Cotopaxi

Ok, everyone...it's been a while since our last post, but we're going to try to get blogging again.  We are currently in Arequipa, Peru, but have some catching up to do with the posts, starting from that incredible adventure in Cotopaxi National Park, Ecuador.  What a crazy story it is!  Ricardo wanted to write this one, so here it is...

Driving to Cotopaxi was an adventure in itself. The park is pretty high in elevation and the last many miles are pretty rough and the road is just dirt. That was a test for poor cubby, as usual! We finally made it to a nice stop for camping already at night time, after Chiquis (Dario) and I bought a few beers from a house right before we headed up to the desolate areas. Once there we set camp and made a fire because we were already above 4000 meters and it was cold as hell. There was a nice river next to our campground so Chiquis and I toughed it up and washed ourselves in it. That night we had some dinner and a beer each by the fire.

The next morning we realized how pretty this area was!

We took down camp and headed to the world famous Cotopaxi volcano.  It is the second-highest active volcano in the world.  On the way we could see it and it was amazing!  We left cubby right there where we spent the night so we wouldn’t have to go all the way up with it. 

 

The way up was incredibly pretty, and very steep and challenging. You can feel the engine in the car getting weaker and weaker as you go up, as the power is reduced to much less than half with the altitude. We could barely go up in first gear, and saw several other cars along the way on the side of the road, broken down. When you are approaching 5000 meters it’s amazing how things change!

Once we made it to where you have to start walking we saw many other tourists and vehicles parked there. Apparently this is a very popular place to visit.

 

 

As soon as we got there I started feeling really strange and like I didn’t have much air at all. Now that is normal, but I suffer from panic attacks, I have since I was in my first year of college, and when I get them I always experience a very severe shortness of breath, so when I got out of the car and felt that, it started to trigger a panic attack!

I felt like I could not possibly walk up that steep hill to the refuge and then even higher up to the actual glacier! So I told everyone just to go ahead and that I would wait in the car, because walking just a few steps would aggravate the shortness of breath and make it even worse.

Once in the car I had one of the pills I carry for when I get a panic attack and just waited there for about 20 min. Once the panic attack was gone, I felt like the shortness of breath wasn’t a big deal anymore, and after gearing up (it was cold!) I decided that I could do it, so I began to climb the steep hill towards the refuge. I saw many people coming down, helped by others, or siting on rocks after fainting going up.  It is amazing how noticeable the lack of oxygen is! Every 20 or so paces I had to stop for a while and catch my breath, and everybody was doing the same. After a little while I made it to the refuge, where a lot of people were resting. I never found Jocelyn, Linda or Chiquis, until I came back down to the parking lot later on. There were just too many people and the place was pretty big.

the hike to the refuge

After resting for a few minutes I continued the hike up to the glacier. This area was simply gorgeous. Once I made it to the glacier I realized most people were just hanging around in that area, because to go up the glacier you need special equipment. I went from having a panic attack to feeling rather brave, so I joined a family that was going up the glacier, with ropes and everything. I was wearing my Snowmotion Merrell boots, which are actually made for snow, and I had no problem climbing a couple of hundred extra meters with them up the glacier (that took a while though). After I got a nice view from above, I decided to come back because I thought everyone else would be waiting. Needless to say that going down was actually quite easy, although you could still see many people having a rough time. It was so steep that I almost rolled down the hill a couple of times!

 

Jocelyn reaching the glacier

beautiful!

everyone reunited at the bottom

Once we were all back in the parking lot we left the glacier area and drove down back into the valley below. We found a nice area to camp inside the park, so we went to get Cubby, which was a few miles outside the park, and drove it there. It was a camping-picnic area, and it had running water and bathrooms and even a grill, so we decided to stay there for the rest of the day and night. We had a small cookout and some other travellers also showed up to rest for an hour or two, so we talked to people pretty much all day.

 

The next morning we decided to explore the hills nearby so we all went for a hike. It was a nice walk. We were surrounded by mountains although at that elevation the trees were very scarce. You could tell that the park workers had started a tree planting project, because we saw many young trees wherever we walked, that looked like they had just been planted.

wildflowers

I examine the newly planted trees, while Linda and Dario check out the storm clouds in the distance

An hour or two into our hike, clouds started gathering and they looked pretty menacing. We were hearing thunder and seeing lighting off in the distance.  We kept walking until suddenly we saw lightning not even half a mile from where we were. I still wanted to reach the top of the hill to see what was beyond, so we kept walking for a few more minutes, until a lightning bolt struck literally just a few hundred feet from us. Chiquis and I looked at each other and decided to turn back. Several more lightning bolts stroke so close to us that we started running back towards the valley where the picnic area and Cubby were. Linda started freaking out and she remembered that metal objects might attract lightning so she took off her backpack and threw it at Chiquis. We continued running down towards the valley until we finally reached a more covered area and we could catch our breath. Now that I think of it, I do believe we were pretty lucky, and we could have been struck if we had continued walking toward the hills.

