Step by step the longest march
Can be won can be won
Many stones do form an arch
Singly none singly none
And by union what we will
Can be accomplished still
Drops of water turn the mill
Singly none singly none
Dearest Fellow Readers,
We are back at Palugo after an amazing 18-day expedition! What a great adventure we had. This whole semester we've had a view of Cotopaxi, the second largest mountain in Ecuador, standing at 5,897 meters above sea level. Over this last expedition we walked all the way from Palugo to the summit of Cotopaxi, about 70km. The ultimate trek! We could barely believe it when we were standing at the base of this majestic beauty. But, I think I'm getting a little too much ahead of myself. Let me take it back to where I left off in the short update I sent last.
So our first two days of trekking were amongst the clouds on mountain ridges and grassy pastures where bulls roamed. On the third morning three students went back to Palugo to rest, leaving the rest to finish the trek to Antisana by themselves. So they had a solo! Although they were partially led by a friendly park ranger, Manuel. The next morning Thomas and Lily met the group, and were later followed by Ross, Marcea, Erica myself and Hannah. It was wonderful to have everyone back together and hear our different stories.
When we woke up the next morning, there was a beautiful huge rainbow right in front of our base camp. Ross and Lily surprised us with a fruity oatmeal. We then had time to prepare for our skills test. Before the actual test, we had lunch and were entertained by two Ecuadorian wolves that were super friendly as well as very sneaky. They almost ran off with Hannah Miller's bright blue underwear! There were five different skills that we would have to know. One was making a fire, maintaining it, and taking it down. Another was building an anchor, strong enough to secure our fellow comrades, using a knot of our choice that we had learned. The third skill was knife sharpening, so they were sharp enough to shave with. The next was reading and orienting maps. Finally, the fifth skill was knowing how to assemble 7 specific important knots. Happily everyone passed! We enjoyed pasta with peanut sauce and cabbage salad for dinner, and headed to bed early to be rested for the climb up to Moraine camp the following day.
This was the camp we would stay at before going up to our high camp on the glacier. Once we arrived to Moraine camp, we set up camp, and then brought our mountaineering gear up to the edge of the glacier to lighten the load for the following day. That night it was very chilly, but we still enjoyed a rice and lentil soup for Thomas’ birthday. Erica, who had been back in Palugo for a rest to recover from a stomach illness surprised both Thomas and I with a chocolate cake that Adela had made for our birthdays. It was quite a night.
The next day we headed up to high camp. Imagine pitching tents on top of the icy snow and having a view of the sunset above the clouds. We were served hot chocolate in our tents and ate delicious pesto quinoa. What a place to fall a sleep in!
The hike up to the summit of Antisana commenced at around 3am. I know I already mentioned this in the last update, but seeing nothing but the sparkling snow beneath us and the trains of headlights that looked like Chinese lanterns was magical. We were walking up the mountain to greet the sun that would rise in a couple of hours. Thomas said that while other people were dreaming in their beds, we were living our dreams on the mountain. There were a few steep and technical areas on the glacier, but everyone who left from high camp made it to our summit, which was 50 meters from the actual summit. There wasn't any visible way to get to the actual summit because of shifts in the glacier, but we still all felt like we reached the summit. What a view we had! A layer of clouds, with Cotopaxi peeking above them, along with all the other tall mountains in the region. It felt so exciting to be there and experience the glacier with each other. I personally felt I had been given a gift from the entire world, since it was my birthday! Truly special. The descent back to high camp went smoothly, with Thomas and Mathias testing our self-arrest skills by suddenly yelling "Tension! Tension!" and sliding rapidly down the mountain. That warmed us up! After a fine lunch that the folks who stayed behind prepared for us (Ross, Hannah C. and Naty), we descended even further all the way back to base camp. The llamas from the area were there to greet us. We washed up and started preparing dinner. We accidentally opened up a can of condensed sweet milk, so we made sweet birthday popcorn, which was a lovely treat! We had a long meeting about how we felt about the closeness of the group, and what it meant to be in a community. Then we happily and sleepily went to bed.
Since it was Thanksgiving day the next day, during lunch we shared in a circle about what our families do to celebrate the holiday. Then we all got excited and started taking about our favorite pies. I'm pretty sure everyone was a tad bit homesick. But the games we played afterwards took our homesickness away quickly. Since we had the whole day to rest and talk, we decided that we haven't been playing enough games during this semester. So we played capture the flag and quite a few other classics. The altitude was definitely noticeable by our easy tiredness and heavy breathing, but it was still a bunch of fun.
