Remember When I Hiked 2 Volcanos in 3 Days

Our first day was spent traveling. We all hoped that meant a day of sleeping, but our professor thought otherwise. We stopped every 20-40 minutes to get out and look at something or other…the layers of pumice and soil…the pretty lake…the church…and so on. It was all interesting, but no one enjoyed the time it added to our trip.

Our first two nights were spent high in the mountains at an inn ran by indigenous people. The rooms were cement squares with 4 bunk beds, a fire place, and a simple bathroom. There was also a main building where we met to eat and pass extra time. Several of us spent most of the first night talking with children of the community. They were very excited to talk with us and we even played some games.

We awoke chilly and early the next morning—they started a fire for us before bed, but it didn’t last long—to head to Chimborazo. This is and extinct, snow capped volcano. We had a 7 km hike at 15000-18000 feet high. We discovered the effects of altitude, the beauty of the paramo (like a tundra) and really had a great time. I felt like a little kid throwing snowballs and climbing giant rocks. It was a beautiful hike. We had lunch late in the afternoon and spent the rest of the day exploring the community we were staying in.

The next day we went on an adventure. It was called this because no one really knew where we were going. We were looking for a cloud forest, which is a type of ecosystem that is much like an Andean forest only high enough in the mountains to have very low clouds most of the time. After 3 hours of driving we found one! We were able to get out and walk around and find lots of unique plants. Our adventure ended in Rio Bamba where we stayed at a very nice hotel. This was my first and quite possibly only hot shower in Ecuador. It was amazing!!

Saturday morning we awoke early again to drive to our next destination. We hiked up a portion on Cotopaxi, the second highest active volcano in the world. This hike was only 2 km, so I wasn’t expecting it to be hard. Apparently it is 500 feet higher than the highest point of the last hike. I was out of breath after I got off the bus! This hike was also much steeper, and colder, and windier, and it was snowing a bit. It was difficult. But we all made it to the top where we were able to rest and see the glacier that exists there. A glacier on the equator—crazy! The hike down was much easier than up and we were already for lunch.

We made it back to Quito in the evening where I spent the evening catching up with my family here.