lukewilliams459

Oct 18, 202313 min read

Cotopaxi National Park

Activity Summary

Wednesday 30th August - Day 330 (continued)

Travel to Cotopaxi
Secret Garden Cotopaxi - the best hostel & accomodation we have stayed in
Local Waterfall hike
Star and moon gazing
Luke proposal

Thursday 31st August - Day 331

Volcan Cotopaxi refugio and glacier hike

Luke:

Glacier hike - around 5,000m

Nicola:

Refugio hike - 4.864m

Reunited:

Luke proposal number 2
Afternoon chill in the room
Evening spent by the hostel fire
Latter evening spent in our room with a view

Friday 1st September - Day 332

Luke:

Pasochoa trek

Nicola:

Cotopaxi horse riding

Reunited:

Chill afternoon
Stargazing
General knowledge quiz

Saturday 2nd September - Day 333

Hostel chill and appreciation day
Engagement photo shoot
Travel to Latacunga

Summary

Cotopaxi

An amazing place. The hikes, volcanoes and summits are great fun along with the wonderful stars when dark.

The views everywhere are amazeballs and made it a pretty magical proposal place.

Transport

Cotopaxi

All organised through the Secret Garden Hostel. Luke had sorted when he made the initial booking direct with them
Shuttle leaves at 10am from Quito hostel
Arrived in Cotopaxi hostel at midday ish

Accommodation

Cotopaxi - Secret Garden Hostel

Number of nights - 3

Price per night per person - £50*

*Full board - includes all meals while here

Positives:

Views are stunning
Great chill areas all around the place
Warm fire in the evening
All the activities are easy to book and sort out
All meals included
Endless snacks of bananas, banana bread, water, coffee and teas
Absolutely zero stress
Really easy to socialise
Zero internet or mobile signal
Warm showers, if timed right
Hot tub
Friendly and cute dogs
Very pleasant temperatures
The birdhouse room was incredible
Private stargazing space

Negatives:

A lot more expensive than we would usually spend but completely worth it
Birdhouse had an incredibly short roof but it was absolutely fine

Recommend?

A magical place and the best one we’ve stayed in by a country mile

Diary

Wednesday 30th August - Day 330 (continued)

It was so nice to be ‘easy travelling’ from one place to another. Cannot beat a simple hostel pick up and drop off, which we hadn’t had the pleasure of using since Central America.

It was an easy enough bus ride to Cotopaxi, the only negative being the serious lack of leg room on the small stuffy minivan. But the journey only lasted a few hours, had a stop somewhere along the way for a toilet break and while the road into the Cotopaxi hostel was pretty bumpy and slow going it slowly turned into the green beautiful environment we so desperately sought.

But damn the views on arrival knocked us all for 6. We didn’t need to do anything on arrival except meet at the hostel entrance for a quick logistical briefing.

This was done with the views absolutely stellar views overlooking:

Volcan Cotopaxi

Rimanuhi

Pasochoa

Various other volcanoes / mountain peaks

It was seriously hard to take in anything the guy said while everyone’s eyes were fixed on the surroundings. The place was absolutely stunning.

Hilariously there was also a garden they had appropriately named ‘Isengarden’. Fuel for a later Insta pick.

Once inside we were served a local tea (plus alcohol for Luke) as a way of saying hello and provided lunch, the first meal of our 3 day school dinner set up that we honestly loved. The food was decent, plentiful and we had absolutely zero worry about anything the entire time we were here. Having other people run around after us while all we had to do was turn up in time was an absolute dream.

After lunch and chatting with various people we were shown to our private room, called ‘the birdhouse’. The room was incredible. It had a large window that had Cotopaxi front and centre, set apart from everyone else and monster blankets for warmth. Outside was a private hammock/net for stargazing or chilling if wanting to remove ourselves from the main building.

The views from the bog were outstanding.

It is the best place we have stayed. Luke would take this over a 5 star hotel any day.

We didn’t have too long to appreciate the room before getting our hiking stuff together and meeting at the boot room to get some wellies. The afternoon walk would be predominantly up and along a river so the boots were a necessity, despite being an absolute pain to walk in.

It was a lovely day for the walk. It was sunny, and not ridiculously hot with plenty of shade for the most part. Everyone was in great spirits, Luke probably topping the excitement index.

