Ecuador - Laguna Quilotoa and Cotopaxi Volcano

After finishing my four weeks course at Simon Bolivar Spanish School in Quito, I had two more weeks left for traveling the small but diverse country of Ecuador.

The time at school was great and learnful. In a total of 80 private lessons with my teacher Julio we went through the grammatical basics, but most of the time we were just conversating freely about all sorts of things (mainly girls). Therefore I feel very comfortable in talking and understandig, but am usually just guessing the right conjugation.

Fiestas de Quito

The last week at school coinicided with the fiestas de Quito, celebrating the foundation of the city some 474 years ago. On friday afternoon, the school held a party with heaps of silly foodgames, shows and more. After skipping out of the salsa show the night before, I was still busy taking part in all the games, a funny play and - last but not least - the Miss Simon Bolivar election. Me and four peers dressed up as girls and did some catwalk and dancing in front of a laughing-out-loud crowd. I came runner-up...

Beautiful Quilotoa

Ecuador has basically four different regions - the mountains, the jungle, the coast and the galapagos islands. The first week was supposed to be spent in the mountains, with a climb to the top of the Cotopaxi volcano as the big objectiv. Davide from Boston and Daniel from Sydney, two peer students, had the same plan, so we decided going there together.

To succeed in climbing up to 5897 meters above sea level, we were desperate for a good acclimatisation. We had started with hikes around Otavalo two weeks before, then climbed the Pichincha volcano near Quito twice, before catching a bus to Quilotoa on Monday. This little village on slightly less than 4000 meters altitude was a highlight in itself.

The reason is a beautiful lagoon in the middle of a fascinating mountain landscape. The volcanoes definitely created some nice places on this planet, and I reckon Quilotoa is the greatest of them. We walked all around the lagoon on the crater, which took us about 4 hours, and then enjoyed a great dinner at our hostel. In the evening, a strong wind was blowing some chilly air and was shaking the house during the whole night. I went out for a little walk in the bright full moon and the sparkling stars, deciding that, apart from Maria Island, this was the most awesome place I have ever been.

Bloody Dogs on the Way

Next day, we walked down the crater, did some kayaking on the lagoon (where I got my only long pants soaking wet) before we walked off to Chugchilan, another little town some 12 kilometers away. The challenge was to work out the right track and, most of all, surviving the protecting dogs on the way.

I do not have anything against dogs in general, but I can´t stand the barking ones. Last year in Italy I was attacked on the bike by four huge dogs fearing death and escaping luckily - an event which will leave me traumatised forever. The experience here was nothing in comparsion but scary nevertheless.

What happend was, that a little black dog was barking at us, more afraid of us than we from him. My mates, armed with sticks and stones, considered it harmless and everbody thought we were out of trouble once he moved off the track and let us pass. Shortly after, however, I felt a bite in my left shoe.

We made it safe and sound to Chuchilan where we spent one and a half days relaxing in a hostel with a remarkably tasty dinner. Then we caught a 3am bus to Saquisili, where we visited a big market, eating all sorts of stuff and observing the buy and sell of chicken, rabbits and guinea pigs among others.

Freezing, Cloudy, Snowing - We Made it

After spending the night in a luxurious hostel with a godly wirlpool, we set off towards Cotopaxi on friday. Together with our guides Fernando and Sergio as well as Ryan, a former Simon-Bolivar-student from California, we got all our gear and drove off to the parking lot on 4500 meters. From there we walked to the basecamp Jose F. Ribas, located just below the snowboundary on 4800 meters above sea level. There we made last preparations, got some food in our belly and slept a few hours.

The climb started at 1.20am, in order to walk on compact snow. The weather was really ugly, it was snowing most of the time and troubling our adventure. Despite fears of having to return, we were right below the top at 5.30am - too early. We had to wait for dawn before making the last 100 meters to the peak, where it was so cold that the water in my bottle froze. Usually there is a breathtaking view up there, but unfortunately it was all cloudy this saturday morning. However, we were just happy that we all had climbed the highest active volcano in the world without any problems.