Day 4: Hike to Hacienda Los Mortiños [3,600m / 11,811’]
Nothing crazy today… or so we thought! What was billed as a relatively tame 8 mi hike along the upper part of the Río Pita that ended at our next hotel, the Hacienda Los Mortiños, ended up being a bit more interesting… but more on that in a bit.
Ecuador is a relatively small country with temendous diversity in its geography. Located in northwestern South America, it borders Columbia to it’s north and Peru to the south and east. To the west lies the Pacific Ocean and the Gálapagos Islands (a territory of Ecuador located 621 miles out in the Pacific Ocean). Straddling the equator, the mainland features three distinct regions: The Coast; The Highlands; and The Amazon.
We are spending our time in The Highlands, where most of the country’s volcanoes and all of its snow-capped mountains are located. Since we are at the equator and at high elevations, the UV index tends to remain in the very high to extreme ranges during the middle of the day when we are generally hiking. Therefore sun protection is paramount, and we make it a priority to either cover or apply sunscreen to exposed skin several times throughout the day.
Now… back to the day’s eventful hike. At the outset we were enjoying a leisurely hike along the riverside trail. We learned that this river is one of three that channel glacial melt, mud and lava from major eruptions of Cotopaxi. The remnants of the last major eruption in 1876 were evident in the different layers of mud and lava flows in the walls of the river basin.
After about 30 minutes of hiking, we encountered the Cascada del Fuego (Waterfall of the Fire). From there it became clear that the rest of the trail didn’t get a lot of use (I’ll postulate that most people who use the trail come to see the waterfall and then turn around). We used our best bushwhacking skills to make our way through sections of overgrown brush, while occasionally encountering some steep unstable sections that required focused attention to ensure stable hand and footholds were planned in advance.
At times, the trail narrowed to the point we had to carefully place one foot in front of the other to avoid slipping down the steep embankment to the river below. At one point we even took the precaution to unbuckle our backpacks just in case we found ourselves floating down the river due to a poorly placed foot.
After awhile, the forest opened up to a broad river watershed and we were at the point where we were supposed to proceed directly to the main road that would take us to our hotel. None of us relished the idea of hiking another 3 miles on a deeply rutted road, and Camilo gave us the option to forge an alternative path that would allow us to continue hiking along the river basin. The caveat was the we would be entering Cotopaxi National Park without permit. We unanimously noted to go renegade and opt for the alternative route.
When we came upon the national park boundary, Camilo explained that the park had been established in 1975 and the Ecuadorean government used eminent domain to claim private homesteads within the boundaries of the park to be established. When we approached the boundary, we could still see the remnants of one of these former homesteads.
Unbeknownst to us, this fateful decision would result in ducking through several barbed wire fences, evading the park authorities, and pleasantly coming across seven horses that were grazing peacefully on protected land. The horses allowed us to approach and feed them some apples that were leftover from our lunches. It was a fun diversion!
Note to self, horses are not big fans of bananas! Ron decided to feed a banana to one of the horses, then while Rebecca was feeding the same horse an apple, it spit the banana mush out, resulting in a small yelp from Rebecca and a hearty laugh from the rest of the group.
Ultimately we joined back with the road, after another encounter with barbed wire, and hiked the final half mile to the hotel. But wait… we still weren’t done with barbed wire fences! Camilo led us from the road to the back of the hotel property, which, no surprise, had a barbed wire fence!
Finally after an eventful and fun adventure we arrived at our destination for the next two nights. After cleaning up and relaxing, we joined for dinner and discussed our plan for the next day, a hike that would take us to an elevation higher than any in the contiguous United States.
More on that soon…
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Destination: Adventure 