The walk went from the back of the hostel and up into the hillside. Initially there was a nice open field that overlooked Cotopaxi and the neighbouring mountains.

The majority of the walk to the two waterfalls was along the river and through temperate forest. The mossy covered route was beautiful and naturally Luke couldn’t stop taking pictures.

It wasn’t exactly the easiest route to walk in wellies. In certain places the hostel had connected up ropes to either assist with walking across ridges or descend up and down the rock faces.

Naturally Luke took this opportunity to be a show off.

The first waterfall was quite nice but the best part was the one of the doggos that had followed us for the ride. This guy thoroughly enjoyed rocks being thrown in the waterfall pool and Luke was more than happy to oblige.

The route to the second waterfall was a lot spicier. The rope assistance wasn’t there to help get up to the last point on the walk and involved hugging the wall at one point pretty close. Nicola wasn’t such a fan.

The second waterfall was also alright. Nothing special but the walk was good fun.

Lower down was the swimming spot for those brave souls. Luke, high from the fun of the walk, decided a quick dip would be pleasant. It was fucking freezing and after a few minutes, when his legs started going numb, was well and truly done. It wasn’t a particularly hot and challenging hike that required a refreshing dip.

The walk back was through a different route that was a lot more open rather than back along the river. Everyone was super sociable and ended up making some friends for the whole of our time there.

Back at the hostel we retreated to the birdhouse for the next part of the afternoon, Luke running back and forth from the hostel main building with hot chocolate and snacks to try to combat an altitude headache that was starting to show. Not on his watch.

5pm was snack and activity sign up time (absolute must for the hostel) where there was a cracking fire going and the doggos, having been on two walks for the day, were begging for food and passing out.

Nicola got comfortable with one of the dogs called Negra.

Luke got excited by the surroundings again and went outside to take more pictures as the sun started setting. In 3 days he ended with about 500.

But this time Cotopaxi had whipped out his tip for the world to appreciate.

Dinner was at 7pm everyday and due to the bench set up, it was super sociable and meeting new people was so easy.

Luke however had other plans and at about 8.30pm, when the hostel volunteers were rounding up people for the evening quiz, he stole Nicola away wanting some alone time. Thankfully she said yes.

It was a really interesting evening. At 8.30pm it was dark so there were stars in the sky but we had just so happened to have timed our trip while there was a blue moon, aka a super moon that was massive and so bright. It lit half the sky up and rippled off the limited number of clouds to the left. Conversely the stars were out in force on the right hand side without a cloud in the sky.

Luke ran around the room and the hostel collecting ponchos, towels and windbreakers to ensure that Nicola was as warm as could be while relaxing on our private hammock net by the birdhouse. Thankfully it wasn’t very windy at all so all the layers meant we could stay out for a good hour or so. It had also seemed that Luke’s increased levels of ‘protect Nicola at all costs’ over the course of the day had ensured that she was in a good mood, despite the minor altitude headache trying to wreak havoc in his next plan.

After having a short break from the net, Nicola returned to find Luke standing by the net. Of course she was a bit puzzled by this and probably only got more confused when Luke repositioned her so that she was standing on the only flat part of the ground, overlooking Cotopaxi and the stars overhead.

At this point Luke began his short but sweet speech. In his head it was complete gibberish as his heart started racing but to Nicola it was the opposite.

And so after nearly 10 years together, in front of a rare equatorial glacial capped 5,897m active volcano, the second tallest point in Ecuador, a half clear sky with beautiful stars overhead on an evening with a rare radiant blue moon, Luke got down on one knee and asked Nicola to marry him. ‘Yes of course’.

We spent the rest of the evening wrapped up, watching the sky and volcanoes and then when cold, retreated to the birdhouse to just watch Cotopaxi in each other's arms.

Thursday 31st August - Day 331

It was a gloriously clear and sunny morning overlooking Cotopaxi. Not a bad view to wake up to.

The altitude was still plaguing Nicola a bit and that coupled with a breakfast at 7am meant she didn’t have bundles of energy to throw into our day's activity, going up to the Volcan Cotopaxi Refugio at 4,580m and the glacier at around 5,000m.

