Ecuador Volcano Trekking – Day 1                                                    20^th April 2019

Please click onto the photos to get the true scenery landscape. COTOPAXI VOLCANO

I booked this trek back in October 2018 as my eldest son Scott was seeking out the high adventure thrills and pushing the envelope. Suffice to say, he offered far more extreme adventures that was high above normality. He has always wanted to experience a volcano plus an earthquake. Considering my safer side and within my capabilities I sought out a reasonable volcano trek, leaving any earthquakes up to Mother Nature. Back in 1973 I experienced a tremor, so no thanks to any earthquakes let alone a volcano ‘burp’.

There are 92 volcanoes in Ecuador so there is no way in seeing every one of these. Ecuador, I believe is rather awkward for travelling around especially when you leave the larger cities. In addition, anywhere along its land borders there are lots of warnings of uprisings, kidnappings and more serious crimes. This is confirmed through a valuable and informative safety friend www.smarttraveller.com.au an Australian Government website where you can also register your trips and each traveller.

I believe I found the most popular and best for access and sightseeing for volcanoes are 2 of the most active volcanoes in the world. Yikes!!! Looking at a few tours I decided to use a “2day – Andes Adventure Tour” from Ecuatraveling www.ecuatrave[inq.com at a cost of $140/ person USD. This includes, pickup from nearest designated spot to our hotel, full bus transportation to all tour locations and return back to your pickup location, prescribed tours, bilingual guide, breakfast and lunch at Chaupi Community Village, mountain bikes & helmets for the optional bike ride down from Cotopaxi carpark, overnight farm lodge stay and breakfast plus lunch at Quilotoa Village. Dinners are excluded on both days. Additional snacks and drinks are excluded also. Cotopaxi has its own micro-climate and the weather in the area is very unpredictable, so make sure your clothing attire is correct. In addition, Cotopaxi last erupted in 2015 (medium eruption). We leave our large backpacks overnight in our room at Hump Day Hostel and just cater for the overnight farm resort stay using our daypacks.

With all the above now sorted and confirmation from the tour operator all is a go!!! Hang on!! Now they have changed the pickup location at the last minute. Our reception worked it out and then did their best to describe the location. Apparently, it is a park heading South & East to Guayaquil St (another main arterial road) about 1.5klms away from the hostel. It is early dawn and we follow the rough directions given and stumble across a paved area with some landscaping .. is this the park? .. or is it the landscaping trees type that looks like is up the hill some 150m away? Signage is very average too, however we spot a couple of ‘suspicious’ looking trekkers and they too are confused. I approach them but no English even though they were trekking by their paperwork from a different company. We are approached by a trekker, but again, a different company so I pointed towards the young girls on his same trek. Are you getting the feeling of frustration now? We have it Big Time! Another young lady arrives and asks us in English “is this where we get picked up for the volcano tour”? Her paperwork matches ours however she has a building name for the location spot. I look up to see the smallest of all signs stating the required building name. Yay!!! All is good.

A mini bus pulls up with bikes on board .. this looks like us. The guide checks the log book .. we are not on it, a different company … arghh!!!!  He makes a phone call and finds out our bus is 5 mins away .. which proves to be true. Such a relief to be on board at 7.40am and getting the commentary from the guide in 3 languages. We are on our way!!! The bus only waited 3mins and two people did not arrive in time so they will miss out and not receive a refund. So wrong with this attitude and no customer focus. Otherwise, we would have had a completely full bus of some 20 trekkers.

We wind out around several streets, much like departing Cusco and participating into a bit of peak hour traffic. The guide quickly tells a little about himself, skates over his name and shows his excitement and passion to the passengers then by pointing we each take a turn in identifying ourselves to the rest of the bus. As soon as I mentioned we were Australians there was a bit of a cheer that took us by surprise. Not long after the introductions we find ourselves on the Southern highway which is really a motorway with toll charges. It is 3 lanes in both directions and is only a year or two old. One of the frequent sites we see along the motorway are people waving all types of flags from the road gutters. The guide informs us the cafes and restaurants of all sizes are advertising to motorists they are open for business and trying to wave down customers. The other sites noted were various groups of men waiting for day work pickups. Not everyone has vehicles and work is tight and on both sides of the motorway we are bordered by the huge Andes mountain range, some with snow caps, others not.

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An hour down the motorway we take a risky right hand turn off to the community of Chaupi to a dirt bumpy road some 50m long. It is a very unassuming single storey garage type building. Outside there is an alpaca grazing, so Scott is already hooked but food to him was the huge priority now. We enter the building to very welcoming staff and a well fitted out restaurant and the food is quickly placed before us … timed to perfection. Our table is full of trekkers and the conversations quickly start (complete opposite to our Rainbow Trek experience in Peru). An American lady from Las Vegas admitted to cheering the loudest when I stated Australians as she wanted to converse with us and just loved our accents … confirms us Aussies have accents .. Haha!!! Everyone is happy with the food, juices and hot drinks and before long we are on the road once more. Time to cross the motorway again .. close your eyes & pray.

