"Free Stylers" is the theme of this trip, after spending days searching for a trip to the Galapagos both Mark and I were completely sick of tour offices so with the idea of hiking Cotopaxi Volcano we set off to the bus station with 60 bucks a piece and a back pack full of warm clothes.
A bus is easy to catch leaving at all times of the day and is even easier to on the way back by flagging down a bus,all roads lead to Quito. In the bus station the Chicken soup offered only the finest parts of the chicken and hopping a chickens foot may bring the same luck as a rabbits foot I decided to take it along with us.
We made it to the park gates just before they closed at 3pm and with another 3 hours to hike to accommodation we set off in hopes to make it before sun set, fortunately a entrepreneurial Ecuadorian mountaineer offer to drive us for 5 dollars.
Accommodation was a simple A-frame building that we had to ourselves so we stationed ourselves by the window overlooking the mountains and lite a candle (with some one else this could have been quite romantic!)
The next morning we quickly eat and set off on the long road to base camp being passed by a few jeeps with out the money making spirit of the guide eariler. No worries we were happy to enjoy the environment.
At the foot of Cotopaxi we caught a ride from a mountaineer that spoke excellent English apparently the clouds hadn't cleared for weeks and if we hurried we could hike the mountain before it clouded over. So 5 dollars more and we were at the parking lot about a km from base camp. The hike to base camp was exceedingly slow Mark did a lot better than having a 2500 KM acclimatisation in Quito, unfortunately Arica and Buenos Aries had sufficiently drained and extra blood cells that I had built up traveling in Peru.
After a quick rest at the base camp lodge we hiked up several KM more up the glacier 5oo meters higher and out of breath we turned back, and made record time since sliding down the snow takes very little effort.
In order to hike to the crater you need to start the hike at 1am and use ice crampons to ascend the hardened glacier. It take 5 hours and 2-3 down. Unfortunately we needed to push on so we headed back to Quito hoping that we would find a ride for part of the way to the main road
2 comments:
what the heck is that first picture!? monster claw?
chicken foot. It was in my soup. Nice eh
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