The group bus left at 8.20am for Cotopaxi National Park which was a pretty bumpy ride throughout. The wait at the bike place seemed to take forever as some wanted to spend the extra $10 to ride down to the National park entrance. Having witnessed them do it, it’s totally not worth it.

In the process of acquiring the bikes, Luke’s comfortable seat with nice window views was forcibly exchanged for the bitch seat at the back of the bus between a father and son from Switzerland. Princess Nicola was of course in the front, switched off from the world with her headphones and therefore couldn’t hear the absolute dead chat from everyone on the bus despite Luke’s stellar ‘about to hike’ mood.

At the NP entrance we had a short stop for the toilet and then began the bumpy slow climb up to the car park at around 4,580m. Luke got actual air time at the back of the bus.

To celebrate the arrival of the group, Nicola was kind enough to pee on Luke’s foot who was running protection. What a delight.

From the car park there were already great views of Cotopaxi and the glacier.

Turning around and facing away from the volcano had sweeping views of the valley which over time ended up getting swept away by cloud cover.

The hike began and we were both walking together, Luke happy as Larry and Nicola refusing to acknowledge anything he said.

After a while the two guides created two groups, one going to the summit and the other the Refugio. Despite Luke’s protesting and saying he would catch up, was forced to abandon Nicola.

Luke story time:

The glacier views were great on the way up. The reddish rock was where the glacier used to run to before its continued retreat due to global warming.

Naturally I was gassed the whole time and whipped out the binoculars every moment I could for some close up glacier watching.

Heather was great company throughout who matched pace and talking energy. Great fun.

It wasn’t a particularly long or technical walk, the scree especially was quite easy to manage and I didn’t find the altitude particularly challenging at all.

We arrived at the glacier, sitting just shy of 5,000m, where we stopped for some pictures and glacier appreciation time. The views from below were arguably better.

The glacial melt was an interesting dirt colour and was the complete opposite of the brilliant blue NZ glaciers.

Nicola story time:

I slowly but steadily hiked up to the refugio, feeling a little worse for wear with the altitude.

In the refugio I managed to grab my first cocoa tea to help with the altitude and sat happily chatting to a German girl until the others arrived.

######

We were reunited at the Refugio and Luke kicked into life plan number 2; proposal on top of Cotopaxi.

It was quite amusing trying to get Nicola to follow Luke to a solitary spot who actually resisted somewhat. But persistence and a hiking high wasn’t going to stop Luke, so in front of the Refugio hut, overlooking the valley below, Luke got down on one knee again and proposed with a second, even cheaper, blue topaz ring.

This time Nicola laughed, which was an entertaining response.

So Luke’s proposal plan was over, once at the bottom of the volcano and once at the top. She’d been waiting for this for nearly 10 years so two proposals didn’t really seem excessive at all. Plus the glitzy ring was far from practical so the second was planned with the aim to draw as little attention to Nicola’s ring finger while travelling.

With the romantic gestures now done, Luke then ran down the mountain because girls have cooties (and mountain scree is fun).

Nicola was kind enough to give up Matilda for an older lady that could not keep herself from falling over down the volcano.

With everyone back at the shuttle, we travelled back to the hostel which took an age.

Perks of the hostel was that they knew when we would be back and lunch was immediately served, and an unlimited amount of it which Luke put to good use each day.

We had a much needed shower, although the tepid water wasn’t appreciated, and chilled in our room to recover.

The late afternoon was spent by the fire, the 17 year old sausage dog called Mash chilling in Luke’s lap post Ciara leaving him high and dry for the alpacas. ‘A sausage dog between two buns’.

Prior to dinner at 7pm Luke managed to see some stars before the super moon appeared and noted the timing for the next night to try and maximise our stargazing time.

Once food and socialisation was done we again spent the latter part of the evening in our room with a view.

Friday 1st September - Day 332

Happy travel-versary! A full 365 days since we set off from London for Thailand and it feels like an absolute lifetime ago.

Hilariously we would spend very little of the day together to celebrate / we were so removed from any form of required planning that we had absolutely no idea what date it was. But as one of our favourite places on our travels it was a pretty good place to spend it.

Post breakfast and again admiring beautiful morning views, we parted ways; Luke off to hike the Pasochoa Trek and Nicola horse riding around Cotopaxi.

