Cotopaxi

So how do you follow up a fantastic trip to the Galapagos? By visiting Volcan Cotopaxi, another of Ecuador's natural treasures. Cotopaxi is about one degree off of the equator and its impressive height of 5,897 meters means it is the closest piece of land to the moon! In fact, "coto" means vertebrae and "paxi" means moon, so the surrounding mountains are the spine and Cotopaxi is the vertebrae to the moon.

 

I discovered this morning in Quito I was being followed by the wonderful British mother-daughter duo from my Galapagos cruise! We had the same great idea to head to Cotopaxi and stay at its coziest, most popular hostel located at 3,450 meters. The first hour of the drive was easy going and the second hour could have been straight out of Belgium's annual Liege-Baston-Liege cycling race: hills, mud, and cobble stones galore. But instead of thousands of drunk Belgians lining the road, here it was just the odd donkey, sheep, or llama.

 

Upon arrival, we were treated to a tasty lunch and shortly afterwards it was time to hike to nearby waterfalls. About a dozen of us set off on a 90 minute hike through cow paddies, streams, mud, slippery rocks, and bushes. In other words, Mini Bear and I loved it. The recent dry season was apparently not so dry, so the scenery was as green as can be.

 

We reached the two waterfalls and they were beautiful. The last time I hiked to a waterfall was on an island in Nicaragua a few years ago, so this felt overdue. I wore my swimsuit under my clothes because I had heard you could jump into one of the waterfalls so when the time came, I handed my camera to a fellow hiker and jumped in. It wasn't polar-bear-plunging-in-Antarctica cold but, believe me, the water was COLD.

 

I had thought far enough ahead to wear my swimsuit but not far enough ahead to bring a towel. Oops. It didn't make sense to get my clothes all wet so I stylishly hiked back to the hostel in my bikini, raincoat, and rubber boots (there are photos of this but they do not need to be posted publicly on the internet!) and headed straight to the jacuzzi (there's a reason this is the most popular hostel!). To see the clouds finally part over Cotopaxi as you soak in a hot tub after jumping in a waterfall with new friends is a pretty spectacular moment.

 

A snack of nachos with homemade guacamole, some conversations with friendly travelers, a filling dinner complete with dessert, and some more laughter around the fireplace filled the evening until bed time. It's just after 9 PM presently and I am thrilled to go climb under the fleece blankets on my warm bed. Good night!