High in the Andes

After a healthy acclimatization period in Quito we hit the road and drove the Craggin’ Wagon to Cotopaxi. We turned off the road at the first sign we saw for the park and ended up driving a 26km cobblestone/dirt track to a secondary entrance into the park. It was fun and the rig did not disappoint.

We drove up to Laguna Limpiopunga and camped at 12,600 feet (3850m). The views, well, they were stunning. Sometimes you’re just in the right place at the right time.

Now rather than pay a guy $200 for ice gear and a suffer fest to the top of Cotopaxi we opted to climb the 15er next door by ourselves – after all, we can suffer for free at home. Volcan Ruminahui has three peaks. We climbed the central topping out at 15,193 feet (4631m) hoping to traverse the ridge over to the next peak that was slightly higher.

When we summited the winds dictated that the ridge traverse was out of the question so we snapped a few pics and headed back down.

Having enjoyed the Park immensely we left via the proper entrance on normal roads (chuckling about our route in) and headed to Latacunga to see about driving the 200km Quilotoa Loop – a road that visits many tiny towns while it circles a remote part of the Andes.

First we hit the iconic Thursday morning market at Saquisili which was so big that its 8 different plazas couldn’t contain it leaving the entire town overflowing with stalls and vendors. This market was a bit different from Otavalo, aside from its size its mainly for locals from the highlands rather than for tourist trade. We were treated to spectacular culture, great food, and some fun pics.

From there we began our trek around the loop. Amazing views, tiny towns and surprisingly decent roads deposited us in Quilotoa after a full afternoon of driving. The Craggin’ Wagon continued to rally at altitude as did we.

Quilotoa sits at about 12,500 feet (3800m) and one of the most beautiful lakes we have ever laid eyes on lies 1000 feet below in the Quilotoa Crater. The locals claim the lake has no bottom and having seen it, I have to think they may be right. Simply breath taking.

The book mentioned it would take an hour to get back up to Quilotoa so we hustled to see how we would fair and topped out in 30 minutes! Morning exercise complete I decided to give our dented transmission pan another inspection and apparently drew quite the crowd.

Our desire to linger in such a beautiful area was strong, but our desire to peek around the next corner was stronger. The Craggin’ Wagon rolls on…