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Published: December 2nd 2005
Mountaineering Hangover Arriving back in Quito after the Galapagos Islands i had itchy feet. Spent a day organizing some travelling to Cotopaxi and Cuyabeno. Met with Lars and Matt for some quality rum at Lars' place. Given that i would be heading up to an altitude of 4800m during a hike the next day, i think the drinking we did till close to 6am was a bad idea for me, but then, anything can seem like a good idea after half a bottle of rum.
Waking up to somebody banging on my door, i jump up, check the clock, shit! It's 8:45am and i was meant to be meeting the guide at 8:30, i'm still somewhat inebriated. I open the door and say "ailbethersoon" and quickly finalise my pack and head off in the time you could say "Good morning, how are you? Well thankyou" in Quechua.
Then i was headed off to the ancient volcano, Cotopaxi, just south of Quito. Thankfully i was able to sleep a little on the way. There was one one Swiss guy, Roman, and the guide driving with me.
The first hike began at 3600m and finished at 4800m. The beginning was
beside a shallow lagoon and was an almost continuous ascent to a ragged old volcano edge. It wasn't Cotopaxi, that was for the next day after we acclimatise, since that ascent would be to 5780m. My plan for acclimatising was being hindered by my hangover, but i enjoyed the hike and views. It was especially fun running down a gravel slide on the side of the mountain at full loping-stride speed.
Returned and setup camp, had some nausea from altitude and hangover sickness, but after drinking some manzanilla tea was fine and had a full dinner. Slept. Then joined by another guide and tourist who would accompany us for the main climb up Cotopaxi. Drove and hiked up to the refuge at 4800m. Spent that afternoon learning how to hike and climb on ice using rope, crampons and an ice pick. Went to bed around 6pm to awake at midnight for our climb.
Climbing Cotopaxi was easy technically, there was no need for pinions and only one nearly vertical ascent near the end. However we were all tied together for safety and the ascent is continuous seeming to average around 40 degrees for 5-6 hours. So for me
it was a difficult climb. There was Roman and myself with one guide and the other tourist with the other guide slightly ahead on a separate rope. About 4 hours into the climb we find the others descending because the tourist's headlamp batteries had failed and it was still an hour short of dawn. We continued. I was wearing good quality but old gloves (fleece and shell style) and was beginning to feel the cold seeping into them, stupidly, i had not brought my extra layer of thermal liners for this level of freezing. The wind was picking up speed and the temperature was dropping fast as we neared the summit passing by the glaciers located a couple hundred metres below. Dawn was approaching quickly and i was getting very tired and needing a rest quite frequently. So, not acceeding to summit fever, i conferred with the guide and decided to stop and sit down and take photos of the dawn, waiting for them to return from the summit another half an hour further on. I was able to keep myself warmer sitting because i could put my hands next to my body, but still, i think i got the
tiniest bit of frost bite on the edge of my right pinky finger since it was numb for a week or more after.
Slightly disappointed in myself in only reaching 5700m, but figuring there would be other peaks to ascend, we returned, much faster of course, it only took about 2-3 hours to descend and was very beautiful during the daytime. Had breakfast and then returned to Quito by lunchtime.
Less than 12 hours later i needed to get on a night bus to travel to Lago Agrio. So i spent the next few hours getting washing done and changing my pack from handling wintery conditions to handling summery conditions. Drunk a little wine to help me sleep on the bus and headed out in a very tired state due to the mountaineering and sleep deprivation across the last 24 hours!
No Malaria Here After advice from various people about the side effects of malaria prevention treatments (nightmares, depression and lethargy) and the extremely low risk of contracting malaria in the area i was travelling to, i didn't take any pills in the preceding week of, or during the travel to, but brought them with me just
in case.
Exitted the bus around 8am Monday morning, met a german girl, Michaela, who was also joining the same 5 day tour, explored the very unimpressive (except in its dirtiness) oil town of Lago Agrio, had breakfast. Drove out to the edge of the Cuyabeno Reserve, the road followed pipelines, occassionally evidence of spills were visible, too bad for the natives that have been living in this area for millenia. Boated in a motorised canoe for about 3 hours deep into the Ecuadorian jungle. We arrived at a river dock and settled into the jungle lodges there. That afternoon our group went to see the large lagoon nearby for a swim and the sunset.
The next day we went to see a native village. On the way we saw squirrel monkeys, birds, butterflies and some bizarre looking fungi (i have this obsession with strange fungi). The village area was a 10ha clearing with a soccer field and around 20 buildings of various sizes, the buildings all raised around 2m above ground, for floods and ventillation i guess. The few children about were wearing western clothes, the clothes drying on the lines hereabouts were western clothes, the middle-aged
woman we met for some food preparation demonstrations was wearing western clothes, long live the t-shirt! The demonstration involved ripping out the roots of these spindly trees, the root is called uca and looks like a potato but much longer, then we peeled them and grated them on a piece of metal with holes pushed through, then all the grated vegetable was put into this sack thing tied to the roof and she squeezed the shit -i mean the water- out of it, she then cooked the dried meal in portions on a fire with a large metal plate and we all tried a bit. Uca tastes like potato somewhat, so what we tasted was like a potato pancake. I hope that normally they have some flavour to go with it otherwise village food would get extremely boring.
