The tradition and the culture of high altitude mountaineering dominated in the past, but younger generations are discovering Ecuador as a world class rock climbing spot.
Barefoot Expeditions is offering a discount to members. We offer a 10% discount on our trips per person. If you have a larger group (more than 7 people) we can offer a bigger discount. Contact us to learn more.
This blog is our contribution to the traveling community and to the people that are researching Ecuador as an adventure travel destination. Ecuador Adventures is devoted to bringing you the best that Ecuador has to offer as a travel destination. We are also committed to providing a sensible view of a country like Ecuador that has beautiful [...]
Here are some facts you should know to help you prepare before visiting the Cotopaxi volcano and the refuge:
Entrance Fee: The entrance fee to the Cotopaxi National Park is $10 for foreigners and $2 for Ecuadorians.
Entry Times: Admission to the Cotopaxi National Park (through “control norte” and “control caspi”) is allowed only before 4pm (16h00).
Parking areas: There is a parking area at 4600 m, you have to walk around 30-45 minutes to get to the refuge.
Refuge Altitude: The refuge “José Ribas” is located in the north face of the Cotopaxi Volcano at 4800 meters (15750 feet) of altitude.
What would you find at the refuge? In the refuge there are two kitchen rooms, 4 stoves, plastic dishes, running water (if it is not frozen), bathrooms, electricity from 6 pm to 8 pm, beds with mattresses, lockers.
Staying the night at the refuge: If you plan to stay in the refuge you should bring your sleeping bag, warm clothes, food, pure water, headlamp, toilet paper, if you want you can bring your own lock.
Shopping (Supplies): There is a small shop where you can buy snacks and hot chocolate or tea.
Price per night at the refuge: The price per night per person is around $10 for Ecuadorians and around $20 for foreigners.
Running and operating an adventure travel company teaches you how to deal with challenging and unforeseen situations. Being part of the adventure travel experience teaches you a lot about yourself.
First you understand that risk by definition is not measurable. You learn very quickly to accept the future as an unknown and to understand that one can plan for the future but the outcome is fuzzy at best. Future-proofing is a myth. There is only evolution based in orderly chaos. You learn to lay down a strong foundation and to rely on others. You set up your base camp equipped with the tools you need to support your journey, whatever that journey may be and wherever it takes you. A strong base camp is the foundation of a successful summit attempt. You learn that that challenging situations are part of life not a fluke of destiny.
It’s true that the recession has hit most of us across the world. We are in unchartered waters. That is the present situation, not the future as we see it. The future is an outcome that can be shaped by the decisions we make now. However, the current economic environment makes it difficult for us to make the right decision. We are in unexplored territory. The sense of permanence has been broken forcing us to redraw the path we’ve grown accustomed to follow .
We face challenges like these every single time we run a class V river in the Amazon Jungle. Every day we attempt to conquer a summit or climb a strenuous rock. Adventure travel has the power to break the status quo by putting you in an environment where you can let your inner strength shine the sense of reliance in your team members grow stronger. It allows you to build a bond with those around you. But this is not only about physical strength. Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will (Ghandi). Indomitable will is what will help you and your company ride out the recession and come out of the other end stronger.
Ecuador Adventures has helped us connect to our guests and the adventure travel community at large. It has helped us work through the challenges (and retributions) of running a adventure travel family business based in the US and Ecuador. The team at Ecuador Adventures Blog (a Barefoot Expeditions publication) is thrilled to have served useful and unbiased information about Ecuador Adventure Travel in 2008 and we are looking forward to proving you even better and more exciting articles in the upcoming year.
We’ve accomplished many great things of which we wanted to share with you the outstanding ones:
Barefoot launched a new website and the Ecuador Adventures blog that you are reading.
Barefoot Expeditions is helping with the operation of G.A.P (Great Adventure People) trips in Ecuador. We are thrilled that G.A.P has decided to start working with Barefoot.
We’ve expanded our operations to cover Galapagos tours and to offer full fledged multi-day expeditions into the Amazon Jungle.
