Volcanoes and Waterfalls

We left the hustle and bustle of Quito for a relaxing few days near the secnd highest volcano in Ecuador (19,782 ft I believe). The drive was only 40km, but took nearly 2 hours because the roads were so bad and the hostel was in the middle of nowhere. The house was self sustaining with compost toilets, solar power, and every type of edible plant and animal possible (which we consumed for lunch and dinner). Our new friend Sarah the Brit and I went for a hike up a canyon immediately after arriving at the hostel. The reward was beautiful, lush vegetation topped off with 2 amazing waterfalls at the end....all of this less than an hours hike from our hostel.

They only allowed 14 people to stay at a time and we ate family style meals at a huge dinner table. The first night we met a German family of 4 that were driving around Ecuador for a month. After dinner they taught us how to play ¨wizard¨ the card game and I learned how to say vomit in German. Funny story...during the game the Dad asked us where the toilet was and I proudly told him the location of the 2 story compost toilet outside the main building. Later that night I went to brush my teeth in the other building and found the old German man walking around aimlessly in the dark...he asked me again where the toilet was and I pointed to the compost building again...he said he tried that but when he opened the door it smelled really bad and was disguisting. He had opened the door to the bottom part of the compost toilet...where a mountain of poop 9 ft tall had been created. He started cracking up and I showed him how to get up to the correct side of the toilet and he was very thankful. He returned to the pitch black dorm room giggling like a schoolgirl and started talking to his faily in German...they all started laughing hysterically as soon as he said, ¨shaizer¨....I am sure you can figure out what that means.

The next day we went for a bike ride with a Canadian and Australian. Kroopf and I brought these crappy fishing rods that the hostel lent us in hopes of catching some trout. The ride was difficult, but beautiful. When we arrived to the stream we hiked around for hours looking for a good spot to fish but didn´t see a single living organism in the water...let alone a fish. I somehow got my rod completely tangled and ended up cutting off 98% of the line....I feel bad for the poor sucker that uses that rod next. We had another relaxing night and prepped for our big hike up to the glacier that rests on top of the massive volcano Cotopaxi.

We woke up early and 8 of us headed out in a small pick-up truck with our Ecuadorian guide. We were stuck in the bed of the truck, which was fine until the sleet and wind showed up. As soon as we arrived it started snowing and there were 60 mph wind gusts....it was miserable. I thought some of the girls were going to die on the way up....thank god my mom bought me that waterproof jacket. We made it to a refuge at about 15,000 ft and 5 out of the 8 people stayed there. The rest of us continued on to the glacier at about 16,000 ft and saw an andean wolf on the way up. I am pretty sure that it was eating someone´s barf, which made the sighting less exciting to me. Anyway, it was very tough, but very rewarding and interesting. The landscape was amazing and the challenge was fun. It looked like the surface of mars up there....red rocks and no plants or animals.

We then had to ride back in the crappy truck through crappy weather to the hostel, where we caught another truck to a small town to catch a bus to Baños, Ecuador. The 6 hrs in the bed of that truck reinforced the fact that I never want to go to prison....

Next stop, Baños.