Day 11: June 30, 2007 El Reventador to Cotopaxi

  Cotopaxi, Ecuador
Saturday, June 30, 2007

Day 11: June 30, 2007 El Reventador to Cotopaxi

We got up at 7:00 and had breakfast. The rain had stopped but it was still overcast. We left the hoster¨ªa at 8:00 and started climbing out of the rain forest and into the cloud forest. After about two hours, we reached Papallata, a town known for its termas, or hot springs. Most of us paid $4 and changed into our bathing suits to go in and sit in several temperatures of baths. It was heavenly: time well spent in the clouds. I bought a sandwich and a beer for a lunch on the bus.

Volcanic highlands

El Volcán Antisana

We continued climbing. At about the high point of the road, we more or less emerged above the clouds and had our first look at the imposing, glacier-covered Volc¨¢n Antisana. We drove through the fresh-looking volcanic terrain toward the mountain, entering the national park and arriving at the hacienda, above 13,000¡ä for lunch around 3:00. We ate a good meal in the 60-year old house at the base of the imposing peak. The summit clouds mostly cleared affording us a great view. Interestingly, a species of hummingbird lives there and we saw them up close at a window feeder.

High elevation hummingbirds

Antisana lava flow

Lava-dammed lake

It was late, cold, and windy so we abandoned the idea of doing a hike at high elevation. Instead we drove back to the main road, getting great views of a large, 800-year old, andesitic, blocky lava flow that the road crosses. The flow dammed a river and formed a lake.

We took the main road until it reached the Pan American Highway. At that point, we turned south toward Cotopaxi. Von Humboldt referred to Cotopaxi as the most perfect cone in the Andes. Its glacier-covered upper slopes make it a brilliant beacon at an elevation of 5899 m (19,354').

We turned off the highway onto a dirt road to the Hotel Cuello de la Luna, a nice log cabin establishment with chimeneas in every room. Cuello de la Luna means "neck of the moon". Being near the Equator, the full moon sometimes rises from behind Cotopaxi so the volcano briefly serves as a neck and the moon the head when the bottom of the orb reaches the summit of the volcano.

Dinner was good but not memorable. Unfortunately, the hotel provided us with green eucalyptus wood so my attempt at drying yesterday's wet clothes met with moderate failure. Todd and I opened a bottle of rum we had bought at a gas station earlier in the day and had a nightcap or two before turning in with a faintly flickering fire in the chimenea. A loud party in the nearby town woke me up a couple of times but finally ended a little after 3:00.