Day 35
1) well we (me, roommate, friend from vassar) decided to go to cotopaxi today so that meant waking up v early and then catching a bus and then getting dropped off on the side of the highway
2) from there we haggled our way to a tour guide who could bring us into the park, as you cant enter without one. we began the long road into the national park and i was grateful for her various explanations of things, it was good practice for my spanish
3) a significant part of the territory is owned by a company that sells pine trees for timber. reminded me of the overstory. interesting that the type of pines are from canada and also chile
4) we saw some fun wildlife! fly-highing condors, a fox, and other assorted birds
5) learned some more about the region and ecosystem at the visitor center, where we eavesdropped on an english tour and read a lot of fun signs about medicinal plants, myths behind the volcanoes (many love stories!), and a bit about the wildlife of the paramo. really wild how vastly different this ecosystem is from quito or the cloud forest/jungle
6) we stopped at the lake limpiopumbo for a nice view of the volcano and some bird watching, then continued up up up towards the volcano, passing lots of fun wildflowers and vegetation along the way
7) reached the base and were ready for the hike! we opted for the zigzag route instead of straight up. it wasnt a long distance, but the altitude change was palpable so we took it very slowly...made it to the little refuge lodge at the base of the summit, which is 4864 m high (over 15000 ft). this may the highest altitude i will ever be in my life! we got some hot chocolate, tea, and soup to warm up and rest and then headed down the straight path as a shortcut
8) we really lucked out on weather, as it started to rain as we were driving out of the park and on the bus back to quito!
9) finally got try an humita (sort of like a tamale but it doesnt have filling, its masa with cheese, onions, butter, sweet corn and then wrapped in corn husk) bc my host fam had some! super yummy
10) word of the day: landscape
2) from there we haggled our way to a tour guide who could bring us into the park, as you cant enter without one. we began the long road into the national park and i was grateful for her various explanations of things, it was good practice for my spanish
3) a significant part of the territory is owned by a company that sells pine trees for timber. reminded me of the overstory. interesting that the type of pines are from canada and also chile
4) we saw some fun wildlife! fly-highing condors, a fox, and other assorted birds
5) learned some more about the region and ecosystem at the visitor center, where we eavesdropped on an english tour and read a lot of fun signs about medicinal plants, myths behind the volcanoes (many love stories!), and a bit about the wildlife of the paramo. really wild how vastly different this ecosystem is from quito or the cloud forest/jungle
6) we stopped at the lake limpiopumbo for a nice view of the volcano and some bird watching, then continued up up up towards the volcano, passing lots of fun wildflowers and vegetation along the way
7) reached the base and were ready for the hike! we opted for the zigzag route instead of straight up. it wasnt a long distance, but the altitude change was palpable so we took it very slowly...made it to the little refuge lodge at the base of the summit, which is 4864 m high (over 15000 ft). this may the highest altitude i will ever be in my life! we got some hot chocolate, tea, and soup to warm up and rest and then headed down the straight path as a shortcut
8) we really lucked out on weather, as it started to rain as we were driving out of the park and on the bus back to quito!
9) finally got try an humita (sort of like a tamale but it doesnt have filling, its masa with cheese, onions, butter, sweet corn and then wrapped in corn husk) bc my host fam had some! super yummy
10) word of the day: landscape
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