Of Volcanoes and related travel

On Thursday, April 3rd, we left for the Cotopaxi area. We had a very rugged 2 and a half hour drive to the town of Puyo, which is famous for balsa wood carvings and the sale of various sugar cane products, most of which are alcoholic. Once past Puyo the roads got much better. We had our first contact with law enforcement as we were pulled over at one of the frequent checkpoints and the vehicle searched for drugs. There is no charter issues of reasonable suspicion here! The officers involved were very polite and to be honest the search was rather perfunctory. The recent unpleasantness with Columbia has seemed to create a need to reinforce Ecuadorian efforts to combat drug, people and gun trafficking and I can’t help wondering if we were stopped as part of an effort to get the word out internationally.

After stops at the Pailón del Diablo (Devil's cauldron) falls and taking a rather ancient and open cable car over the Manto de la Novia waterfalls we had lunch in the hot springs resort town of Baños (baths). We were increasingly being bothered by gritty eyes and as we left Baños, passing though a temporary road cut into 10 to 20 metres of pyroclastic material that the nearby volcano, Tungurahua had dumped there a month before, reason became obvious.

This picture of an ash cloud rising over Tungurahua (5023m) taken from the edge of the Patate valley (about 14 km away in a straight line) is one a sequence taken at intervals of about 5 seconds that show that the ash is moving at roughly 300 km per hour! The area under the cloud was evacuated several months ago. Similar photos made the national press the next day.
We stopped in the town of Salasaca, another centre for indigenous weaving and crafts. If you want a closer look at the hammock, wait until I find some way to hang it this summer! This was one of a series of towns with particular specializations including Pelileo, where every store sells blue jeans, Salcedo for ice cream and Machachi for milk and cheese.
From the market, there is quite a spectacular view of Chimborazu, the highest Ecuadorian volcano at 6310m, here the pointed white peak in the background, with Carihuairazo (5020m) the line of jagged peaks in the foreground. Chimborazu is the highest peak in Ecuador, third highest in the Andes and due to the bulge of the planet at the Equator, the furthest point from the centre of the earth.
We spent the next 2 nights at another amazing old hacienda, Hosteria de Cienega. We had a 2 room suite with a fireplace that was lit when we came back from dinner each night.

The next day we set out for Cotopaxi. The photo above was taken in the 10 minute window between ground fog lifting and mountain clouds descending - sometimes you get lucky. We drove up towards a high car park (4500m) with a view to a short hike to the Refuge that is the starting point for those making a final assualt on the 5900m summit, but were blocked by mud and snow at 4300m (14,200 ft). The walk to the car park from that point was directly up a steep loose scree slope and seemed a bit much as we were feeling the effects of the altitude.

We did see some wild llamas on the high palmero - the plain between the volcanoes.

We descended to Lake Limpiopongo which sits between Cotopaxi and Ruminahui volcano. The lake is shallow but does give stunning reflections - in this case looking towards Ruminahui.

We went for a walk around the lake which was quite rewarding in terms of flowers and birds, but when we got to the end of the loop, we found recent rains had raised the lake over the trail. At Jane's urging, we decided that a quick wade through 3 or 4 shallow channels of ice cold mountain water was a lesser evil than an hour's hike at 3800 m (12,500ft). The ground is "cushion plant", a soft springy moss, and quite comfortable to walk on as long as you avoid the brown bits (also soft, but left courtesy of llamas and wild horses).

Meet the neighbours, Iliniza Sur (foreground) and Iliniza Norte to the west of Cotopaxi; the hacienda is at base of these.

Volcan Corazon the north west of Cotopaxi. The palmero is bounded to the north by Volcan Sincholagua but this was obscured by clouds all day.

Today, Saturday April 5th, we returned to Quito to prepare for our trip to Galapagos on Monday. We spent the morning at the museum and gallery dedicated to the great Ecuadorian painter, Oswaldo Guayasamin (http://www.guayasamin.com/) and the afternoon cruising the shops in the commercial district. Tomorrow we return to our base hotel, Hotel Los Alpes, to redistribute goods between our bulging packs and our "storage" suitcase and then an early start on Monday for Galapagos.