Friday, July 8, 2011

The end of another great day of sightseeing, but Jenny still isn't feeling well; don't think it's anything she's eaten or drank so we suspect side effects of the high altitude.

The day was full of Cotopaxi Volcanoe Park.  When we left, it was a very sunny; once we got to the South of Quito and headed towards the volcanoe, we could see it in it's granduer and majesty, high above the horizon.  Daniel was our guide again; he does a "mui bueno" job in pointing out special landmarks and sights along the way and will stop if we ask him to.  Rather than drive his personal vehicle into the park (very, very rough roads - some of you know what "washboard" means!), the agency had hired a local with a four wheel drive to take us into the park and up the mountain.  The scenery along the road into the park consisted mostly of pine trees (not indiginous to Ecuador but brought in years ago) on one side, eucalyptus trees on the other.  However, we saw no koala bears :-).  Apparently, the indiginous people do not like the pines because they are not native to their land and they "drink" a lot of water, causing indiginous plants to die from lack of moisture.  Once actually into the park, there were no pines.  On the way up, we saw cattle and wild horses grazing along the road.  It was very interesting how the face of Cotopaxi changed as we approached.  At one point, we stopped to take pictures and she was clearly visible; it seemed almost immediately that a cloud rolled in and completely covered her.  I began videoing as the cloud covered the mountain so I panned to the left and made a full circle of our surrounding view.  When I came back to the beginning, Cotopaxi was visible again - the cloud had moved out that quickly.

We proceed up the road; as we got closer, the temperature begain to drop, clouds rolled in, and it started to rain - kind of a fine mist but it got heavier as we went up.  The wind began to blow harder and harder.  By the time we reached the "refuge" station (I'll explain shortly), visibility had dropped to close to nothing and it was very cold and even difficult to stand straight because of the wind.  Jenny and our driver stayed in the car; we fellas got out to walk around a bit.  That, however, was short lived - just too bitter cold and wind! 

Cotopaxi, at it's summit, is 19,324 feet (5,890 meters); we were at about 14,763 feet (4500 meters). There's always snow on top and glaciers beneath the snow so it can be very treacherous!

Now, about the refuge station; it was where we stopped, although we could have hiked up the mountain further.  The refuge station, a very small building with nothing but bunk beds (no covers - just very thin, uncomfortable mattresses) is used for climbers who intend to climb to the summit.  The climbers rest or sleep inside the refuge station (very little sleep because of the cold and wind which most always accompany the late afternoon and evening following sunset) until about 11:00 p.m.  It's dark, cold, snowy, windy, and treacherous! Climbers are tethered together and they begin up the mountain with several guides (several because not all of the climbers are expected to make it so the guides must take those back down to the refuge).  The climb, from the refuge station to the summit, will take about 6-8 hours (I forget which), most of it in th dark!  Daniel said he and two friends had attempted to make the climb but couldn't - I certainly don't fault him for that!  When we stopped, on the way down, at a restaurant for lunch, a group of maybe a dozen or so young people were "suiting" up to go to the refuge station rest; I wondered how many would make it in the conditions we experienced!

On the way down, we walked out into a field of flowers; our driver spotted a hummingbird so I got a couple of pictures.  I also saw a rabbit - no one else did though because we were traveling down the road and I saw it in the bushes on my side of the car, just as it was turning to run into the brush.  We also saw two condor (is the plural of condor condors or does it remain condor?), but they were very high in the sky so I could not get any good pictures.  I did get some good pics of a young one with her wings spread, but she was in the museum, along with a fox (the locals call them "el lobo" (wolf), but they look like fox), and a deer.

Once back to the room, Jenny took a power nap; even though she didn't get out of the car much, the thin air made her tired.  Then, we went to the La Jardin (the garden) mall and looked around a few minutes.  We saw several "American" stores, including Kenneth Cole, Adiddas, Boss, KFC, Burger King and Cinnabon.  We saw a luggage store - prices were exorbitant!

On the way to the mall, we met a young Ecuadorian girl and her mother; they actually came out of our hostal behind us and were behind us for about a block.  We stopped to check our map and the young girl (Dola) asked if they could help us, then said they were going to the mall as well.  We walked together the rest of the way then went separately once we reached the mall.  The mother (Monica) was wanting to get home to her dog because it had had it's first kemo treatment for cancer today.  Dola had spent a year in New Jersey; I told her of the missionaries we'd met last Sunday from New Jersey.  We enjoyed our walking and talking together; they welcomed us to Ecuador and invited us back! BTW, they were not staying at the Travellers Inn but had stopped in to get information because a relative is coming to visit in the near future.  We highly recommended the Inn!

On the way back (in a roundabout way!) to our hostal, we went to our favorite panaderia & pasteleria (bread and desserts).  For those of you who want to know about it, their website is http://www.panaderiaypastelerialaunion.com.ec/.  It's in spanish but I think you can use Google to translate the page; you can also view the video - the best part because it shows the food!  When the video starts, notice the gentleman in the black pants and vest - he is our waiter everytime we go there.  His name is Marco; he greets us everytime we walk in the door; he helps us to understand the menu and ice cream flavors - the best part!

We really have nothing scheduled for tomorrow but will at least get out and walk around.  I'm waiting for a response from Continental Airlines about the baggage embargo controversy before we buy anything else!  If Jenny feels better, we might go through Old Town to the cable car and ride it up the mountain.