Climbing Cotopaxi

Having heard enough of peoples qualms about Quito, steaming from the usual “it is so dangerous” to “don’t walk around at night because….(insert terror story here)” (from their personal experience too I might add), we decided to head south for a few days, to the Secret Garden Cotopaxi. With nothing around except waterfalls, rolling hills/volcanos and a lot of cows, I was in heaven.

The view from our hostel in Quito – The old town

Established just over two years ago, the hostel, run by Tarquin (an Aussie) and Katherine (his Ecuadorian wife, and fabulous cook) is more like staying in a friend’s home – a home with a spectacular view of a volcano (gulp). Communal meals, a crackling fire at night, and a brigade of dogs gives the place a wonderfully relaxed and mellow atmosphere.

Sunset at the Secret Garden

The land was acquired  by putting an ad up in the only shop in town, there being no system of real estate in the local town. A local farmer soon answered their plea. He said he had thousands of hectares and that they should come and chose the bit they wanted. Cleverly designed and ecologically friendly – with rooms lit by candle light at night, and a composting toilet with a view to boot - the network of cabins, a couple of tents (not for the faint hearted because it is freezing at night) and the main house are dwarfed by the magnificent Cotopaxi that looms overhead on the opposite side of the valley. The perfect combo to relax (if you don’t think about the fact that the volcano is still the highest active volcano in the world….)

The magnificent Cotopaxi

 
and the view from the loo

Putting the fact that the volcano might erupt whenever it feels like out of our minds, we decided to get even closer than our spectacular view from the Secret Garden and climb it. Well, climb it at least to 5000m where a glacier had formed. At 8 am we piled into an old green Land Rover – and I mean piled – there where 3 of us sitting on the roof of the car, complete with the owners two young children whom we were dropping at school on the way.  After an hour of very bumpy road (I have no idea how they actually managed to stay on the roof, let alone how they weren’t all blue from frost bite by the time we stopped), we had arrived at the 4200m mark. Stepping out of the car into ice cold winds, we all quickly adjusted our clothes, adding beanies and gloves, before starting our climb to the refuge. With our feet slipping in volcanic rock and ash it was a good hour climb before we reached the refuge, 600m above, and another 30 minutes of climbing (add a bit of ice slippage factor here) before we reached the glacier, 200m above the refuge.

At the glacier

All the walking and dizziness from the altitude was worth it – the view from the glacier was spectacular. And just our luck, the clouds magically parted so that we could see Cotopaxi’s peak as we made our decent.

Coming down from the Glacier, which is up past that yellow building

The view from the refuge

Our other adventures at the Secret Garden:

The first afternoon, we trekked about an hour to one of several waterfalls on the property. In retrospect, considering that there had been flash flooding that day (a local boy died that morning when he was swept away with his fishing net), it was probably not a good idea to trek through the now very rapidly flowing currents to the waterfall, now the only way up to the waterfall after all the rain. With the water threatening to break its bank, we navigated rocks and dangled off branches to reach it, following Remi, our guide. At one point I was told – “just hang on to the branch and it will drop you down onto the next ledge” – that ledge being over a good metre drop and only 20cm wide. Oh gee, I wish it was that easy! I made it. Just. No help from my gumboots that slipped me closer to falling headfirst into the ice cold water.

The opportunity also arose to go horse riding. My yippees were short lived. Asked who could ride, I tentatively put up my hand – wary that I would get the nutty horse. How this worked, I don’t know, but I somehow ended up with the slowest horse imaginable. She wouldn’t go when I kicked her, she wouldn’t  up the hill (she stopped and tried to turn around), nor would she canter, even on her way home when all the other horses took off. With the other horses kicking up dust in my face, I trotted all the way home. My luck of getting the shitty horse continues……

The best part of the day – the view from the top of the hill -  and spotting a cow, on the top of that hill, in the absolute middle of nowhere. She had the best vantage point around.

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