Journal Entry, September 29th, 2007

All photos available for viewing at http://www.flickr.com/photos/meghanhatch/

Location: Parque Nacional de Cotopaxi, First Day

It seems we are all waiting for Cotopaxi to rear her head, display her perfect peak. Everyone in the lodge's dining room is looking out the windows, including a very tall Scandinavian man who must bend down to look up, all squinting into the blinding brightness. But the mountain is teasing her guests, playfully hiding and partially appearing from behind swirling mists.

A bowlful of traditional potato and cheese soup, locro, has filled my belly; two cups of Mate de Coca have warmed me and should reputedly ease the 1,000 meter ascent made today in the back of a pickup truck from the valley below.

I left Quito early this morning and have now arrived at Tambopaxi, the one and only accomodation inside of Cotopaxi National Park. Cotopaxi is the 2nd highest volcano in Ecuador--standing at 5897 m, or 19,347 feet! It also boasts the most perfectly shaped cone of any volcano in this cordillera. It is, in more ways than one, breathtaking. The majesty of this mountain is made all the more dramatic because it stands alone, exploding out of the surrounding low hills and vast, tundra-like plains.

The park is comprised of 33,000 hectares of parámo--hauntingly beautiful wind swept grasslands, rocky and rugged, arid and cold, often shrouded in mists, and not an environment for the weary among us, animal, plant and human included. The plains are covered in lichen and mosses, either as dried out embroidery on rocks, or moist and thriving near a sudden stream. There are few trees to speak of, and the most dominant plant life are large tufts of long grass, resembling straw bushes that when viewed from a distance appear lush like wheat bending soft in the wind.

I will try, and certainly fail, to properly describe Volcán Cotopaxi. Nor could my camera capture what it is like to stand here just a few kilometers from her base. As I watch, the mists move eerliy, like fluid or like dancers with scarves at some Hindu ritual, hiding the identity of the royalty, teasing the audience. They part, almost directly down the middle, the curtain now revealing Her Majesty´s massive mount--snow covered, the texture of the glacier ice in full relief, and brighter than the white clouds behind. The audience applauds in their minds. We move outside to see her unobstructed, silently moving together, in awe of what we are witnessing. Viewing her northern face, the rock below the snow line stands very red, like a russet potato, between the shadow of the base and the icy gleam at the summit. The size of it nearly dwarfs the sky. I feel my face bathed in this cold, clear light, and I am amazed.

Suddenly from the East comes a stampede of a hundred horses. They fly across the hills, through a small canyon and up over onto the plain in front of the lodge. Behind them, a rainbow shimmers--I kid you not. The silence of the onlookers is broken and cameras click crazily. These are wild horses, belonging to no one but themselves. However, once a year they are rounded up rodeo style, their hooves are manicured so they don't develop the horse equivalent of ingrown toenails, and their tails are cut. Apparently horse tails can grow too long, getting caught up in their legs as they run. This effort to keep the horses healthy is a community project. They are protected but left wild, whereas they used to be stolen by locals in the villages below. Now the locals, combining their energies with those of the park and Tambopaxi, have helped to nurture these animals, preserving their lives and the spirit of these wild lands.