Later we went pirana fishing, me unsuccessfully, but others caught 3 different types (red, silver and blue) and some catfish, also a stingray got on one of the lines but the line was not strong enough. We also saw more monkeys and a 3 toed sloth. Afterwards we went for a swim in the same lagoon that we caught the piranas.
I survived! That night we went for a night walk, didn't really see much since a group of 10 people make a lot of noise, except we did see some huge wolf spiders.
Wednesday we paddled slowly downriver. This allowed us to get closer to some of the birds and critters. Also gave us access to some of the side creeks, they were like obstacle courses pushing over submerged logs and ducking under branches. Very pretty. Went looking for anacondas in the afternoon but they were hiding.
Thursday we rowed vigourously up stream across 2 large lagoons till we got to a swampy area. Whoever was having a go at being captain of our canoe always had trouble at first, steering into the brush on the banks. It was a thankless job, because every mistake meant the rowers had to do more work. I then understood what doing the J paddle motion meant and things improved... We still couldn't find the anacondas, instead we saw a large troupe of monkeys journeying through the trees on the banks. On returning the current helped alot. Most got out to swim, some didn't bother returning to the boats and drifted all
the way home. I ended up having the small canoe with just Michaela and we leisurely returned. Back at the lodges we were climbing the trees and swinging off the vines into the river. Aaaaaaaaa-ayiaa-ayiaa, me tarzan!
Slow Road Return Left Cuyabeno friday morning by motor canoe, then the same ute we arrived in, passed a really bad oil spill. From Lago Agrio Michaela and i travelled to a town called El Reventador, named after the active volcano which sits above the town. This town is basically a truck stop. We stopped and left the next day for San Rafael falls 15 minutes down the road. The falls were pretty, but they tried to charge us $10 each for entry, all it is is a 30 minute walk each way! We gave them $2 each (local's price) after some discussion.
Then another bus to Papallacta, an area famous for its hot springs. Aaahhhhhhhh.......... mmm mm mm mmmmmmm.... oiiiii oii oi brrr brr... Aaahhhhhhhh.......... was the sound i would make as i went from the warm bath, then the hot and then the freezing river and around again. Supposedly doing the warm/hot/cold thing is meant to help relax you
even more than a regular soaking, i think it does but it also makes me feel quite high, especially just after the cold when all my blood is rushing about and throbbing through my whole body. I did it repeatedly about 10 times!
Back in Quito to send a package home and then heading off to Mindo on Tuesday to see the cloud forest. In Mindo a tourist agency operator tried to sell me a tour but i convinced him i could do it solo since there are many things to see but all fairly close to town.
First thing was to go see hummingbirds and orchids at a private garden in town. The flowers were beautiful and i got some great shots of the birds, which i can't show you since the CD burning broke dammit. Out of town along the river to a butterfly farm next. The concept seemed strange to me, and when i asked they confirmed that they don't get any agricultural benefit from growing them, just tourist donations and a prettier countryside. Inside you could see the mariposas (butterflies in spanish) hatch and hang out while they dried. While walking around the garden
you could rub your finger in juicy fruit and get the butterflies to sit on your hand and eat/drink/suck the juice.
Next i headed off to find the waterfalls in the area further down the road, but the way was blocked by a large locked gate and a pull tray on a wire that was also locked up. Backtracking i found a shallow river section and crossed in bare feet. Found some trails and proceeded in getting lost, but knowing i was bounded by 2 parallel roads 5 kms apart i was not worried. The trail i was on quickly degenerated and i was bushwhacking up a very steep overgrown path. Near the top of the hill i surprised some deer, or something - hard to tell, it jumped away so fast. Many scratches later i found the other road and then the waterfall entrance shortly after. The waterfall had a gate and a bell which i rang and 10 minutes later up comes a wheezing old woman who demands $5 for entrance. I was stunned but found out why they would charge such. At the waterfall they had setup many bridges, ladders, ropes, a common area with showers
and changing rooms, a waterslide and jump spots (12m and 4m). It was like a little fun park out in the middle of the forest. After focussing some deep breaths i jumped off the 12m spot until i got a little hurt slapping the water. Then some more smaller 4m jumps. Very invigorating stuff with adrenalin coursing through my body. I was so high from the jumps i completely forgot about trying the waterslide.
Hiked to the next waterfall area, but it was raining and would cost another $5 and i wouldn't see much with the weather. So i returned to town. The clerk at the hostal was queer i think, he was very touchy feely and gave me a printout of some lillies in a pond and some nice words. Not surprisingly so either, the ratio of males to females here seemed close to 20:1!
Returned to Quito and prepared to leave northern Ecuador permanently.
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Cheryl Forbes
non-member comment
Hi Andrew
What great scenery! Love all the pics hun. Sounds like you are having a ball. Are there any nice cheap wall hangings over there?? Have fun and watch out for those bloody Piranas and Anacondas. They eat people! LOL!! xxxx Cheryl and Dave