Cotopaxi y Baños

This weekend I went on a field trip with my friend Deanna’s volcanology class. We left Saturday morning and went first to Cotopaxi, a 5897 meter high volcano in the province of the same name. It was gorgeous. The weather was almost perfect: way clearer than it usually is. We first ran down this hill-type-thing to look at some solidified lava and what it did to the earth. Climbing back up the hill sucked, so much so that I wound up not being able to climb to the snowline of the volcano, but it was still pretty sweet. I got some amazing pictures. After Cotopaxi, we took a bus to Baños, a popular tourist city at the base of the volcano Tungurahua and about 3 hours from Quito. We were all pretty beat by the time we got there, so we just got food and went to bed.

We woke up around 5am on Sunday to go to the Pailón del Diablo (Devil’s Hollow). It was super sweet. We hiked around for a while and saw a really sweet waterfall and some more evidence of ancient volcanic activity. After that excursion, we returned to the hostal, had breakfast, explored the city a little bit, and headed to the bus back to Quito. We really didn’t get a chance to see that much of Baños, so we’re planning on coming back for another weekend. After an hour on the bus, we stopped to check out an area that was taken out by pyroclastic flow and talk about the logistics/politics of living in an area that’s in danger should an eruption occur.

Overall, I really enjoyed the trip. There were some girls who were really whiny. I don’t mean to over-generalize, but so far USFQ kids have given me the impression of being spoiled and snotty. As it was described to me in orientation, USFQ is the Laguna Beach of Quito. The girls on this trip did nothing at all to change that opinion. They wore fashionable clothes (not appropriate for hiking and climbing), checked their makeup and hair all the time, smoked while hiking or when they were specifically told not to, and constantly whined about everything. It really got on my nerves. For example, the Pailón del Diablo excursion was optional, and these girls decided to come and then complain about it the whole time: how early it was, how hard the hike was, how long we dilly dallied to look at the volcanic sites (which was the whole point). Also, we had to wait in line to get onto the bridge to see the waterfall b/c there could only be five (we did seven) people on the bridge at once. My two friends and I had been patiently waiting for the seven people on the bridge to take their pictures and whatnot, when a group of these girls cuts in front of us. Luckily, there were four of them, so we still got on the bridge next, but I don’t know where they got off feeling entitled to get in line in front of us. I was not happy with them at all. I’m super glad that I hang out with Ecuadorians that I met outside of school. The people I’ve met who go to different universities in Quito have been super nice: not at all like the people at USFQ. They're actually normal people.