Adventures in Ecuador

Cotapaxi is a 5890 m volcano, which is the nicest mountain in Ecuador and one of the most beautiful mountains in the world. We were hesitating a lot whether to climb it (a technical climb) or not. In the end, due to the normal bad weather that we experienced in Ecuador, and the cost of the climb (about 150 dollars per person), we decided not to climb it. Still, we wanted to see it, so we have decided to climb a little lower mountain, which is located next to Cotapaxi and is called Ruminahui (4720 m).

The summit of Cotapaxi 5,890 m'.

We went for a walk, which was supposed to take two days. We got very nice views of Cotapaxi from high up Ruminahui and the weather was also OK, so we were happy. However, on our way back we were supposed to go down on the other side of Ruminahui from which we started. Ruminahui is a mountain, which looks a bit like a wall. It is very cliffy and very long. We tried to cross this wall (which according to the topographic map was quite possible…). We had a very long and tiring climb to the summit. While up we discovered that it is all cliffs in the opposite side and that there is no way to go down from there. We were so frustrated you can not imagine… we had to go almost all the way down.

We got very nice views of Cotapaxi from the camping site of the first night of the walk.

We were thinking that we would try to climb again in another point in hope to be able to cross from there. We were very tired already but still we climbed again up to the top of the mountain ridge and hoped that this time it would be possible to cross (in the topographic map it looked very possible to cross here…). With our last drops of energy we got up. Nir was sliding in one of the steepest sandy parts but luckily he could stop himself. Eventually we made it, and reached the top. We even saw some cairns there, which means normally that we are on the right way, but we turned to look down to the other side and again there were only cliffs there. Such a pity we can't cross this huge mountain – what are we going to do? We have to go all the way to the valley below and encircle that mountain… It became late already and we were terribly tired. We found the only flat place in the area, which was not really flat at all and camped there. On the next day we had many difficulties in going all the way down to the valley since we had to avoid the cliffs on the way down and there were many of them… But still we managed to reach the valley, encircled the mountain from its side and completed this nice but frustrating walk.

Cotapaxi surrounded by the morning clouds.

From there we went to see a green colored lagoon which is called laguna Quilotoa. It is located near the village of Zimbahuha. We also made a two days walk in the area which was not that much interesting except from the fact that you could see there "chozas" (a very old fashioned houses made out of straw) and many many alpacas. The way was windy and many clouds came so we couldn't see much.

Chozas are very old fashioned houses made out of straw.

After the so many walks we had, we went to relax in a town called Banos. It is a very touristy place with many hot springs around. We made there some horse riding, cycling, and enjoyed the good food and atmosphere (we even had a cable TV in our room – what a luxury…)

We made in Banos some cycling (the hanging fruits in the photo are passion fruits).

We got down from a bus at the starting point of the walk – and what welcomed us? Of-course - the rain and the fog! We walked in that weather during the first day, and hoped for better weather later on. In the second day it was only fog no rain – (Some kind of improvement – Nir practiced navigation with zero visibility…). We reached some point and decided to camp there … Still hoping for good weather…

We walked in rain and fog during the first day

In the third day a little sun shine came for few minutes, and we got a partial glimpse of Carihuairazo, but then it disappeared. Fog filled the valley and heavy rain started. All the way became muddy and we were trying desperately to find our way to the pass (that we needed to cross…). We were all wet. Rain came through our coats. We were actually soaking… To improve the situation we finally found ourselves on a glacier with no trail signs, many cliffs around, and no way to cross. We started walking on the ice (with our normal shows which were all wet…). We couldn't find our way and cliffs all over surrounded us. Later we found a way down from the glacier. We decided to camp there.

In the second day it was only fog no rain.

We really really hoped for good weather, otherwise we had no chance of finding our way… We had many problems in pitching the tent. Due to the strong winds all of our things almost flew away. Eventually we managed to go inside the tent. All of our cloths were wet. I had no dry pants left, so I was wearing my fleece sweater to my legs and used it as trousers. I used a security pin (ñéëú áéèçåï) to tight it up to my body, like a diaper (çéúåì)… We went to sleep with many thoughts in our mind… In the next morning we hesitated to open our tent – what will we see outside? Will it be fog or blue sky? We hoped so much for the blue sky and good visibility – we haven't seen the sun already three days...

Our camp place on the second day.