Cotopaxi National Park

                                        

On our way home from Quito last week, we stopped over at Cotopaxi National Park, a place I always wanted to visit but never had, even though the entrance lies just 31 miles south of Quito and is essentially on the way home to La Josefina.

Cotopaxi, a perfectly symmetrical snow-capped stratovolcano, is the second highest peak in Ecuador at 19,347 feet (5,897 meters) and forms part of a region nicknamed the Avenue of Volcanoes. It is among the world's tallest active volcanoes (I always thought it WAS the world's tallest active volcano, but apparently that is up for debate). Cotopaxi means "neck of the moon" in Kichwa, a name that is believed to refer to the crescent shape of its massive crater (800 m x 550 macross, 250 m deep).

Records show a total of 87 historic eruptions. The nearby city of Latacunga (where we catch our bus to head down the Andes to La Josefina) was totally destroyed three times -- in 1744, 1768, and 1877. Cotopaxi last erupted in 2015, emitting copious ash and 20,000 tons of sulfur dioxide per day. The volcano, national park and much of the surrounding area was closed for over a year.

Interestingly, the day before we arrived, the slumbering volcano threw off a good amount of vapor, followed by ash, and the national park was immediately closed. Climbers, guides, and park staff were removed urgently from the mountain in the middle of the night. I am sure they were not pleased, though someone later described the potent sulfur smell in the air as a compelling enough warning.

We thought we might have to return another day to enter the park, but then an experienced guide with close ties to the hostel where we were staying, found out that, with special permission, guides would be allowed to bring tourists into the park only up to a certain elevation. Lucky for us, most visitors didn't have this privileged information and stayed home. Basically, this meant that even on a Sunday morning, we had the national park to ourselves. Literally.

The morning turned out to be beautiful. We completed a lovely hike around Lake Limpiopungo, spotting a few new Andean birds and lizards amidst striking terrain and views of neighboring Volcano Ruminahui, and then our guide, Francisco, drove us up to the road closure at 4900m, where Cotopaxi behaved very nicely and showed off, not only his cone but with a big puff of ash. It felt like a private viewing.

I love national parks.

***
On a completely separate note, Paul found a lovely hostel near the park entrance, and I was reminded how much I LOVE staying in hostels, shared bathrooms and all. Such a great introduction for the kids too. There is nothing like a bit of forced shared space (dining, toilets, sinks and showers) to promote conversation and automatic kinship. We met people from Guayaquil (Ecuador), Germany and Portugal. The kids scored a cozy loft bedroom in the attic, and the breakfast was outstanding. The first night, there was even spontaneous live Andean music in the dining area, and Brynna won a prize for being the bravest and first to start dancing. The owners were lovely and helped us get to the park, and then when we were leaving, the kids got to feed their ducks and llamas.

For anyone considering a visit to Ecuador, the name of the hostel is Hostal Rondador Cotopaxi. I will leave the link to the hostel here.












Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In Ecuador you do not say “Adios”

Image
“In every language, there seem to be certain ‘unmentionables’—words of such strong affective connotations that they cannot be used in polite discourse.”  Language in Thought and Action,  S.I Hayakawa and Alan R. Hayakawa What are these so-called unmentionables?  Perhaps your mind goes first to bad words, like the f- word or racial slurs like the n-word, or other derogatory words like the r- word for people who are developmentally  disabled. Or perhaps suppressed words, like those pertaining to menstruation or sex. Or perhaps you are thinking of words that are thought to wield magical powers like saying the word “quiet” on a labor and delivery floor when not much is happening (Don’t do it, the nurses will kill you). In all cultures there are simply words you do not say.  One, surprisingly important unmentionable in Ecuador is the word Adios . Whereas Adios  is commonly used to mean “goodbye” or “see you later” in Mexico, Spain, and much of the rest of the Sp...
Read more

A bit about Ecuador

Image
Don't feel bad if you don't really know where Ecuador is in the world.  Or if you do not really know very much about Ecuador. It doesn't make the US news that often--which is probably a good thing.  When I received my invitation to Peace Corps Ecuador in 1999, I remember a sense of excitement, a dream of burgeoning adventure, and then a feeling of shame: other than the fact that I presumed it was on the equator, I had no clue where in the world Ecuador was, nor any idea of all the wonders it had to offer. In preparation for our family's year abroad, I thought it might be interesting to try to write a post on the nation of Ecuador. A little geography, a little history, a little anthropology, and some personal commentary. It's obviously far from inclusive. Ecuador is a small South American country sitting squarely on the equator, nestled between Colombia (to the north) and Peru (to the south). At 176,204 square miles, it is slightly smaller than Nevada. When I write t...
Read more

From rationing to releasing

For the last 12 months, we have been rationing our resources. You name it, we have conserved it, apportioned it, and allotted it: from Skippy peanut butter, to Earl Gray tea, to cheddar cheese, to dark chocolate. From Crayola markers to Ticonderoga pencils to embroidery thread to temporary tattoos. From shrinky-dinks to jigsaw puzzles to body wash.  From maple syrup to soy sauce to Scotch tape. I am the chief control freak on this project, and I am afraid I have passed some of my neuroticism onto my kiddos. The thing is every little thing feels more precious when it is not readily replaceable, when Amazon Prime is a pipe dream, when the nearest Target is 5000 miles away. The truth is, everything IS more precious. And yet, now we find ourselves, at the tail end of this journey, and it is time to let go.  It is an admittedly sharp turnabout to go from rationing to releasing.  It is time to bake another big batch of chocolate chip cookies and use up that chocolate. Time to s...
Read more