Ecuadorians will tell you that they have the highest peak on Earth if you are measuring from the center of the Earth, a mountain peak of the Andes by the name of Chimborazo. They also have one of the highest active volcanoes on Earth. This volcano is Cotopaxi, which is currently a snow-covered peak. Cotopaxi hasn’t erupted since 1942 but is noted emitting steam daily and geologists keep an eye on its seismic activity. Despite it being a volcano people still often climb the glacier of Cotopaxi. We did not actually climb the volcano, but stayed in a cave that overlooked the snow-covered peak.
Originally almost all of the GAIAS members were going to go camping by Cotopaxi.When it came down to it, only 8 brave girls and our guide (one of the international student coordinators) were brave enough to handle Cotopaxi National Park after going to Maquipucuna and before heading into the Amazon. For the trip we rented repelling gear and sleeping bags and bought enough food for an army. We headed out early in the morning, as usual, picked up our gear, had some breakfast, and were on our way.
Cotopaxi National Park is south of Quito and higher in altitude. As it was my (and some of the other girls’) first time hiking with a backpack on and all of us are used to lower altitudes, it was a bit more difficult than I expected. The hike that we did in Papallacta was difficult, but nowhere near as challenging as this weekend trip. Of course, in Papallacta we were hiking downhill most of the time. As you may notice from the pictures, Cotopaxi is the same páramo ecosystem as Papallacta with relatively few organisms per area compared to the rest of Ecuador. Of course, there are always those flowers that pull through. There were also cattlek, beautiful wild horses, and a hummingbird kept flying in and out of the cave/gazebo. The hummingbirds like to stay there during nesting season (around November).
It took us about 2 ½ hours to reach the cave where we were sleeping, including a stop food and another rest before climbing the final hill up to the cave. One of the first things we encountered on our way was the remains of a wild horse. The bones had been picked clean and that was left was some hair on its skull. Luckily this was not an omen of any sort, just an interesting sight. Once we were up there we decided it was really more of a gazebo than a cave because it was just a covering by a rock overhanging that was carved out by one of the eruptions of Cotopaxi. Because we were not sleeping in an actual cave, we quickly discovered that it would get very cold at night. In case it was not evident by the dropping temperature, it started to hail about 5 minutes after we reached the cave. 
In the morning we ate a rather quick breakfast and headed up to the top of the cave in order to go repelling over a rock wall and through a couple of stories of nothingness. Although I would have loved to have been able to do this, I chickened out once up on the top because I have a near-paralyzing fear of heights. I was particularly afraid of having vertigo while still on the rope. All that keeps the rope from sliding too fast through the harness and clip is one of your hands gripped around waist height. It was still really cool to see Cotopaxi from that view once it finally came out of the clouds and it was at the top of the cave that we were lucky enough to see 2 Andean condors. There are only around 30 of those birds left in the world today. The guy that was with us said he has been coming to that spot with different groups for years and had never seen them until that day.
After everyone else was done repelling down the gazebo face, we headed on our way back to the bus. The way back was not as bad, probably because my pack was lighter without food in it. It was still a taxing process and feet got wet as we hopped from cushion plant to cushion plant trying to avoid the marshy ground around us.
So it was definitely an experience to be able to say that I have hiked in the Cotopaxi national park, where most of the ground is covered in ash and massive rocks from past eruptions, and slept in a cave overnight. Although it was a very cold and rather tiring trip, I still much enjoyed having everything that I needed to survive on my back and using my own two feet to get to shelter.
How neat to see the condor. I wonder if they are doing anything to save them. It's not as challenging but you'll have to hike in Connecticut with us. No condors, but definately red tail hawks and maybe an eagle if we're by the river.
ReplyDelete