After another 30mins we come to a very large overpass and take the road to the West and some 30mins further again we enter the carpark, tourist centre and control point check at the altitude of 3,800mts to the Cotopaxi National Park. The guide insists we stay within the bus while he shows his list to the control point and to pay the entrance fees applicable. The carpark is quite full of cars and people however only 10mins have passed and we now proceed through the entrance gates of the Cotopaxi National Park.

Soon the bitumen road ceases and the volcanic rubble now forms the road passing the Limpiopungo Lagoon and winding up the ash-laden rutting roadway for about 20mins to the hillside carpark to an altitude of 4,600mts/ 15,091ft. The landscape bears its ashen looking appearance & baron to any heavy vegetation. Boulders the size of cars can be found, obviously spurted out far from the volcano. I think we could be on another planet such is the difference in outlook. We finally find a space for the bus and the guide says we have an option of traversing the volcano. Either the winding way or the more direct steeper way. Without even a blink he confirms we will take the winding way. No democracy here, I guess.

Cotopaxi Volcano at 5,897 meters (19,347 feet) makes the Cotopaxi one of the highest active volcanoes in the world! We cannot proceed to this maximum height as we would require snow/ ice boots, chains and Everest type equipment so we will conquer what we can, remembering the climate can change in a blink. Now everyone is accounted for and ready, we begin our climb. Scott is keen and starts directing our way to the winding path, leaving the guide at the rear of the group. It does not seem much now we are already at the carpark at 4,600mts and we are to climb to the Refuge above (Information and café post) at 4,800mts/ 15,748ft however, it is harder than what appears normal. You have to manage your breathing and the physical strain. I am forced to take regular but brief respites. Bloody inclines!!! Scott proceeds without even a gasp or raise a sweat. Wished he would at least show some sign of normality. I reckon he could run up this slope! The brochures and websites state it is a pleasurable climb to experience great views. ‘Pleasurable’ is a bit of a stretch. The pathway is a lot of zig-zags, so we walk possibly 3klms to obtain the 200mts vertical height. When I look upwards I see Scott some lanes above me .. I trust he looks down to make sure this ‘old’ man is still moving upwards. Haha!!

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The landscape is a dead mass of ash and rock of all different colours, greys, black, red and orange. It appears to be a lunar landscape .. and one that makes you always thirsty .. such is the mind taking in the dry/ dusty outlook. Cotopaxi means “Moon’s Throne” and this certainly becomes obvious.

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After possibly 90mins we reach the Information and café post at 4,800mts with not much space for the added trekkers. The platform has a few level places for outdoor seating and viewing. The view is outstanding when you can look for several kilometres to more Andes Mountains, grassed areas below, the carpark some hundreds of metres below and then further on to the lagoon. It is stated that on a perfectly clear day you can see Cotopaxi from parts of Quito. For us to see Quito I guess you need to reach the summit at 5,897 meters (19,347 feet) and that’s not happening. Inside the cafe is very warm and completely full of humans, no seating available so Scott & I look more closely at the panoramic photos on the walls along with the advisory and statistical posters while squeezing through the masses.

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We finally get a juice and some vegetarian food and just as we took our last mouthful we are required outside by our guide. The air outside is now like entering a blast freezer in reference to the temperature inside the café. Our guide addresses the group to see who wishes to now venture to the Cotopaxi glacier some 200mts higher. He confirms this trek is much harder than what we have encountered so far. Half the group now retreat back to the café knowing they have done enough. Scott & I are motivated … whilst I take another gasp … in disguise. Scott is on the move in a blink and I’m on his heels. I’ve had enough of being left behind.

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The ‘pathway’ is just about navigable in showing the way around to the other side of the mountain. Twists and turns and small gullies for about 20mins, slush from the high above ice cap; and with a sudden steeper climb we are perched on a small ‘ridge’ with limited foothold and no room for seating, no rocks close by for comfort, just soil/ ash. Across the larger gully before us, stands the head of the glacier … the temperature drops slightly .. we can’t venture further, stopped by a sheer gully face. To be so close, yet so far in being able to physically touch this natural phenomenon. Just above us is the start of the ice caps at this altitude of 5,000mts/ 16,404ft. The sheer size of the ice thickness is astounding. Scott and I take in this special place for as long as possible and struggle to get good photos with clear vision. The guide is adamant we must return to the carpark however, we can now do this totally on our own; so without much ado we hit the pathway, now negotiating the next group of trekkers coming along this narrow ‘pathway’ making sure everyone is concentrating on their footsteps.

Returning to the café, the remainder of our group are seeking information of what we encountered … they were so pleased for us and I’m sure some of them made the correct decision to stay behind. Scott & I head back down to the carpark below, this time we tried the direct method in places and not doing the zig zag pathway. Our boots slightly sink into the loose ash … there is not much of a foothold obtained and without undue care you could gain some speed going down this steep slope and forced into a run. We make sure we do not cause erosion or slippage to the landscape and eventually retire back to the pathway when it straightens to the carpark.