Our whitewater rafting operations cover more than any other company in Ecuador. We run world-class rivers with top notch guides and the highest level of security. For instance, Barefoot Expeditions has been constantly chosen by tour operators in the area of Tena to run their whitewater rafting tours. Even though there are many rafting operators in that area.
We moved to a bigger location in Quito and we are currently renovating it and decorating it. The new location is big and it will have a few rooms that would be made available in special ocassions to our guests.
2008 was the year when the Ecuador Adventures Blog really took off. We’ve seen traffic grow quite a bit from last year and we’ve seen our readers being more active and present with comments in our articles. We love the feedback you’ve given us and your interest in the topic. For that we want to give a big thank you to our readers.
We want to celebrate the new year by sharing an Ecuadorian tradition with you. The Año Viejo. In Ecuador, we celebrate the end of the year by writing up a testament that commemorates and celebrates the “good” that happened during the year and throws away the “bad” that the old year brought to us. StudySpanish.com summarizes it well:
In Ecuador, Año Viejo is a fiery tradition that symbolically burns up the failures, regrets and anger of the old year in order to usher in the hopes and resolutions of the new one.
To be honest, there is a lot that I would leave behind if I really could. Things like the economic meltdown and the the housing market crash. Both episodes have affected the travel market and us in a direct way. To this end, the proverbial Año Viejo testament provides a mechanism to burn (literally) all the bad if only in words.
We’ve liked the posts that we have written with a sense of urgency. The articles that remind us what adventure travel is all about. That highlight traveling not as a bragging right but as a sharing, learning activity that helps you grow as a person. The posts that give a voice to the adventure guide and to the adventure experience .
Since I was little, because my grandmother lived in Ibarra for a long period of time, I learned a quite a bit about where the best places to eat. The city of Ibarra “La Ciudad Blanca” is located 100km north from Quito. It is a nice and warm city, formerly famous for its cobbled stone streets that unfortunately were removed and replaced by pavement less than ten years ago.
This saturday I had a family trip to Ibarra to visit family (some grand-aunt that I didn´t even knew I had). It was fun to see two old ladies sharing stories that happened 50 years ago. And of course to eat the traditional dishes that I’d learned about as a little kid.
We visited the Ibarra farmers market. You can find shoes, clothes, food, live animals, vegetables, meat, or needles. Literally everything from a needle to a cow. There we ate the traditional hornado, a delicious dish with pork meat served with mote, mashed potatoes and a sweet ad sour vegetable salad.
In the same place, we meet an old friend that prepared “chocobananas” (frozen banana covered with chocolate) for us. I was very happy about that because it was something that I haven’t eaten for maybe 15 years. Eating chocobananas brought me back to my childhood. Actually when I was little I didn´t like that, but this time I found it delicious.
I had heard about the pilgrimage to “El Quinche”, I read that it is a traditional event that happens every year around November 21st for the past 420 years. Every year about half million people walk to El Quinche, a town located in the north-eastern side of Quito from four different points (Pifo, Sangolqui, Calderón and Cayambe). They walk around 5-8 hours. I had heard that is one of the biggest faith demonstrations of religious faith in Ecuador. I had never been there until this Saturday, when I realized the magnitude of the event.
On Saturday afternoon, I was talking with my uncle (44) and cousin (12). They planned to walk to the sacred village of El Quinche that night. It was my cousin’s first time and I joined the plan at the last minute to share this experience with him. I am a mountaineer, and more than faith I think about preparing properly to achieve this goal. I took hot tea, walking sticks and headlamps for all of us. Chocolate and granola bars, a first aid kit, a thermal blanket, extra jackets and gloves, etc. I was not going to leave this one to faith alone.
Papallacta is one of the places we offer a lot in our tours. Here we will give a traveler’s a view of Papallacta Termas and Spa. As a disclaimer, we have no direct interest in this location. We (this blog and Barefoot Expeditions) suggests it because we have tested the service and the facilities and we have had a very good experience when we use Papallacta Termas and Spa for our tours.
