Cotopaxi field trip

Here´s the update from my trip last weekend to Cotopaxi that I haven´t written about yet:

As I believe I´ve written before, I live with about 15 other volunteers in a huge house in Salasaca. This number fluctuates because there is no minimum time you must spend here to volunteer; people have stayed from 3 nights to 6 months or more. Last week about 12 of us had developed a great dynamic and decided to travel together to Cotopaxi National Park, a national reserve that circles the Cotopaxi Volcano. After having traveled solo for so long I was a bit apprehensive of traveling with 11 other buddies together to do the same thing for two whole days. But my nerves calmed themselves within moments when we departed from Salasaca, hopping on the back of a pick up truck, a means of transport you become quite accustomed to in this country. We must have been quite a sight the whole weekend; we bartered, made decisions, and ate all together. We then loaded on the bus to Michachi, the funny sounding named town very close to the entrance of the park. Another great thing about traveling with this particular group is that as backpackers with very little money, we seemed to try to out do each other for finding the best deal. So we made it almost a competition to see who could barter down the best price for room and food. We ended up finding a cute little hotel for $4 a night -- and it wasn´t that bad!

Anyway, Saturday morning we awoke with Cotopaxi looming somewhere above our heads (exact location was always a mystery because of the perpetual thick cloud covering) and loaded onto another truck that climbed up the winding hills between verdant farm land and dropped us off at the entrance of the park an hour later. Paying 10 bucks per person to enter the park (oh, by the way, Ecuador is on the dollar), we walked for a while before realizing it was a 3 hour hike to the base of the volcano. With that in mind we hailed the only other truck we could find to take us to the base and with in half an hour we were holding onto the sides of the truck hoping the wind wouldn´t whip us out. Unfortunately even the base, at about 4,000 meters, was colder than most January days in NH or VT. We were throwing snow balls and everything, but were ready to leave within 5 minutes. When we rolled back down the hill we were ready for the bagged lunch we brought followed by a nice long walk through another part of the park.

So, all in all it was a great weekend. And this weekend will find me enjoying Salasaca for all it´s worth before I leave for the South on Friday.