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We are one of the first trekkers back (I can do the declines like a greyhound remember?) thinking we could get straight onto the bikes for the downhill run. Another 20mins later the rest of the group and guide arrive and he now commences a very detailed ‘over the top’ safety lecture on bike riding before getting the mountain bikes off the bus’s roof with the driver. I think the safety lecture put a few of our group off so there were a number staying with the bus. Picking out our helmets the guide selects our bikes as the seats were set at different heights. We adjusted our seats anyway, and once we were given the go ahead it was all systems a go!

The brochure said we would be riding mountain bikes down the terrain of the volcano when in fact we were just riding on the ashen road back down to the lagoon some 800mts below. Oh well, it is South America and a different experience to the bus. Despite the numerous small cross ruts in the road I managed to get up quite a speed which forced me to use the brakes wisely and in the correct fashion (back one first). Looking back, I have left Scott & others in my wake, so I stopped for them to arrive. Now I have finally found a weakness in Scott! He had a wrist injury some time back and with the constant jarring of the roadway and the use of the brakes he was really feeling it. Mind you, Scott does incredible fitness bar work, chin ups, levers, etc at his local gym which are mind blowing, yet this jarring is setting the old pain off again.

We have a fellow rider with us from Norway catching up to us, a young lady in her late twenties and she was quite friendly, eventually. Her name was a bit complicated to retain in my memory, which really disappoints me in my failure. She had a R2D2 (Star Wars) phone case which Scott found very pleasing. He thought he was the only Star Wars nerd. She is in Ecuador for a min 3 months community service volunteer which is almost concluded and she will soon visit Columbia. Upon her arrival at Quito she fainted at Customs and they put it down to High Altitude sickness. It is highly unusual to suffer at this altitude so there may be other influences for persons afflicted to look into. She is now in great health and to do this volcano is a real credit to her. She is a good bike rider also. Unfortunately, we could not be seated together on the return bus to expand the conversation.

The group and the bus now join us at Limpiopungo Lagoon for the loading of the bikes back onto the bus. We all converse into the experiences we had today and what lies ahead in our journey’s and within 15mins we are heading back to the Chaupi Community Village for a very late lunch. Stepping out of the bus we find a German Shepherd dog playing like a pup at the alpaca we saw this morning. It was so funny to watch as the alpaca showed no interaction at all but the soon-to-be mum dog was all over it. Such a comedy.

Inside the food was on time and delicious, we had the same USA lady at our table along with other trekkers now. So much to discuss and again time was limited. I had enough time though to see the craft table and bought a very well-priced Alpaca beanie. Such great things to buy but my backpack can only take so much. I was about to step onto the bus when Scott & I were taken aside. The guide advised us the van in the parking lot is to now take us to the nearby farm lodge for our overnight stay. Without any warning the bus starts up and we could only manage a polite wave to our fellow trekkers. This is not how I wanted to say good bye and future safe travels to our group.

A local villager shows us the van. His English matches our Spanish so it now becomes a silent ‘chat’. We follow the village road to the East and it goes on for say, 8klms. We are truly into the paddocks of farming and cabins and narrow roads. We have no idea what to expect. A right-hand turn through a flooded intersection, amongst the paddocks and then several buildings in the same colour of a dark cream form a community type arrangement on the left. It is soon realised this is our farm resort named Chuquiraqua Lodge & Spa, set into the hinterlands. Our original farm resort is currently in renovation so the tour operators secured this one for us and based upon appearances this seems to be an upgrade. A great blessing.

We are welcomed by a very friendly lady, Krystie, who manages the resort. She could not do anything more for us. She shows us our twin bed room to settle in and it is very cosy with the smallest of electric fan heater blaring away and the explains to us to meet back into the carpark to the large building for the restaurant and reception when we are ready. We check in with our passports and get ready for the dinner about 90mins away.

Scott & I use the Lounge WiFi, read the magazines and take in the pristine atmosphere such is the quality of this resort. Krystie calls us up to sit at the long table even though we were heading for the setting for two people. She says .. no worries using the big long table. Sitting down we notice a large family entering the restaurant who had checked in previously. They ask if they could sit with us and they insisted we stay at this table. They were from Germany and not everyone could speak English. Mother, Father, 2 sons with the boy’s grandmother and Aunt made up the family. The eldest son (about 19) had been in Quito for 6 months doing community volunteering and the family came out to see him before he headed to Columbia.  We had so much fun and laughter talking about each other’s experiences and dinner was over in a flash. They recluse to their unit straight after as they had an early wake up call for their tour the next day. We stayed, talking to the Swedish chef who is working at the resort for an extended time and he loves it here with all the fresh produce and ways of cooking. He offers us a special tea and dessert with pure honey and it was truly amazing. We note the time and reluctantly say good night and went to our unit ready for our early wakeup for the next day’s volcano tour. The night air becomes extremely cold so we didn’t waste time entering our unit.

My next blog outlines our 2^nd day trekking another special volcano. Stay tuned and many thanks for reading.