16/06/2019 – Cotopaxi, Ecuador

We got up and had fresh croissants and coffee in our apartment, packed our day bags and were met by our driver and guide Ivan at 0800 outside the front door. Ivan is from Quito and is a freelance tour guide, which means he does different tours for different company’s (but I think a lot of the trips are pretty similar to each other.) Today, he was working for the company happy gringo, which is whom dad booked the excursion with. We drove a little out of Quito, for about 20 minutes, when we stopped and looked from a good viewpoint over the city. Ivan explained the different areas of Quito, the North is better for business but is more expensive to live, and the South is cheaper but not as nice, with little jobs in the area. He explained that to get from South to North on a commute would take over two hours, it’s a big city and there is a lot of traffic! Lots of people drive, as it is safer. Ivan also explained the agriculture of the area, and of Ecuador in general, and explained about the Incas and their influence on the country.

Quito from view point.

He knows a lot and loved to chat! As we got back in the car a man came up to our guide and asked for money quite forcefully. Ivan gave him some and the man left, Ivan explained it is better to be friends with these people otherwise they will damage the car. We drove on for another 1.5 hours and into the Cotopaxi national park. We stopped at the services at the entrance for the bathroom and a refreshment. We all tried coca tea hoping it would help our next challenge. I put a really small amount of brown sugar in and it actually didn’t taste bad at all! We then got back into the car and drove through the park. It was quite misty and cloudy but it would occasionally clear and reveal some blue sky and/or a peak of a volcano! We also saw some wild horses and some pink and yellow flowers, it was very scenic.

Cotopaxi national park.

Atmospheric Cotopaxi.

Along the roads there are big signs that basically tell you the evacuation route if the volcano erupts (run up the opposite mountain as fast as possible) and at one point dad asked what something was on the roadside and Ivan casually told us oh that’s just for if the alarm goes off in case of eruption!! We drove up to a car park, which was at an altitude of 4600m. We actually had to get out for the last bit as the car struggled to get up the ashy/sandy bumpy road. I think a 4-wheel drive is necessary (which ours was not!) Mum and I had to do a little ditch-in-the-roadside toilet stop as there was no where else to go, and the bumpiness,  coca tea and nerves had got to us! It is recommended that to go to Cotopaxi you should at least be acclimatised to the 2850m altitude of Quito. Having only spent one evening in the city after being at sea level for the week, we did start the day at a slight disadvantage, mild headaches and dizziness, and out of puff just walking up a set of stairs. On the other hand, we didn’t have the luxury of that time, so we cracked on! We walked up to meet Ivan and the car in the car park, and to get our outdoor clothing on. It was just starting to rain, and was absolutely freezing. We had woolly hats, buffs, thermals, waterproof jackets and trousers, walking boots, the lot. It was intermittently freezing and then beautiful sun. We set off walking up the mountain to get to the refuge, which is 4800m above sea level. We shuffled slowly up the mountain having to pause for breaks every 20 or so steps. Our guide who goes up 2-3 times a week, skipped up with apparently no trouble. The air definitely feels thinner up there! Dad looked it up when we got home and apparently there is only 11.5% oxygen in the air up there, as opposed to 21% at sea level. That was a noticeable difference! We made it to the building in our own time, after roughly an hour of shuffling. It felt pretty good to make it up there! We went inside to get a hot drink. It sells food and the serious climbers stay there the night to continue up the next day on a serious 6-hour hike. It’s a no from me! I ordered the drinks with Josh whilst dad caught his breath. When dad was breathing normally again he came over to the queue looking perky and said ‘I can help now I can breathe!’ To which I responded that I felt a bit weird and needed to sit down. Josh and Dad brought the drinks over and I drank mine as quickly as I could, as I knew I needed to get back down again! The others seemed fine once they had recovered from the physicality of getting up there, but I had a weird dizzy feeling like when you stand up to quickly from a hot bath, and it wasn’t easing off. We had a quick toilet stop and a photo by the sign (had to be done!) and then we made our way down. I practically ran down the first 30m, and surprisingly quickly started feeling a bit more human again. Mum said she hated coming down and would much rather go up than go down again! We got back in the car as quickly as possible to get shelter from the rain and cold. I had a bit of a headache still and quickly fell asleep in the car as we started driving. We stopped at a little lagoon and Ivan showed us some lapwing birds and some others, but I think we were all a bit too tired and cold to take too much of it in. We flipped a 1 cent coin in the lake and made a wish, before getting in the car again, only having a little toilet pit stop on the way out of the park. Mum found a paper tree and peeled some of the paper off, it was quite cool! Then we drove out of the park and stopped at a roadside restaurant. It was really busy as everyone seemed to be out celebrating fathers’ day. There was a good atmosphere, lots of people, live music and traditional food. We ordered potato soup, rice, chicken and plantain. Dad had some beef that was served on volcanic rock! I tried to order hot chocolate with cheese (it’s a really nice South American drink - gooey mozzarella type cheese in hot chocolate, it is surprisingly tasty) and we ended up with corn on the cob with cheese. Talk about lost in translation, we were absolutely crying with laughter throughout the whole meal! We got back in the car and got dropped off back to our Quito apartment, where we sat down with some hot drinks and chocolate, cold, exhausted, all feeling a bit heady but also a nice warm smug feeling that we had done it! That nice post exercise relaxation feeling. An hour later we went down to the hot tub, which was a lovely way to unwind and warm up. Our host Dirk made us a ginger and almond and herb drink, very refreshing. We showered and got our pyjamas on and ate whatever we had in the house for dinner, scrambled eggs on toast. Too tired to do much we fell into bed and to sleep.