Cotopaxi
25 September 2005 (Sunday) – Quito to Parque Nacional Cotopaxi to Quito, Ecuador
There is a tourist train leaving each Saturday and Sunday from Quito to Parque Nacional El Boliche. The national park is located at the base of one of the highest ACTIVE volcanoes in the world – Cotopaxi, at 5897m above sea level. Since I am so NOT going to climb Volcano Cotopaxi, I decided to go on this little trip to view the volcano.
There were several buses which transported the passengers from the derelict-looking Chimbacalle Train Station to somewhere in the south where the real train was. By then, I had already made friends with 4 Ecuadorean amigos – Gabriela, Veronica, Cesar and Fernandes. The passengers all rushed towards the train and clambered to the roofs of the train. The train was actually moving slowly, but the passengers were fighting one another off to get onto the roofs. It was a little scary-looking, haha.
There were enterprising vendors selling squares of foam as seats to these passengers who wish to sit on the roofs. Many had bought them. I did not. But during the desperate climb, someone apparently dropped his foam-square. I looked up at the roof and since no one seemed to be searching for it, I decided the foam-square was mine now.
The day was bright and beautiful, very sunny and blue. Right on the roof, it was actually very hot, especially since we were at around 2800+m here in Quito. It was very easy to get sun-burnt. But when the train started moving, the wind made us cold right away.
The scenery was really very pretty, with patchwork of farmlands scattered all over the hills and countrysides, spotted with black-and-white cows grazing and galloping horses. Many villagers waved at us as the train sped by. We could see the Cotopaxi peak for quite a while through the train ride. But clouds were moving in soon.
We reached the Parque Nacional El Boliche, located at 3550m above sea-level, at around 11am. As the train would leave at 2:30pm, we had about 3 and a half hours to walk around. I actually had no idea what to expect. I had thought that there would be an easy trail that would lead us to a viewing mirador where we could sit and admire Volcano Cotopaxi.
The trail led us to a camping spot and then, it just disappeared. The Ecuadorean tourists were happy to just lounge around the camping spot. But I kept wondering where was the viewing mirador. By then, I had lost Gabriela and her friends. I walked through some woods and came upon a slightly-sloping track for vehicles. It seemed to make more sense to head upwards, so I walked in that direction. Gosh, there was no sign at all to indicate where to go. I passed a couple of foreign tourists. We asked one another, which way? No idea at all.
We decided to just keep walking, since what else could we do? These two were exchange students working as interns here in Ecuador. They were Selene from Mexico and Jirka from Czech Republic. Great, at least I had some company.
We happened upon a group of llamas. For Selene and Jirka, they were delighted as they had probably not seen them before, and took many pictures. We then carried on with the walk, stopping many times to admire the pine trees and the occasional interesting flowers. We came upon a fork in the path that had a chain across it, seeming to indicate – No Entry. So we walked on the other way. Soon, we came upon another fork in the road. We could only pick one and try. Dead-end. We picked the other. Dead-end as well. We had by now given up any hopes of finding a viewing mirador of Volcano Cotopaxi. Perhaps, the excursion here was just the joy-ride up on the train, I figured.
Then, we returned the way we came from and when we came upon the path with the chain again, we decided to, why not, give it a shot and try and walk for 10 minutes to see where it led. Well, it led to a huge area of paramo bushes and suddenly, to our right, there stood Volcano Cotopaxi! Finally, we found it. Gosh, to think that the path that led to a view of the volcano had a chain across it, keeping out the less-determined tourists. Sheesh…
Unfortunately, the peak of Volcano Cotopaxi was deeply covered with clouds, but nevertheless the view was really pretty, especially with the paramo bushes around.
Tags: 07) Crossing Ecuador Line, Quito
swesn
June 14th, 2006 at 6:18 pm
Thanks for the great details of your train trip. We are planning on taking this train on our trip at the end of June. Now we will know which way to go when we get there.
Brenda
North Carolina