The 2018 Blog / June 10, 2018
Cotopaxi
National Park
What is up Halfie Nation, (sarah wanted to come up with something to call all of our four followers, hi mom and dad, so this is the best we got). We are still in the cafe and sarah is out here applying to all jobs on the internet. Good work sarah!
So now i guess I will discuss our first long bus journey in Ecuador to the beautifully boring city of Latacunga. (It really wasn’t that boring, but that’s just what everyone says). The next morning we took a local bus for $0.25 down to Quitumbe Station where we found our 2 dollar bus to Latacunga. Apparently in Ecuador you have to pay to use the bathroom in bus stations, 10 cents for number 1 and 25 cents for number 2. So there went my 10 cents down the drain just like my pee. Anyways, after a nice two hour bus ride, we finally arrived in the town of Latacunga. (I remind you one day before this i never knew Latacunga even existed). From here, we walked ten minutes to our AirBnB which was located within a small coffee shop called “Cunani.” It was a very cute place with a sweet woman named Maria who showed us our room in the back by the kitchen.
Afterwards, we walked around the small town of Latacunga and looked for a bite to eat. We settled upon this small pizza shop. Sarah went for the Cheese Pizza and Jonny went for the cone pizza. (Yes Cone Pizza)
The next morning, we got ready for our trip to Cotopaxi, the second largest active volcano in the world. We read a lot of mixed reviews on how to get there, and whether or not we needed a guide or not, so in classic Sarah and Jonny fashion we took the cheapest option and hoped for the best. But before leaving our cute coffee shop we had to navigate Maria’s labyrinth of an alarm system to leave. This consisted of punching in a password, opening the lock, waiting for a sketchy woman to call the phone, running inside to answer it and say the “magic password” which we both are convinced was the name of Maria’s mistress. Anyways, after that mess we were now confident we could do anything so we made our way to the bus station and grabbed the first bus that went to back to Quito. Using the extremely limited Spanish that we asked the driver to stop at Cotopaxi and the driver did just that, stopping on the side of the freeway opening the door and telling us to get off. And just like that, we made it! Well, to about 20km just outside the base camp of Cotopaxi. So from here we both hired a nice Ecuadorian man named, ....actually now that i think of it, i have no idea his name and neither does sarah.... to take us into the park and be our guide for the day. We shared a tour with this nice man named Luis who we will talk about later on in the blog. After arriving to the base of the mountain, our driver allowed us to walk around a small lagoon and take some pictures before heading up to 17,000 ft of elevation which got us to the bottom of the glacier.
Parque Nacional Cotopaxi
Here are some of the pictures we got at the base and on the way up to 17,000 ft elevation. The trek started at about 14,000 ft elevation and got pretty cold towards the top.
After a couple hours hiking up to base camp, then to the glacier and back down, we made our way back to our savior, Maria. Our guide took us back to the opposite side of the freeway where our Sarah, Luis, and I all tried to flag down a bus on the side of the freeway. After about twenty minutes we finally got a bus to stop for us, got on and told them Latacunga. From here, we waited about thirty minutes on the bus only to realize that we missed our stop when Luis asked us if we should be getting off. A quick note, Luis only speaks Spanish, so why the hell was he asking the only two kids on the bus who dont speak Spanish when to get off? We have no idea. But regardless, we told him no so we all missed our stop and went thirty minutes past Latacunga. We soon gave up and got a five dollar taxi back to Latacunga where Luis proceeded to follow us for the next fifteen minutes walking back to our hostel. He continued to speak to us in Spanish so quickly that we had no idea what he was even trying to say. Eventually we turned around and he was gone. To this day we still have no idea what he was asking for, why he followed us all the way back to Latacunga, or what even happened to him. But one thing is for sure, you will forever be in our hearts Luis.
I also apologize if these blogs don’t make any sense or are grammatically wrong as I’m carrying the team on my back as Sarah “applies” to her jobs. I also don’t reread anything. Lol
Until next time halfie nation,
Jonny
Originally published June 10, 2018 / See the Cotopaxi gallery
