Our three week Ecuador adventure began in Quito, the capital city that sits at 9,350 feet above sea level. We needed to get our hiking legs back quickly and acclimate to the elevation, for we had some seriously big plans. We stayed in a lovely hostel with lots of Spanish colonial charm and free breakfast!
Our room was long and narrow with lots of natural sunlight overlooking one of the city’s center squares. We spent a few days relaxing and catching up on writing before our first big hike.
Rucu Pichincha is a popular hike because it leaves from the city and requires people to take a cable car up to the base lodge. The summit stands at 15,413 feet and we were expecting the trek to take around seven hours round trip. The trail was well maintained with a nice gradual uphill climb through green grass and orange flowers.
The last forty-five minutes were a scramble up loose and very large rocks, but the end result was literally breathtaking — pause to catch a breath. It was our first introduction into the vastness of green landscape, large rock, and blue sky that makes up Ecuador, and we were so excited to be standing the highest either of us had ever climbed and in just two and a half hours!
We crushed the climb and felt like we were acclimating well to life back in the mountains. The entire trip took four and a half hours, and we were eagerly awaiting the next hike as we rode the cable car back down, singing “We Are the Champions” by Queen with a little Ecuadorian boy and his dad.
We hopped on another bus to Riobamba, but the bus trip was longer than expected because we stopped in the middle of the road for almost three hours with no explanation from police about what was going on. More vehicles joined us and many started turning around. Men and women were begging the driver to take a different road and rallying riders to bribe him with tips to encourage him to brave the dirt side roads through the national park. He refused. When we finally started moving again, we drove past groups of police in full riot gear lining the streets and what we assume were Venezuelan refugees. The scene did not look violent, just sad. Our hearts go out to those in Venezuela struggling to keep their loved ones safe.
Finally off the bus and after a short walk, we met John in his office at Andean Adventures. We tried on and gathered our mountaineering gear: thick waterproof and wind-proof pants and gloves, goggles, helmets, harnesses, ice axes, and crampons. We were going to find the snow for the first time all trip! The next morning we set off for the refugio at Chimborazo.
In a van, we prayed for our safety as this crazy grandmother, calling everyone ‘bandejo!,’ swerved in between lanes to bring us to the welcome center. We would spend four nights in the park doing two hikes with the final one bringing us to new heights!
Our first hike from the refugio was Carihuairazo, a 14 mile hike through varying landscape with an aggressive hour climb to the summit post-holing in knee-deep snow. This was the second time we’ve ever had crampons, harnesses, and ice axes on but it’s a much different experience on a steep incline. While walking on a flat glacier and avoiding crevices that go down for miles can be nerve-wracking, climbing steep hills in untouched snow with crampons on is tough work! What a sense of accomplishment to stand in the clouds at 16,469 feet, having learned first hand how to put crampons on in the snow!
We were excited to get back to the refuge for a delicious meal and some coca tea.
Two days later, it was time to make the summit Chimborazo attempt. Because of its location on the equator, and the fact that the earth isn’t perfectly round, Chimborazo is the closest point to the sun on Earth. It has two summits with the tallest standing at 20,564 feet. We have been talking about this climb for months. We’d spent a couple very successful weeks preparing at this point, and we were nervous, excited, and so ready! We had trouble sleeping because of all of the anticipation and build up, but we “woke up” and 9pm, had some tea, bread and cheese with jam, put on all of our gear, and set out around 10pm.
We took the red route which is shorter and steeper but way more badass as we needed to fight our way through steep inclines of loose gravel and rock. In the back of our minds we knew that we needed to be at the summit by 8am before the sun starts melting all of the snow and the way back becomes too dangerous. Easy, right?!
Fabian was our guide, a smiley and friendly father of five, and he set out a good slow pace for climbing as we started off walking straight up. By three hours in we were trekking in crampons all roped together by our harnesses. The excitement started to wear off. It was becoming grueling as we were putting one heavy foot in front of the other at nearly a 50% grade. Still, we were keeping a good pace and Fabian figured we would reach the cumbre at 7am.
“Only five more hours!” Fabian says cheerfully at 2am.
What. The. Hell.
So we continued making our own switch-backs, zig-zagging a trail in the snow because we no longer had the strength nor energy to keep putting one foot directly in front of the other to go straight up. The five-hour comment was like a swift kick to the crotch. Then around 3am we started to see headlamps coming down closer and closer to us. The young, energetic American and his guide, Raul, were quickly approaching us. Side-note, Raul might be the craziest person we’ve ever met. Sporting frostbite burns on one arm from some near death hiking experiences, he has hiked with Aron Lee Ralston, the guy from “127 Hours” who sawed off his own arm in order to save his own life. Anyway, the American we’d been swapping stories with hours earlier couldn’t even look us in the eye as Raul told us that 600 feet above us the snow had frozen slabs sitting on top and it was too dangerous to continue. Two days ago it had snowed most of the night making the second summit untouchable, but we had been holding out hope for the first. Unfortunately, the rain during the next day at the lodge meant more snow/hail at the top that froze overnight. If Raul, who has been stranded in the snow before, says it’s time to turn around, then it’s definitely time to turn around. So at 3am and 18,700 feet, we were forced to head back, defeated, exhausted, and heart-broken.
Eager for a break from the mountains, we headed straight to the popular tourist town of Baños, a sure bet to find a bar showing American football because on Sunday the Patriots were playing in the Superbowl.
