Last Thursday, the good karma was flowing. We had wanted to take a day trip to Cotopaxi but we didn´t exactly know the best way to do it. We´re done teaching at 9:00 and don´t teach again until 6pm.....so, technically we have enough time during the week to do something like this, which is nice. The perks of living in Quito! Carrie´s mom was here for the week and we had to go back to their hostel and on the corner was a travel agency. I decided to stop in and check things out. Ended up working out. Lady called her guide/driver and said we could leave in 30 min. It was 10:15am and we would have plenty of time to get back in time for class. We got things ready, ate breakfast at Magic Bean, and headed back over to catch our ride. It was now 11:oo and driver was still not there. 11:30 rolls around, still no driver. Traffic is horrible this time of day. He finally gets there at noon and we still have to get gas and get out of Quito, a feat in itself. It´s a 2 hr ride and as I calculated the time, we would be cutting it close.
So, we´re in a van and our guide is Luis. He´s fairly quiet on the way there. One hour on the highway and one hour on a cobblestone road and then a"road" with loose gravel/big rocks as well. I don´t know how the van survived the trip. Anyways, told the driver to stop at the hacienda that we had lunch at last year and YES!!!! they had the t-shirt that I wanted. Colleen, Joanne...the same one! Good karma! The skies opened up and it ended up being an absolutely beautiful day. Made it to the top. Carrie and her mom survived the climb. Had a beer and lunch at the refuge. Luis opened up a bit and was hilarious! He climbs to the refuge 250 times a year and summits who knows how many times.
We left the refuge about 4pm. Gives us 2 hrs to get down and get to school. Yeah, like that happened. We ended up stopping at a lagoon, saw wild horses and an eagle of some sort. He sped along the Panamerican Highway (there is no speed limit in Ecuador, seriously, there are no signs, even in the cities) and we had to take in the breathtaking view of the avenue of the volcanoes. With less than a 180 degree turn of my head, I could see Cotopaxi, Antisana and Cayambe....all of this as the sun was going down and the snowcaps were now pink. I can´t even put into words.
The time is now 6pm. My phone rang. It was one of my students. Told him we were in a van and heading back and we´d be there in what we thought was 20 min. Yeah right! Got to school at 7pm. Carrie´s students were gone and I had 7 of them left. My student who called me understood us to say that we would be there in 20 minutes but he thought we were at a bar (Luis was yelling in background he wanted to take us to a bar and go dancing). Needless to say, we talked English for a half hour and I was glad to leave before 8pm. We were covered in dirt and I still had 3 lbs of sand in my shoes. Day was great and glad I got to go back. No experience needed to summit. I may just take Luis up up on the adventure! The mountains NEVER get old for me!
So, we´re in a van and our guide is Luis. He´s fairly quiet on the way there. One hour on the highway and one hour on a cobblestone road and then a"road" with loose gravel/big rocks as well. I don´t know how the van survived the trip. Anyways, told the driver to stop at the hacienda that we had lunch at last year and YES!!!! they had the t-shirt that I wanted. Colleen, Joanne...the same one! Good karma! The skies opened up and it ended up being an absolutely beautiful day. Made it to the top. Carrie and her mom survived the climb. Had a beer and lunch at the refuge. Luis opened up a bit and was hilarious! He climbs to the refuge 250 times a year and summits who knows how many times.
We left the refuge about 4pm. Gives us 2 hrs to get down and get to school. Yeah, like that happened. We ended up stopping at a lagoon, saw wild horses and an eagle of some sort. He sped along the Panamerican Highway (there is no speed limit in Ecuador, seriously, there are no signs, even in the cities) and we had to take in the breathtaking view of the avenue of the volcanoes. With less than a 180 degree turn of my head, I could see Cotopaxi, Antisana and Cayambe....all of this as the sun was going down and the snowcaps were now pink. I can´t even put into words.
The time is now 6pm. My phone rang. It was one of my students. Told him we were in a van and heading back and we´d be there in what we thought was 20 min. Yeah right! Got to school at 7pm. Carrie´s students were gone and I had 7 of them left. My student who called me understood us to say that we would be there in 20 minutes but he thought we were at a bar (Luis was yelling in background he wanted to take us to a bar and go dancing). Needless to say, we talked English for a half hour and I was glad to leave before 8pm. We were covered in dirt and I still had 3 lbs of sand in my shoes. Day was great and glad I got to go back. No experience needed to summit. I may just take Luis up up on the adventure! The mountains NEVER get old for me!
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