Thursday August 21We finished packing and left for Quito. We arrived at Secret Garden about 9.20am where we had breakfast. Then we left with five others who were going to Cotopaxi.
We had transport in a double cabin pickup truck. Three people had to sit in the back with the luggage. Jayne sat in the front seat and I sat in the back with another couple. It took us about 1.5 hours to get there.
When we arrived, we were greeted by Tarquin. Then we all had lunch, which was soup and bread.
We were shown to our private room. This is in another building that houses a total of three rooms, each with their private bath downstairs and the bedroom upstairs. The other building is the dormitory that sleeps 8 people. They have to use the outhouse or the toilet in the main house where there are also showers and sinks.
In the private room, there is a heater wood burning fireplace.
There are narrow steps that go to the second floor where the bedroom is. In the bedroom, the only furniture is the double bed. On the first floor there is only a chair!
Tarqin needs more furniture and a shelf for the clothes or at least hooks. So, we had to leave clothes in the suitcase.
There have been many changes since I was there last year – at the beginning of October. The changes are:
Private cabin, large green house, fish pond, decorated outhouse, chicken pen, pig pen, and a little bridge across another pond.
Tarquin took Jayne and me to the new green house, which is made of wood frames and a plastic roof. Inside is quite warm with a temperature of 30C.
When we arrived for dinner at 7pm they already had starters and there was none left for us. The next time we’ll be sure to get there earlier.
The entree was chicken with noodles and stuffed cauliflower. I had the vegetarian dish, which was eggplant. It was very good but the noodles were dry and could have used some sauce.
After dinner, the guests sat in the adjoining living room that has a large fireplace. Jayne and I were just there for a short time before left for our cabin. Since we got up early in the morning to start our trip we were tired.
The only light we had were the candles, as Tarquin wanted to make this as much eco-friendly as possible. I also think it has a lot to do with not being able to get electric lines out there. He does have a gas generator to providing lights when the cooking is done in the evening, and for doing the laundry. Their stove is gas and using a gas tank, like I have at home.
There is a worker that starts the fireplace before all guests get back to their room, and ours was blazing when we got back. It’s quite cool in the evening so a fire is necessary. There are warm blankets to keep us warm, too. The fire usually goes out a couple of hours later, but a warm bed makes it good for sleeping.
The elevation that we are at is 3,600 meters, but being at the equator is never freezes. But on top of Cotopaxi there is snow all year long. Cotopaxi is 5,800 and some odd meters high!
When we eat in the evening it was by candle light. The bad point of using candles is that you can’t read – unless you have a couple by you.
Sleeping, I opened the window a crack as it’s not good to have any heater going without the window open, as a heater burn oxygen, which we all know reduced oxygen and is not good for health.
Another thing I didn’t like is when you have to go to the bathroom, you have to light the candle and go down narrow stairs to the toilet.
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