South America,  Ecuador,  Travel

Quilotoa, Latacunga, Cotopaxi

June 19, 2021 /

In the morning, I took a taxi to the long-distance station and chatted with my brother. He was quite concerned about current affairs in China and asked me about the recent three-child policy, population and Hong Kong issues. Unfortunately, my Spanish skills are limited, so I can only give a rough idea. By the way, I ate a breakfast of seco de pollo chicken noodle and rice in a small roadside shed while I was transferring to a long-distance bus. The car stopped, and then asked her son to go to the supermarket across the road to change the change for me. After waiting for a long time, I came back and gave me the change, and then got into the car. Compared with the United States, the prices here are relatively low. A meal of 2-5 dollars will definitely solve the problem, and a long-distance bus will cost 1-2 dollars. Therefore, it is not easy to change 20 dollars in non-big cities here. It is best to always prepare it. small change.

During the epidemic period, there were very few tourists anywhere. When I got off the bus at Quilotoa Lake, I met other travelers in this itinerary for the first time: two Germans who were exchange students in Bogota, Colombia, and their Spanish and English were very fluent. Quilotoa Lake is a crater lake formed by volcanic eruptions thousands of years ago. From the top of nearly 4,000 meters down to about 3,500 meters on the lake, there are gravel roads along the way, which are quite steep and slippery. The two Germans didn't go hiking for fear of being too tired. I was very tired when I came back uphill. Many people who went down the mountain along the way asked me if it was worth going down and how long it would take to go up and down. When I was about to come up, I also met a 70-year-old grandpa from New York who was traveling alone, and I admired him. The scenery here is very beautiful, especially when the sun comes out before leaving.

The scenery of the village next to Lake Quilotoa is also very beautiful. The local aboriginal women in this plateau area are very distinctive. They can be seen everywhere wearing colorful alpaca wool shawls, skirts, stockings, black thick heels and fluffy shoes. Hats, and some hats will also have a peacock feather inserted.

I stayed in the city of Latacunga for one night. I had to catch a long-distance bus all day, but I didn't find anything delicious. Except for the breakfast of seco de pollo chicken, noodles and rice, I didn't eat anything serious. The new foods I tasted include avas, which is similar to boiled broad beans and small potatoes, and a fruit that looks like a combination of papaya and carambola, called babaco, which is only found in the highland area of Ecuador above two kilometers, and is generally used to make juice.

  • seco de pollo
    Chicken Noodle Rice
  • avas
  • babaco

In Latacunga, it was the first time I met other people in a youth hostel during this trip. One was a German girl and the other was an Australian Chinese. The girl's parents are from Singapore and Malaysia, and her grandparents are from Fujian, but she does not speak Chinese. She happened to plan to go hiking in Cotopaxi today, because there was no public transportation to the entrance of the national park, so she asked me if I wanted to rent a car together. So we both had breakfast, took a long-distance bus and then rented a car into the national park. I got a pretty good price with the driver, but later I met some locals who paid more than us. It seems that not only foreign tourists will be ripped off.

Cotopaxi is the second tallest active volcano in Ecuador at nearly 5,900 meters and last erupted in 2015. I checked before that to climb to the summit, I need to hire a professional guide, rent equipment for climbing the snow mountain, live in the base camp one night in advance, and climb the mountain at midnight to watch the sunrise. However, due to the changeable climate on the mountain, harsh weather conditions, low temperature and high altitude, the success rate It's only 40%, and I immediately dismissed that idea. Our goal is to climb from the parking lot at 4500 meters to the base camp at 4864 meters. I thought that I climbed to the base camp of the highest volcano two days ago, and the journey of about an hour should be nothing. I didn’t expect that due to the unpredictable bad weather (gale wind, snow, heavy fog), this time I climbed the mountain. It was extremely difficult, simply the most masochistic day.

Before starting to climb, this Australian girl made a strategy, saying that the route on the left has more turns and turns, but the slope is relatively gentle, and the route on the right is much shorter, because it goes straight up and down, but it is a bit steep. Then of course we will take the slower one. Oddly enough, it didn't take long to find out that we were the only ones on this route, and everyone else was on another route from a distance. But I didn't think much about it at the time, thinking that in such bad weather, it must be easy to go up the gentle slope. Less than ten minutes after I started climbing, I had the idea of turning back down the mountain. If I was alone, I would definitely give up. Because of the extremely low temperature and the extremely strong wind blowing sideways, the snow was blown to the face and it was painful, and the visibility of the fog was extremely low, so it was impossible to see where the way up the mountain was. I know my physical limits and don't want to risk climbing. But the Australian girl had better physical strength than me and climbed ahead of me while looking at the route on the map. Several times I really told her that I would stop climbing and go down, but she kept encouraging me, saying that we were almost there. I gritted my teeth, thinking that following her would be better than going down the mountain by myself.

The moment I saw the base camp (actually a big house with a red roof) after climbing for an hour and a half, I immediately felt saved. When I entered the house and saw many other climbers, I wondered that few of them were like us, with our pants and shoes soaked and frozen like dogs. I only found out after asking the staff that the slower route on the left is said to be easy to climb, but the premise is that there is no wind, because that route is completely unobstructed, unlike the route on the right, although it is steep, it is in the middle of the mountains and can be climbed. wind and snow. Hey, I regret not asking the people around me before I came up. The two of us ate some hot food here. Seeing that we were shaking badly, the staff kindly poured boiling water for us and warmed our hands in a bottle, so we were relieved. During the break, they asked us if we wanted to stamp our passports. Fortunately, I had my passport with me, and I asked them to stamp both stamps (one base camp and one summit) when I was not thinking about it. Later, I learned that Cotopaxi means "the neck of the moon" in the aboriginal language Kichwa, no wonder the seal says "4864 steps closer to the moon (symbolic)". The Australian girl was regretting that she didn't bring her passport, and the staff joked, "It's okay, you can make it up next time."

After slowing down for half an hour, I saw that the sun was shining outside, and the staff said that going down the mountain would be much easier. So the two of us bit the bullet and started down the mountain. We even saw two people who came up with mountain bikes riding downhill again, and admired their courage. I was in the front when I was going down the mountain. The Australian girl suddenly asked me to look back. For a moment, my emotions fluctuated violently, and I couldn't help crying. Only by experiencing pain can we become stronger and cherish life. This can be regarded as the most challenging physical endurance thing I have ever done in my life. It really feels like I have been reborn. But if you want to ask us, do we want to do it again? The answer must be to kill and not climb. I vowed never to climb another volcano for the rest of my time in Ecuador!

Back in the rented car, I joked with the Australian girl: I really regret that I met you in the youth hostel last night. If we didn’t come together, I would have given up in ten minutes, and I wouldn’t have suffered so much. . She said she did the same. But both of us know in our hearts: We don't regret it, and this experience will be remembered for a lifetime. I also roughly explained to her the meaning of "friends of life and death", and she nodded with a vague understanding. Back on the highway, she took a long-distance bus to the south, and I went north, so we bid farewell, and we will meet later.

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