Hello!
We spent yesterday traveling from Cayambe to Cotopaxi National Park. Along the way we stopped for the biggest feast of the trip so far (!) at a long-standing famous family restaurant, El Balcón De La Riobambeñita. Almost everyone in the group ordered the local favorite – llapingacho con fritada. Oh my! Delicious and enormous, perfect recovery meal.
We arrived at Tambopaxi Lodge in drizzly weather and settled in for a cozy evening by our fireplaces. The colorful lodge sits in the wide Andean grassland between Cotopaxi and its sister volcano, Ruminahui. It’s beautiful here, even with the volcanoes hiding behind the clouds. Some of us stayed up in the lounge area last night to watch the final football match of the LigaPro championship – Independiente won, if that means anything to you!
Now, at 2pm on Monday, we’re headed up to the Jose Rivas Refuge for our summit attempt of Cotopaxi! Similar to our Cayambe timeline, we’ll have an early dinner at the refuge this evening and try to catch some shut eye before starting uphill at midnight. The weather has been pretty iffy the past few days– most teams here the last two nights have turned around. We’re cautiously optimistic that things will open up overnight – here’s hoping!
One of our team’s guides, Ramiro, is a journalist when he’s not guiding (such talent), and an article of his was recently published about the history of the Jose Rivas Refuge on Cotopaxi, where we’ll be staying tonight. It’s interesting and worth a read – we’ll link it here: https://revistamundodiners.com/medio-siglo-refugio-cotopaxi-andinismo/.
Cheers!
The Quinoa Posh Climbers
