Marks birthday had come and gone, celebrated with a huge chocolate cake (topped with whipped cream and fresh blackberries) and a couple of T-bones brought up from Quito - YUM!
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| Birthday celebration |
My birthday was soon approaching, and I had requested a camping trip to Cotopaxi National Park, home of a picture perfect volcano – glacier capped and surrounded by high paramo and stunning lagoons. We had planned to make this the first stop on our trip south to Peru, after volunteering for five weeks at Llullu Llama Hostal, but we realised we had miscalculated the date me had to leave Ecuador (people are given 90 days, but motorbikes only 89 days!). That meant we had to cut Cotopaxi from our final Ecuadorian itinerary.
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| view from the road out |
So, after obtaining permission from Christian and Eva (hostal owners) for a night off, we loaded up the camping gear and early in the morning the day before my birthday we headed off. It was a 3 hour ride, over a bumpy 4000m mountain pass, dirt all the way, but it was great to be out seeing the stunning scenery. I had read about a stunning campground in the national park, set next to a lagoon with uninterrupted views of the volcano to wake up to.
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| volcan cotapaxi peeking out from the clouds |
As we approached the entrance to the national park, a huge wooden archway loomed over the road, as though trying to imitate the gateways to the biggest national parks in the US. A ranger waved us over to the carpark before we entered. I thought to myself – this is where we get hit up for the steep entry fee. But it was worse than that. When the ranger approached, he told us it wasn’t possible to enter the park on a motorbike. Cars, buses and bicycles were ok, but our motorbike was prohibited. We were stunned. I even tried turning on the tears, but to no avail. There was nothing to it but to hop on the bike and ride the 3 hours back to Isinlivi.
Luckily, this story doesn’t end here – it actually gets better! Christian was staying at Llullu Llama for the night, and he saw how disappointed I was, and offered to drive us into Cotopaxi one day the following week, as he had the week off work.
On Wednesday morning we caught the 6.30am bus down to Latacunga, a town close to Cotopaxi on the PanAmericana Highway. (Mark grumbling all the way that he hated buses!) Christian picked us up from the bus station and we returned to the wooden gateway where last time we met such disappointment . Again we were waved over to pull into the carpark. This time the story from the rangers was that foreigners were not allowed into the park without an official guide. Luckily, smooth talking Christian managed to get around this ‘rule’ and finally, into the park we went, winding our way up the pine covered slope, until we reached the high paramo (rocky grasslands too high for trees to grow). Soon the tarmac ran out and we continued on up a corrugated gravel road. Higher, higher – soon the late model 4WD was struggling for power, even in first gear. We arrived at the carpark and the GPS read 4600m!
This is the point where the intrepid climbers begin the trek to the top of the volcano – 5800m. We planned to only go a short distance, to the refugio where climbers spend the night to acclimatise before the final ascent. The refugio appeared, from the carpark, only about a ten minute walk away.But… at that altitude… it took more than an hour to traipse our way up the rocky, sandy slope.
I progressed slowly but steadily. It’s amazing the affect altitude can have on your ability to do the most simple of tasks! I was rugged up really warmly – thermals, fleece, raincoat – and they were definitely required. Freezing cold sleet, blowing almost horizontally, stung my face. I was happy to reach the refugio (4880m) and go inside for a hot cup of tea.
Once we had regained the feeling in all of our extremities, we walked a little further up and around the volcano to the beginning of the glacier. From a short distance, the glacier looked like rocks with a little snow on them, but on closer inspection it was actually a huge chunk of ice with a little mud on the surface. It was pretty spectacular to see such a huge amount of solid ice.
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| tasting the ice! |
The walk back down to the carpark was so much easier than the way up and getting in the car with toasty heating was divine. Now anyone who knows me knows that I am not a fan of cold weather, but Cotopaxi was a wonderful experience, and a good practice run for some of the mountain treks we have planned for in Peru. Thank you so much Christian for the great day (and the tasty steak lunch on the way home)
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