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Published: September 19th 2008
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Hola again!!
OK here goes the final blog entry and this really is going to be a short one because ive been sat in the internet cafe for an eternity now! :o( ....
A group of us from the hostel got the bus to Cotopaxi (Patricia and I nearly bought some puppies on the way as there was a box of them, they were adorable and being sold for $5!!) and ended up going straight to the festival in town/mountains as it was their yearly festival and everyone from the hostal was already there! The festival was very funny mainly because the whole town (which was tiny!) was insanely drunk and the dancing was well under way (apart from a short break when the stage collapsed, the band fell through the wooden boards and the music stopped! oops!) - ended up dancing with nearly all the local as they were very excited to see foreigners there! :o) We even went for a quick horseride at 10pm! The only thing i didnt like, well hated actually, was at the beginning when they were practising some kind of tradition which involved dragging a bull around the ring, whipping it, pulling its
tail and generally torturning it! I tried to ignore it but it the end i got so upset that i stormed over to one of the guys and expressed my disgust which in Spanish sadly only consisted of "Why are you doing that? Its horrible! The animal is sad!" He just said "yes" and that was that! :o(
We decided to go home about 11pm and asked how far it was to walk to the hostel - apparantly it was going to take an hour and a half which wasnt good news but luckily Catherine, the hostel owner came to pick us up in the 4x4 and we managed to fit 12 of us in it so we didnt have to walk! phew! :o) We warmed up by the fire, had dinner and then went to bed! There was no electricity there so it was all candles - was kinda cool! :o) The hostel was amazing - it was in the middle of nowhere in the mountains, surrounded by hills and horses, there was no electricity and there was even a compost loo with an amazing view of the scenery hehe! - it felt like another world! It was
quite expensive but all meals were included and it was so lovely that it was worth it!
The next day we walked to the waterfalls a couple of hours away which was really nice! The only problem was that the Dalmatian puppy wanted to come with us but didnt like the water (we had to walk up the river/stream the whole way and over massive rocks!) and was too little to climb over most of the rocks so i ended up carrying him most of the way, consequently falling over a lot of times and my wellies were full of water after about 2 minutes! After an hour one of the hostel volunteers who had come with us said it was the end of the road for the puppy and took him back! That afternoon/evening we just chilled by the fire, Philip and Patricia went horseriding, played Jenga, read and had an early night!
The next day Philip, some of the volunteers and I (Patricia was ill and Gavin stayed with her so they didnt come) went to climb the Cotopaxi volcano! Its possible to climb to the summit which is nearly 6000meters but its really really hard
(apparanlty a lot of people dont make it and have to turn back because of altitude sickness) and very expensive and a lot of people told us that its often not worth it as you get to the top and cant see anything! You start hiking just before midnight and get to the top in time to see the sunrise and i saw some pictures of a girl who made it and it looked amazing! We decided not to do it because it was too expensive and the risk of not making it or not being able to see anything from the top because of bad weather was too high and actually im really glad we didnt do it because we only went to just under 5000 meters and couldnt see a thing!! We put a matress in the back of the 4x4 (its a very bumpy ride and would have gotten sore bottoms otherwise hehe!) and all squeezed in for the hours ride to the Cotopaxi National Park! It was then an hours hike up to the refuge which was actually really hard work because it was raining, freezing and we were walking on really soft mud/chalk which we
kept sinking in! You could see the refuge the whole way and it looked sooo near..... yet was soo far and took so long to get to! At the refuge we had soup, bread and hot chocolate and then had to decide whether we wanted to walk an extra half an hour to the glacier, which we decided to! It was, again, another horrible walk because by this time it was hailing which really hurt your face but luckily it wasnt as steep as the first part! It was cool seeing a glacier though and Cotopaxi is the highest active volcano in the world which is quite cool to say ive climbed it (even if it wasnt to the summit!). That evening we had another yummy dinner and played jenga and monopoly! :o) That night was hoooooooorrible.... i was insanely ill (upset stomach) - spent a significant time on the compost loo (as did Patricia) doing our bit for the nature! hehe! :o)
The next afternoon Patricia and Gavin headed back to Quito and Philip and I got a 7 hour bus to Gualquil and flew to the Galapagos islands yesterday morning! Its amazing here!! :o)
OK going
to quickly upload some photos and then finally get out of the internet cafe! :o)
Miss u all lots, xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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Angie Gales
non-member comment
Hi there
Hi Lisa, We have been following your travels via your blogs and are completely in awe! What can I say, incredible photos, your blogs have me laughing, shaking my head (at the poor bull), terrified for you sometimes but just so full of admiration that you take everything in your stride and are having such amazing adventures. I sincerely hope you write a travel guide at the end of all this!! Anyway, just to say you are in our thoughts and we look forward to reading your next news. Much love from us all, Angie x