A couple of weeks ago, Jose and I took some friends to the summit of Cotopaxi. It was their first time there, they followed a strict training, they climbed a couple of non-snow (but still high) mountains. It was a tough group, there were bikers, marathoners, runners. All of them were counting every calorie they eat and burned. Very competitive crowd.
I learned that there is always something to learn when you climb a mountain, specially with beginners:
On their first time climbing a mountain, people worry about everything. They would ask things like: Should I eat meat or not? Should I take an extra jacket? Should I wear one or two pairs of underwear? Should I take energetic drinks?, Should I take a sleeping pill? Should I eat one or two chocolate bars during the climb? Do coca leaves tea help with altitude sickness? Do you think we will make it?, etc, etc.
When I climb a mountain I do a lot of things in a mechanical way. After 10 years climbing I perform actions like packing my climbing stuff (all of it!) or drinking more water before leaving. Having a good rest before climbing. Looking at the sky and decide whether to take a second jacket or not. I do all of this in a rather unconscious way. After hundreds of climbs you can get to this stage but if you are a beginner please do prepare consciously for the climb. Your guide can lead the way but cannot prepare for you.
People face altitude and exhaustion in very different ways. There was a couple where the woman managed to summit without a problem. She was joking and had to take care of her boyfriend, a tough biker and runner who was falling asleep, and felt very tired. There was other guy that in the last few meters before the summit had to shout out every time he took a step forward in order to get the strength he needed for those last steps.
You have to be able to find the inner strength to complete the climb. Mountain guides will understand if you have to shout to make it. The thing is, we can’t do it for you. It is your climb. Your moment. Your way to deal with the taxing journey. We keep you focused.
Taking friends to climb mountains is very rewarding. You feel like the fairy godmother that is helping them to make their dream come true. But the success depends on them, their training and their preparation. Ismael and Vanessa did a great job, congratulations. If you want to be part of an experience like this, contact us.
Here are some facts you should know before visiting the Cotopaxi volcano and the refuge:
The entrance fee to the Cotopaxi National Park is $10 for foreigners and $2 for ecuadorians.
Admission to the Cotopaxi National Park (through “control norte” and “control caspi”) is allowed only before 4pm (16h00).
There is a parking area at 4600 m, you have to walk around 30-45 minutes to get to the refuge.
The refuge “José Ribas” is located in the north face of the Cotopaxi Volcano at 4800 meters (15750 feet) of altitude.
In the refuge there are two kitchen rooms, 4 stoves, plastic dishes, running water (if it is not frozen), bathrooms, electricity from 6 pm to 8 pm, beds with mattresses, lockers.
If you plan to stay in the refuge you should bring your sleeping bag, warm clothes, food, pure water, headlamp, toilet paper, if you want you can bring your own lock.
There is a small shop where you can buy snacks and hot chocolate or tea.
The price per night per person is around $10 for Ecuadorians and around $20 for foreigners.
Lo felicito por esa buena experiencia. Soy Colombiano, pero gran admirador del Ecuador, su gente y sus montañas. Tuve la ... CARLOS ERNESTO TORO CUERVO | 6Nov08 | More
Vladimir -- what would you like to know about the race? Antonio Altamirano | 28Oct08 | More
I saw you on TV the other morning and I think you are incredible. I think you are an ... Anna Wagner | 28Oct08 | More
I had heard about the pilgrimage to “El Quinche”, I read that it is a traditional event that happens every year around November 21st for the past 420 years. Every year about half million people walk to El Quinche, a town located in the north-eastern side of Quito from four different points (Pifo, Sangolqui, Calderón and Cayambe). They walk around 5-8 hours. I had heard that is one of the biggest faith demonstrations of religious faith in Ecuador. I had never been there until this Saturday, when I realized the magnitude of the event.
Lo felicito por esa buena experiencia. Soy Colombiano, pero gran admirador del Ecuador, su gente y sus montañas. Tuve la ...
Vladimir -- what would you like to know about the race? 
I saw you on TV the other morning and I think you are incredible. I think you are an ...