Luke story time:

The guided Pasochoa Trek was a free hike included by the hostel for those who book the 3D2N package so it was interesting to learn they deemed it one of the harder ones (harder than the Cotopaxi Refugio anyway).

The walk started from the doorstep of the hostel so realistically could have been done free anyway but being part of a group was good fun.

The walk up was pretty good fun. It went through temperate forest and then when higher was more of a walk across short shrubland.

The views over the mountains were clear throughout and were a good pastime.

As it started getting steeper the group slowed down quite a bit so I ended up ahead kind of dawdling along with the dogs for company.

I then got bored and ran off ahead just to see what walking at 3,800m and the altitude would do to me at my normal walking pace. It didn’t feel like a great burden to be honest. The views once from this point changed to be over Quito which was quite cool.

When the route looked like it was going to get more scrambly I slowed down and let the group catch up. It never materialised but the views of what could have been taken for the UK countryside were nice.

The last part was a fair amount steeper and I had the powerhouse that was Heather for company. As quickly as I went up she also had, which was good fun.

The ridge line views from the top were the best of the hike.

There was a steep rock summit that did require some scrambling to get across and then a small jump to get to the other side. This was all a little intense given the savage drop off on one side of the rock.

I did have a bird for company for a short while as well.

From here there are supposedly views over 9 volcanoes / peaks. Not that I counted but it was pretty cool at 4,200m.

We were also lucky enough to get our first condor spotting.

It was a bit of a slog on the way down which I don’t think anyone enjoyed that much.

Overall:

13km
/\857m
Moving time = 3hrs 47mins
Elapsed = 5hrs 37mins

Nicola story time:

My horse riding trip was in the national park in the shadow of Cotoapaxi. Initially I was given a gentle female horse who despite my insistence to trot would only saunter along at her own slow pace failing to keep up with the fast ones at the front. I spent an hour riding through the grassland feeling like I was in Lord of the Rings.

After a snack and tea stop, to warm up (thankfully I was toasty with all my layers) we headed off to a wider area of grassland.

Ciera an Irish girl, who was a beginner at riding was struggling on her horse and so I was asked to swap. Happy to have a faster horse I agreed. What a fool.

Immediately my horse wanted to be at the front and as the advanced riders cantered off my horse followed, despite my command to slow down. I managed to keep my horse back with the main slower group, when all of a sudden she decided to gallop off to join the fast guys. I've never galloped on a horse before and it's terrifying having zero control. Once the horse caught up with the others i shouted for the others to stop (the only way to get mine to stop)

The others thankfully stopped and whilst mine was shaking its head and jostling I jumped off, adrenaline pumping and fell on my back. Padded from the fall by my rucksack it took me a few minutes to gain the courage to get back on.

Another girl fell off her horse as it bolted without her on it. Safe to say some of the horses were SPICEY. And certainly not for begginers.

I managed to keep control of the horse for the remainer of ride by sheer will power, command and not letting it do what it wanted. I won't be going on a horse in South America again.

Reunited:

We were reunited back at the hostel dining room where Luke shared nothing eventful and Nicola and the horse riding troupe explained some of their woes.

As with every afternoon at the hostel, everyone would find a spot to slump in for some downtime and rest. We went into the hot tub for a bit which was absolutely scorching; certainly an activity for the cold nights.

What we did manage to time well was some stargazing. We went outside for 6.50ish and while still light we did manage to witness a pretty cool lightning storm tear across half the diminishing sky. Two other Danish guys also had the same idea and so we ended up lying in the nets, looking up at the sky that was slowly getting darker and chatting.

When Luke checked in on dinner they got mighty stressy so we quickly went in, wolfed down some food and were straight back out as the sky went fully dark and before the super moon could rise from behind the mountains.

When we got cold we went back inside and timed the desert pretty well. Without Luke’s desire to remove Nicola from the evening socials we joined up with two Bristolians for the general knowledge quiz and while joint 3rd was respectable we did feel robbed in having no knowledge of the hostel dog names which contributed to 5 points. A little too much weighting in that question for us.

Saturday 2nd September - Day 333

Post breakfast we had a very nice morning. We did very little with our time, relaxing in the hostel before deciding to have a little proposal photo shoot.

Here Luke got his Isengarden photo and was o so proud to post to instagram with the caption ‘took the hobbit to Isengarden, came back with a fiancée’.