorified hostel at a great price (considering the free food). I love the eco-friendly and environmental conservation askpects of the Black Sheep Inn.
I would recommend this place to hard core backpackers, but that’s probably about it. This isn’t really the place to relax, and although the surroundings are gorgeous, I saw way more scenic places in my travels in Ecuador, so I can’t recommend it for any kind of ambiance or retreat, other than it being very quiet and peaceful. It is pretty isolated, so after spending 4 hours in a 4x4 to get there, we realized this wasn't the place for us.
I have lots of photos, from the Black Sheep Inn to my other travels in Ecuador. I would be more than happy to share them with anyone, so drop me a line if you are interested! My e-mail is EpinionsJavelina@hotmail.com, and please be sure to put "Ecuador" in the subject line so it doesn't get mixed with junk mail.
Black Sheep Inn: http://www.blacksheepinn.com
Outside Magazine (rating of the BSI):
http://outside.away.com/outside/destinations/200303/200303_resort_virtue_11.html
Thanks to cr01 for adding the BSI to Epinions!
My other related reviews:
Galapagos Islands
Hotel Hilton Colon, Quito
Hacienda San Agustin de Callo
Lindblad Expeditions (to the Galapagos)
TAME (the airline of Ecuador)
Coming soon: Guayaquil, Quito
Recommended:
No
|
|
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.