running from the storm

After eating we packed everything and left. The road was gravel, but it was wide enough and well maintained. After 30 minutes or so on that road, I saw a person on the left, walking with a donkey. I didn’t pay much attention to him because we have seen that many times before, in many countries. Suddenly he saw us, almost as we were passing him, and waved his arms energetically at us as a sign of distress I thought. I slammed on the breaks but as it was gravel it took me about a hundred feet to skid to a stop. He came running towards the window and tried to talk to me in Spanish. That’s when I realized he was not a local, for he was blonde and had blue eyes, and was pretty tall.  He was wearing a hat and a poncho and a plastic bag on top of it, because it was raining, which made it hard for me to tell he was a tourist until I saw him by the window of the car.  I asked him in English if he needed anything and he told me he was in a bit of a problem. He said that he thought his donkey got hurt by stepping on a sharp stone or something, because she was limping and seemed to have a broken hoof. After asking him a few questions we found out his name was Richard, he was from South Africa and he had started his trip with the donkey about 10 days or so before. I got off the car and checked the donkey and we soon realized that indeed she was having a lot of trouble walking. We were about 30 or 40 miles away from the nearest city and there was no way that donkey was going to make it even a few more miles. By that time everyone was out of the car and either talking to our new friend the donkey, or asking more questions to the South African. At some point everyone looked at me, expecting a decision. I knew we couldn’t just leave them there, and quickly weighed the possibilities. Linda and Chiquis had their big bagpacks and all their crap back in the camper, so they could ride in the car. I knew we could fit Richard in the car as well, but what about the donkey!? After taking a look at her to see how big she was, I decided that we would put her back in the camper. Everyone thought it was a crazy idea, but they all realized it was the only way. Easier said than done! That donkey did not want to get in the camper. Richard said that we needed to use brute force and push her up the step and into the camper and so we did. The girls made sure of course to take as many pictures as possible of this very unusual and important moment. To be honest, I have never in my life heard of a donkey travelling in a camper, so it might be a first!

 

Once inside the camper, the donkey finally relaxed and literally collapsed on the floor, which was actually a great thing so she wouldn’t try to fight the movements of the camper once we were on the road again. We decided to go to the nearest town and seek a vet. Chiquis and Richard rode in the camper as well to hold and keep an eye on Remedios, the donkey. About 45 minutes later we arrived to a small town whose name I can’t remember anymore and looked for a vet. People in Ecuador (as in many other countries) tend to send you somewhere, even if they don’t have a clue where to send you, so it took us about 30 minutes of driving around until we finally found a vet. We parked in front of the clinic and went inside. I explained to the vet the whole story and he came out to take a look at Remedios. After a few minutes he told us that he hoof had completely come loose from the cartilage and bone it is attached to and that it would take at least 10 days, maybe 15, before she could go on the road again. He gave us some bandages, creams, and 3 injections to give Remedios once a day, after he gave her the first one. 

 

Remedios, finally relaxed in the camper

 

Well, by then we were all in it together so we invited Richard to join the growing family! It was not dark yet and that town was too packed, so we decided to drive to our original destination, Salcedo, because we also wanted to take advantage of the fact that the donkey was already in the camper. We drove for about another 2 hours, because I have to go slowly and be very gentle in the curves and shit, because I didn’t want the poor donkey to suffer unnecessarily back there. Once we made it to Salcedo, we looked for an area where we could park for the night and also that had enough grass for the donkey to eat. We found a semi residential neighborhood and asked a lady that was milking a cow if it was possible to stay in a large open and grassy area near her house. She said it was no problem and that we could park there. She also said she would come later to talk, so we made a few more friends there.

It was much easier to get the donkey out of the camper than into it! She was already standing inside it when we arrived, probably feeling already the effects of the injection the vet gave her a couple of hours before. She swiftly jumped out of the camper and started eating grass almost right away. Richard was so grateful that he offered to buy beer for us that night. We ended up getting rum and had a great night talking to our new friends and relaxing.

We ended up spending 2 days in Salcedo and of course we tried the world famous Salcedo ice-creams! They were delicious!

Salcedo ice cream

the Salcedo gang

the three amigos

The second day Richard remembered that we needed to give Remedios her injection, so he started saying: “I forgot the jab! We have to give her the jab!” Us being all from the US and knowing US English, found that expression quite hilarious, and we started teasing Richard with “the jab”. After a few minutes of joking around, we nicknamed Richard “Jab”. Since then and until the end of our days, we will know him by that name!

The Jab

After 3 days in Salcedo we decided to continue to Lago Quilotoa, which has a lake inside a gigantic Crater, so we asked the lady if we could leave Remedios there with her and her cows. She had absolutely no problem with it and said she would be glad to take care of the donkey. During all our travels in Ecuador we found only amazing and very generous people everywhere! We left Remedios in Salcedo and headed for Lago Quilotoa, but that is for the next post…