The early bird does not get to ride a donkey back out of the volcanic crater: Cotopaxi and Quilotoa

Volcan Cotopaxi

On Thursday morning we got up early (not really) to drive in luxury to Cotopaxi National Park, about an hour south of Quito. Volcan Cotopaxi is 5897m high with a refugio at 4800m that is currently undergoing extensive remodelling. Before we entered the park, Diego our driver enlisted Thomas to drive us to the volcano. On the way in we saw a baby white tailed dear, which is apparently pretty rare.

On the way up!

When we reached the car park below the refugio, there were about 5 other cars there. The four of us jumped out and started the 1km walk up to the refugio. The best way I can think to describe this walk is it was like walking up the down escalators with an extra 100kg on you. Hard doesn't even come close. It took us an hour, and by us I really mean me. The others could definitely have done it faster. The slope is made of a mix of small rubble and very soft ash-soil stuff. So every step you take you slip back a bit. My heart was beating so fast I thought I was going to have a heart attack. There is a glacier another 200m up from the refugio, that I really wanted to see. But I'm pretty sure I would have collapsed, so Brandon and Thomas went alone. It was an awesome view from the refugio anyway. One day in Quito (2850m) was clearly not enough time to acclimatize, oops.
There were heaps of people at the refugio by the time we started going down and heaps still coming up. Unlucky for them because by the time we got to the car park cloud had completely covered the mountain, and as we jumped in the car it started raining. We then drove to a lake near by, Laguna Limpiopunga. Say that three times quickly. We didn't stay long though because some Americans were being unpleasantly loud in the bird watching area. We had our first taste of coca tea at lunch. It just tastes like green tea and did nothing for my headache from the climb.
It's funny, because the earth bulges at the equator, the Ecuadorians like to say that they have the highest mountain in the world because Chimborazo, at 6268m, is the furthermost point from the centre of the earth.

Watching the clouds roll past at the refugio.

We then went to Quilotoa for the night (3914m). And what a freezing night it was. We stayed in a big old house with stone floors and about 8 blankets on the bed. I felt rubbish by the time we got there. I had taken an aspirin thinking that might help stop any vascular issues from the altitude sickness, but it really hadn't helped the headache. I find aspirin never works for my pain for some reason. As the sun went down, you could see a layer of cloud sitting at a level that was below the town of Quilotoa, It was an impressive sight.

Friday morning we began by walking down into the volcanic crater of Laguna Quilotoa. A bit over a 1km walk, with a decent of 400m. The crater is about 4miles wide in one direction and a bit under that in the other. Diego told us there would be donkeys at the bottom that we could ride out, which sounded pretty good to me. The walk was similar to Cotopaxi, but at lower altitude. I was still feeling pretty rough at this stage and had started to get some pins and needles. Making me think I was definitely going to have a stroke soon. I later read that Diamox can give you pins and needles, and am pretty sure that is what was happening rather than a blood clot. After reaching the lake and having a look around, we discovered there were no donkeys... so the uphill zombie shuffle it was again. On the plus side when I stopped to rest here I could actually catch my breath and slow my heart, unlike Cotopaxi. We passed the donkeys going down at about 3/4 of the way up. The lake itself is interesting. Because it's in a volcanic crater of a still active volcano it is much warmer than you would expect at that altitude, and because of all the sulfur nothing but algae can survive in it.
Diego must have been pretty keen to get to Banos because we didn't get a lunch stop, only a stop for Salcedo ice creams as we passed through the town of Salcedo. Obviously that's where they are made, but they are very popular and are sold all over Ecuador. More on banos in the next post!