Cotopaxi

When I first arrived in Ecuador, I heard from many people, both Americans who had visited Ecuador and Ecuadorians, that one of the things I absolutely needed to do was visit the volcano of Cotopaxi. Cotopaxi is the tallest active volcano in Ecuador, and the second tallest volcano, next to Chimborazo. So, some friends and I decided to take a day trip and visit on Saturday.

We went with a general idea of how we would get there, but we really planned little for the actual trip. We decided in advance that we would meet in front of La Catolica, our university, at an incredibly early seven in the morning. It sounded like a good idea on Friday, but on Saturday morning when my alarm went of at six a.m., I felt differently. After eating and packing my bag with two different jackets, I headed off. Those of us who were going were: me, my friends Kelly and Karen, with whom I do most of my traveling, my friends Liz and Emily, and a Swiss guy named Daniel who we had met on Thursday. Once we were all together, we headed off in the direction of the bus called the Trole. The Trole ride was about an hour, and we had to switch buses at one point, but it was fun. I, in my usual self, broke into song, immediately separating the morning people, who found it fun and amusing, from those who are definitely not morning people. Example: Karen joined me in a chorus of "Ring of Fire", while Emily, embarrassed, asked me to stop drawing attention to us.

We arrived at the Quitumbre station, and hopped on a bus to Latacunga, which is just a half-hour south of Cotopaxi. We told the bus driver that we wanted to stop in front of the Cotopaxi national park, and so when we reached it, he dropped us off on the side of the road. In the park, we were met by a man with a truck who told us for ten dollars a person he would drive us to the foot of the volcano, wait for us to climb, and then drive us back. We accepted, and rode in the back of his truck on the long ride to the foot of the volcano. Once there, we climbed up to the first refuge on the mountain. The climb, as most climbs are, was a struggle, especially at first, but we finally reached the refuge. From there, after resting, we went on to the enormous glacier that covers the top of the volcano.

On the mountain, we ran into many Europeans, and a couple of Texans, from Houston, who were in Ecuador for the weekend for a little climbing. It's always nice to speak to Americans. It was extra nice to speak to Texans. I got an update on my home state, accompanied by a twinge of nostalgia. Afterwards, we headed back down the mountain, a significantly easier leg of the overall climb. At the bottom we met our driver and talked to him about our climb. He told us a few interesting facts about Cotopaxi, and then turned and pointed up to the mountain. "You see on the mountain how towards the bottom the ground is black?" he asked in spanish. Yes, we replied. "Above that is red ground, and above that is the glacier." He was right. In between the glacier and the normally colored blackish brown soil was a swath of maroon soil. "That," he told us, "is where, twenty years ago, the glacier was." The glacier has been receding for the past twenty years at an alarming rate, due to the warming global climate, and the red ground marked where it had once been.

We drove next to a lagoon in the park to take some pictures, and after to a museum. I say museum, but that word is a bit of a stretch. It was more like a couple of room with pictures and information of the mountain. But still, it was free. Finally, we drove back to the road. There, we flagged down a bus headed to Quito (this is common practice in Ecuador) and for a dollar got a ride back.

The next day I realized that after climbing the mountain, I had gotten a light sunburn on the back of my neck and on my face. I had not even thought about sunscreen because it was cold on the top of the mountain, but in truth the atmosphere was thin and the sun was on me most of the time, so it makes sense. But later, my ecuamadre pointed out the irony that I had spent five days in the Galapagos islands without getting burned, and then one day on a cold mountain, and I did.