Connectivity has been low but we have been keeping notes while we adventure and learn, and are happy to share our awesome experience from last week. Stay tuned! – Nicolás & Claire
We left Las Tolas and the cloud forest on July 18 to head to our new home for the next three days: Hacienda El Porvenir. El Porvenir is a farm-turned-hostel that sits on the edge of the Cotopaxi National Park. The entire farm covers an area of 1,000 hectares (2,471 acres). It has horses, cows, bulls, and acres of land that have been reforested by the owners with native species from the area. We were greeted by Malu, who was a fantastic hostess for the duration of our stay. After lunch we, the fearless leaders, chose to go on a hike on the reforested land with any students who chose to accompany us. Later, we had a delicious dinner and were briefed by Malu of the activities for the next few days. We held our group meeting after which some of our students chose to schedule a massage at the spa to treat themselves.
The view from El Porvenir.
The adventure began in earnest the next day when the group headed to the national park to start our hike on the volcano. We left around 9:30 a.m. and spotted some wild horses as soon as we entered the park. It was a good omen for our trip. Our guide for the day, Eddy, used the bus ride as an opportunity to teach our group about the park’s geography, its flora and fauna, and its history. The hike to the refugio starts at around 4,500 meters (14,960 feet) and reaches the refugio at an altitude of 4,864 meters (15,953 feet).
The Language Learning Ecuador crew at 15,953 feet!
It was by far the most challenging and strenuous activity we’ve done as a Putney group as our students battled the cold, the wind, and the altitude to reach our destination. We ended up hiking in three groups with Claire in the front, Nicolás in the middle, and Eddy in the back. On average, it took us about an hour to reach the refugio and we can say that we’ve never been more proud of our students! We celebrated with some pictures, hot chocolate, and a much needed rest before walking down to the parking lot. We had lunch en route to the lagoon of Limpiopungo for a second hike before returning to El Porvenir.
We finished our trip in Cotopaxi with a horseback ride from the hacienda to a nearby outlook. El Porvenir uses these rides as an opportunity to show visitors the chagra, or Andean cowboy, culture. We dressed in ponchos and chaps and rode on for about an hour to the outlook. The morning greeted us with what we Ecuadorians call a sol de aguas (a wet-sun), which means the sky was clear without a single cloud; it is called a wet-sun because the clear, cloudless, morning promises rain in the afternoon. It was perfect for our morning ride, after which we had lunch and boarded our bus to Tababela to get ready to head to the land of the blue-footed boobie, the Galapagos Islands.
Our chagras, riding through the highlands.
Abrazos desde Cotopaxi,
Nicolás, Claire, & the Language Learning Ecuador 2017 crew
Note: You can also follow our adventures by following the hashtags #LLEC2017, #goputney, #goputney2017 on Instagram (the first one is specific to our program, the other two are for all Putney programs including ours).