I guess I don't need to go into full detail about every single day and where we stayed each night. I'll say that we ended up staying at the base camp of Antisana for two nights longer than expected, while we waited to see if Tobias would feel better. His stomach didn't feel any better, so he ended up going back to Palugo with Marcea and Geoff. Our group decided that if one of our members were sick and had to go back to Palugo, that another student would go with them to be their care taker. Geoff would catch up with us when we got to the base of Cotopaxi. Until then, the rest of us continued our trek. Through fields, on mossy soils, under hawks and past rabbits, we went along mountain ridges. It truly was a beautiful trek. On the evening that we left Antisana, we were settling in at our campsite and Hannah C. accomplished her dream of catching a roaming horse that was nearby. She managed to do so with just her scarf. The rest of us were watching from the tarp, and Erica said, "Either that horse is really old, really tired, or Hannah is magical." It was amazing to see how tame the horse was with Hannah. It even let her sit on it! Incredible. Hannah's smile afterwards was priceless.
When we arrived to the Cotopaxi side of the mountain range, we stayed at the campsite for two nights. Marcea and Geoff met us, and Hannah M. switched with Geoff, to go back and be with Tobias. Francisco, who dropped them off, left us with fresh mangos, yogurt, banana and zuchinni bread. Marcea also brought the mandolin with her, which Lily really enjoyed playing on the remainder of our trek. Walking towards Cotopaxi, everyone was noticeably stronger. It was the best trekking day we ever did together, because we stayed together at the same pace. We camped at a high altitude, above the clouds with a fantastic view of Chimborazo, Ecuador's tallest mountain. We could also see an erupting volcano! The next day we didn't have very far to walk to get to the lodge where we would stay at the base of Cotopaxi. It was a cozy little place with two cabins and a loft for us to stay in. Once we rested for a bit, took showers and settled in, Mathias drove up with Ross, Hannah M, Tobias, and his cousin Sabastian with his wife Gabby. We hadn't seen Tobias for a few days, so it was really nice to see him again. The owner of the lodge made us an incredibly delicious dinner with four different courses. We all found it odd to sit at a table with glass windows and a great view. There was also a heater by the couches, so it was super cozy. That night we all slept really well.
The next day after a yummy lunch that Marcea made all of us, we started ascending up towards Moraine/high camp. It was all up hill for 5.2 km. Luckily we had two horses to carry up all of our food and group gear. In the direction we were heading, directly over Cotopaxi we could see lightning and hear thunder. We were also hit with a good amount of hail, which didn't send off the warmest welcome. The Moraine camp was nice with rubber tents and a stove. After eating a little something and meeting about who had their heart set on going up Cotopaxi, we went to bed early, since we would have to wake up at midnight.
Waking up so early wasn't so bad. We shared a delicious oat raisin chocolate colada. It was really warming. Gathering our gear we hiked for about an hour up to the glacier. Hannah C., Jackson and Bryson stayed behind at camp but their hearts were with us. The climb was like Antisana... but different. The snow sparkled to the bright full moon, it wasn't as steep or as technical, and the sunrise was beautiful. There we were, on top of the clouds. As we got closer to the top we could smell sulphur and see smoke coming out of various crevices. At the summit there was a huge crater covered in snow. Everyone was so excited to have made it. Trina and I had been saving our last mangos for this moment, so we enjoyed them on the glacier. We were blessed by the morning and headed down soon enough. What a rewarding and proud feeling it was. We carried this feeling all the way back with us to Palugo.
Once we walked back to the lodge, we had to walk even more downhill to meet our bus. Everyone was sleepy and took little catnaps on the ride home. When we arrived back at Palugo, Adela brought us an amazing dinner of quiche, meat loaf, soup, rice, salad and chocolate ice cream cake!! Thanks Adela! Such rich food after simple but delicious expedition food! It felt good to be back and we were all very grateful of Adela.
Well my fellow readers, you are now caught up in great detail of our expedition. It was certainly an experience and an accomplishment, walking all the way from Palugo to the summit of Cotopaxi. Being back at Palugo, people have told us that they're impressed with how much we're glowing and how we seem to have grown tighter together. We went over the schedule for these next days with Thomas, and every moment is packed. We are working on engraving little personal drawings into the choza, our garden house, working on projects and academic work. There is a lot of preparation for coming back to the States! We are also going to Otavalo to go to the craft market there, we will have a salsa night taught by Sabastian and Gabby, and doing many other exciting things. It's odd to think about leaving Palugo, the place we've called home for the past three months, and to part from each other. But we're also very excited to see all of you in less than two weeks! Wow!
With hugs all the way from the glaciers,
Your scribe,
Melodia
Geoff would like to wish his father Daniel a Happy Birthday.
Hannah M would like to wish her brother Jake a Happy Birthday and says she will make him a rockin’ birthday cake in a couple weeks.
Hannah C would like to wish her Aunt Dietra a Happy belated Birthday.
Jackson would like to wish his sister Sofie a Happy Birthday. She is now 19.
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