16,000 Feet and Beyond

Monday, November 20, 2017
Cotopaxi Province, Ecuador
Today's entry was written and typed primarily by Brennan with very few edits!
Grandpa was up at 5:45am to check out the orange-glow sunrise on Vulcan Cotopaxi. Not, overcast, no orange glow and Cotopaxi was in almost total cloud cover. Back to bed.
The day's plan was to hike to the base camp of the Cotopaxi Volcano  (Refugio Jose Rivas). Alex suggested an 8:30 start, so we were down for eggs to order, fruit, toast and marmalade. Alex had to work the dining room, so we didn't leave till after 9:00. During the delay, Brennan got 30 extra minutes of puppy time.
Our driver, Fernando, loaded our knapsack and sack lunches in the SUV and we headed to Cotopaxi NP, which is less than a mile from Hacienda Los Mortinos. The NP needed our passport info, but admission was free. This was because access to the park was prohibited and/or limited for the last two years due to volcanic activity.
It took all of an hour to drive the less than 20 miles to the base of Cotopaxi. The road was as rough and rutted as anything we had ever seen! The terrain changed from low shrub and grasses, to ground hugging lichen, to barren ground, to the totally inhospitable conditions by the time we reached an altitude of 14,000 feet.
By the time we reached the base, a light rain had started and we donned our rain gear. The hike was a strenuous, switchbacked trail through heavy gravel terrain. With the altitude, we had to stop every other switchback. By the time we got to the Refugio the rain had turned to snow/sleet. 
When we finally got to the Refugio base camp (15, 953 ft) almost all of us had to hit the bano. We went inside to warm up and Brennan had a hot chocolate and G&G had coca tea. We rested at the Refugio for about half an hour and then headed back out and up. 
The snow was quite heavy and we didn't think it possible, but the trail was even more strenuous! After climbing several hundred feet in elevation, Brennan and Alex retreated back to the base camp. G&G and Fernando continued the climb into the snow line, the glaciers were only a short way above them. Without crampons and ice axes, it would not be safe to have gone any further. Brennan and Alex, while waiting for the rest of group, played charades.
Our descent back to the car took half the time of our climb up. Brennan and Fernando were flying down the mountain, Grandma was in the middle, and Grandpa and Alex were bringing up the rear. 
We then drove to the Laguna Limpiopungo where it was pouring down rain. Fernando parked the car, we grabbed our sack lunches and went down the boardwalk to the gazebo. At the gazebo we had our lunch and saw a great many species of seagull. Because of the weather, we ate our lunches extremely fast. After lunch, we drove a short way to the Cotopaxi Museum where we saw interactive displays of volcanoes, flora and fauna of the area and, the bonus was that, not only did we have Alex's interpretation but the displays were in both Spanish and English. 
Back to the hacienda! We had a little down time, of course Brennan played with the puppies. After a while, Brennan came inside and Grandma and Brennan went to the main building to find some board games.  They found two great games, Scrabble and a box full of poker chips. They headed back to the room to set up Scrabble while they waited for Grandpa.
To start the game, we each had to pick a tile and whoever had the closest letter to an A got to go first. Grandma won so she got to go first. Throughout the game G&G's scores were going back and forth while Brennan was way down there. In the end, Grandma was the winner.
Then, with the poker chips, we played Black Jack. Right away, Brennan was in the lead but then Grandma after a while took the lead. Grandpa was losing, got a little spurt and then started going back down. Grandma and Brennan kept going back and forth between each other and Grandma eventually ended up winning.
We had dinner at about 7:00. We were given a choice between chicken and tilapia. We ordered two chicken and one tilapia. The food was basic and good, but we realized how very good the last chef was! For instance, the dessert was applesauce!
After dinner we worked on our blog. Brennan and Grandpa started this blog and Brennan finished it.
Off to bed before 10:00 with the alarm set for 6:30pm.

Comments

Bligh
2017-11-23

Great entry kiddo! Happy Thanksgiving

2025-02-14

Comment code: Ask author if the code is blank