Anyway, so we walked to bus terminal, took a bus to Quito, and asked the driver to let us get off at the entrance of Cotopaxi National Park. There was an incident in the highway, and the bus went to the village roads, and we had no idea where the hack we were. Eventually, they came back to check if anyone was going to Cotopaxi, we said we were, so they went all the way back to the highway and let us out at the entrance. It was kind of a mess. Anyhow, as we got off, there were already a line of trucks waiting to pick up tourists, it was like taxi in a way, they would be hired to drive up to the museum, the lagoon, and the place where you started the hike to the base camp. It was like $50 for two persons. Cheaper than our tour already. The guy we had was very nice, I think his name was Rico. As we went into the Cotopaxi National Park, I was surprised how big the area was, it reminded of the Dakotas, the highlands. The weather was no bien. It was raining, very windy. The museum was a meh. After some coffee and coca tea, we headed straight to the hike, you almost surprised how high the truck was driving us to. I really did not know what to expect. I did the Macchu Pichu hike, and some mild hiking in South Dakota once. But nothing prepared me for this. We were in the extreme condition I would say, it was snowing, mixed with freezing rain, and strong winds, the base camp was visible from where we started, it was only 200m after all, but the incline on the volcanic sand was not an easy tasks, especially with that weather condition. I breathed heavier and heavier with each step. There were many moments I wanted to give up and turn back. But I kept telling myself, it's almost there, you would be rewarded with bananas, some coca tea, and a chair to sit inside. Henry was way ahead of me, but he told to just take my time. And I did, I took the whole 45-50 mins to walk up that 0.125 miles.
I breathed so heavy going up, some folks when they were descending saw me like I was ready to die, they gave me a candy. Just to give me some extra energy to push it through. My nasal dripping was on my goatee, I looked like a train wrack no less. But I made it to the base camp at 4864 meters (or 15953 feet) eventually. That was a personal record. It felt very satisfying, but at the same time, I was thinking what the hell have I done. Good that I did not get myself into one of those panic attack, I did have my inhaler with me, just in case. But I did not use it. I rest on the rock a few times, just stayed calm and let my body to adjust. When I got to the base camp, Henry was chatting with a girl from Seattle, she was very generous and offered to drop us back if we were on the same path. But we had our truck waiting. So, we just thanked her. Henry wanted to challenge himself to go further up, for maybe 20 mins or so. So off he went, and I was just sipping my coca tea. There were flags everything in the room, I did not see Hong Kong. But there was a China flag and a UK flag. I first signed the China flag, but it didn't feel quite right, so I signed the UK flag too. It is a HK thing. Maybe China has the sovereignty over Hong Kong now, but Hong Kong people would always have their own identity whether they like or not. They can just deal with it.
Found Henry back at 2:30pm, we were supposed to meet the truck driver at 3pm at 4600m parking lot. So, we started our way down. Walking down actually looked scary, partly because the volcanic sands provided no footing, often I was kind of half sliding with my sneakers. And from the angle looking down, there were lot of edges. I meant if you walked closer to the edge, they were not really edges. But like a sand dunes, from a certain angles, you do not really know what the other sides are. That was the scary part. Nonetheless, walking down was much faster, it may have taken us 15 mins or so. I was so glad when I was back sitting in the truck. I am alive! Hallelujah! My pants were a mess, I was wearing my jeans underneath my wind breaker pants. Both were wet and the outer pants were dirty. My sneakers were brownish-red, from the volcanic sands. My mini backpack were wet. The snow and rains kind of made them even more gross. Anyway, we did it. I did it. I think I deserved a really relaxing last day in Quito tomorrow.
Before then, I still needed to figure out how to get to Quito. After saying goodbye to Henry, supposedly I needed to stand by the side of the highway to flag down a bus to Quito. But somehow I was standing in the wrong place, where it was marked yellow on the curbside, I think it meant no car can stop there, right? I don't know, maybe because of exhaustion, my brain was not functioning. I waited there for a good while, and all the buses just passed me by. Finally I figured that out, and I walked up to the next block where there was no yellow marker on the curbside. The next bus stopped by for me. I was really damn exhausted from the hike, as we arrived the bus terminal in Quito, it was quite a distance from the center, I decided to just take a taxi to go to the airbnb, instead of doing the bus for another hour and half. I thought I was very hungry, since other than the breakfast at the hotel, a candy, and 3 bananas, I did not really eat anything else today. So, I ordered a big 1/2 lbs rib burger. After half of it, I could not eat anymore, I think it may have to do with the altitude changes today, and my body was still adjusting. I took the leftover home and eventually finished it. I think I have done enough for this trip, this has been way beyond what I anticipated already. So no plan is my plan tomorrow.
See all Day 9 photos here.
