Today we took a trip 16,000 ft up into the Earth’s Atmosphere. I was a little nervous at first just because of the experiences that we heard about from altitude sickness and 16,000 ft is pretty up there, but I got passed the nerves and knew that it would be ok. The nervousness turned to excitement and I was ready to hike Chimborazo, the tallest mountain peak in all of Ecuador. Except it’s not a mountain, it’s a volcano. We entered the park on the bus and drove up to the first refuge station in which we would get out and hike the 200-meter-long trail up to the second refuge which was 500 meters in elevation higher than the first station. On the drive up to the first station we learned that the park was designated as a protected area to save the declining Vicau population (they were basically lamas). The plan succeeds, and the population currently is as strong as it once was. We saw a couple of them walking around on the bus ride up too, very interesting creatures. We then got to the first refuge, and one of the first things that we notice were these big solar panels in which we learned that the building was entirely solar powered. This was very cool for me to see because consistently throughout the trip I’ve seen so many efforts and reminder of awareness of what you use and what you do to the environment through your daily activities. There are just so many more effort towards living in a sustainable future here in Ecuador than I have ever seen in the USA and Ecuador is still developing but they still make the environment and reducing harmful practices a priority (minus that terrible oil drilling). Everyone went to the bathroom and everything and then we embarked on our hike. At 16,000 ft we had to walk at a snail’s pace and even then you would get winded. I felt the same way I did in Cajas, I felt so alive because of this, experiencing hiking at 16,000 ft above sea level on the tallest peak in all of Ecuador is not something everyone has the opportunity to do or say that they have. We learned that at the peak of the volcano you are actually closer to the sun than you would be at the top of Mt. Everest due to Chimborazo being on the equator. I thought that was a pretty awesome fact about this peak, and I got the chance to hike it. And the sun definitely felt like we were extremely close to it, it was powerful. The hike took us a about an hour to get up, we hung out at the top for a bit some people got hot chocolate and then it took us about 5-8 minutes to get down lol. That’s how slow we had to walk on the way up, including breaks as well.
By the time we were done with our hike it was too late to head over to Quilotoa because the park closed at three, so we took a nice bus ride to the next hotel which was near Cotopaxi and Quilotoa. We planned on waking up very early to start the day the next day as we were going to Quilotoa and Cotopaxi. I was looking forward to another great day of hiking through the features of the Andes. At the hotel before bed we had a reflection and had a very good talk about energy with Tait which I really enjoyed and learned a lot from.
By the time we were done with our hike it was too late to head over to Quilotoa because the park closed at three, so we took a nice bus ride to the next hotel which was near Cotopaxi and Quilotoa. We planned on waking up very early to start the day the next day as we were going to Quilotoa and Cotopaxi. I was looking forward to another great day of hiking through the features of the Andes. At the hotel before bed we had a reflection and had a very good talk about energy with Tait which I really enjoyed and learned a lot from.