We posted up at this German bar called Cherusker and watched Brady win his sixth ring which made us feel a little better. We drank delicious beer and had awesome burritos. While in town, Kourtney visited this cool bead shop and got to create her own necklace. Known as the adventure capital of Ecuador, we were looking forward to some biking to the Amazon, waterfall exploring, and some cliff-side swings but it just rained for four days. So we continued to sulk, sleep, and binge one of our favorite comedy series — Brooklyn 99.
It was time to snap out of it and stretch our legs again. We headed to Latacunga to start the Quilatoa Loop, a four day 36-mile trek through four different towns beginning in Sigchos. But first, we got off the bus to find that Coons’ bag that was under the bus had been next to and soaked by a bag of fish. WOOF! This was going to be a long four days, especially for anyone hiking behind us. We soaked it in vinegar in the hostel shower after the first day.
We read online that if you put baking soda on it and let it dry, it helps cut down the odor. So we did so and left it by the wood stove since it was raining outside. We woke up to find it had melted a bit at the bottom, rendering one of the bottom straps useless. We knew our bags would take a beating, but come on!
However, it was so nice to be on long dusty roads winding up mountains and down into canyons. We marveled at the green pastures and endless peaks and remembered that we do love Ecuador.
We saw more animals than we could count. We made excellent time avoiding these quarter-size beetles with sticky legs that swarmed and attached themselves to us while we stopped for breaks. After school, children would line the trails asking for candy or gifts. On the fourth day, we hiked around the crater of the lake taking in views from every angle.
It was excellent #patagoniaprep as we were getting excited for our next big adventure and one we had been planning since August.
But first, we needed a little redemption. At Chimborazo, we talked to the only female that reached the summit the near-week we were there. This was her second attempt at the summit and she was grateful to have reached the top of Chimbo but honestly loved Cotopaxi much more. That comment (and her pictures) stuck with us and we decided we had to try it. Cotopaxi is an easier climb, although still technical and must be climbed with a guide, crampons, and harness. The success rate is closer to 50% instead of ~25% and the weather had been pretty great lately. We contacted John and met Fabian on the side of the road near the highway exit to Cotopaxi ready to hike that same night!
We woke up (minus air quotes because we actually both slept this time) at 11pm and started out at midnight. A much more manageable grade, the Cotopaxi hike up was actually enjoyable, and we were looking forward to coming down because we could tell the crevices we were passing in the pitch black were going to look insanely awesome in the daylight. It turns out that we were incredibly acclimated and in shape for this hike because our pace was too good. We were crushing the two 22-year-old Americans that set out with us, one of them a dumpster diver who has only spent 300 dollars on groceries in the last two years. We started taking multiple (unneeded) breaks of up to 20 minutes in order to slow ourselves down and reach the summit by sunrise. At 5:20am, we reached the cumbre at 19,347 feet — seven feet taller than Kilimanjaro!
We gave victory hugs and took victory pictures and waited for the sun to start rising and the clouds to hopefully clear so we could see the crater. A little after six the sun started to turn a light blue and orange, but dark clouds were still hugging the crater. We needed to start down in order to avoid further numbness.
The way down was incredibly beautiful. As the sun was rising and warming us up, we walked past and over huge crevices and saw enormous icicles.
As the clouds parted we looked out into the park and felt a wonderful sense of accomplishment and redemption. We realized it was Valentine’s Day, and it was the most wonderful present to have reached new heights, standing on the third tallest active volcano in the world and the second closest rock to the sun. Although Chimborazo will continue to be our white whale, we are proud to have completed a technical climb in Ecuador at an impressive elevation.
Eager to get out of Latacunga (the food was decent, but the town isn’t a tourist attraction for a reason), we grabbed the rest of our gear and hoofed it to the bus station to catch a bus to Ambato. Unfortunately, we JUST missed the 1pm bus from Ambato to Cuenca, meaning we had to wait three hours for the next bus. Feeling hungry, we ordered lunch from the cafeteria upstairs. Luckily, Coons’ food came with soup. Unfortunately, that soup had a massive chicken foot sitting in it. Yum!
After finally reaching Cuenca at 10pm (almost 24 hours after we woke up to hike Cotopaxi), we made our way to our final hostel in Ecuador. Bella Vista was owned and operated by a lovely Ecuadorian man who was more than happy to engage in conversation with Coons whenever possible. Finally back in a hostel with a kitchen, we hit the market the next day to take full advantage of it.
While there was a highly recommended national park nearby, we decided to take it easy to rest up for Patagonia and instead spent the next day exploring the town. Thirsty from a day of sightseeing, we stopped by Jodoco, a Belgium brewery near our hostel. We both went for the Funky Sour beer and –oooh boy — this was the best beer we’ve had on the entire trip!
Needless to say, this was not the only time we happened to find ourselves thirsty and nearby.
On our last day in Cuenca, we decided to spend the afternoon at the local zoo. Typically, we’re not huge fans of zoos, but this biopark lived up to its reputation. Specializing in rescuing animals native to Ecuador, the zoo prioritized giving animals the space and environments they needed to roam around. It seemed like the monkeys had miles of tracks to move around the park and it took us an hour or so into the park to even see the Andean Bears.
The dirt path wound up hills, through exhibits, and worked in educational areas explaining the dangers of fires, logging, and litter. It was a heartening message compared to the attitude we’ve seen in other parts of our travels.
It was time for one more night bus headed to Lima, Peru where we would spend a few days before our flight to Patagonia.