Day 69 17.09.15
The day had come I had feared a little. We were hiking up a volcano and for me it was one more test “run” before Machu Picchu. After another breakfast at the hotel with granola, yoghurt and fruit it was time to head out to the foot of the mountain.
We drove a while and eventually reached the starting point of our trek, which was covered in mist. We were going to climb the Sierra Negra volcano.
After a last bathroom break before it was natural toilets, we headed out through the fog. It was quite chilly, and so we were loading up on long sleeves and rain jackets, much to the amusement of our guides, since they knew we would be taking them off instantly after about 5 minutes when it got too warm and the mist started clearing up.
We walked at quite a rapid pace and I was certainly not sure whether I would be able to keep up with it all the way up.
In the mist section of the trek, the vegetation was very lush and we saw cows grazing on the other side of the barbed wire along the trek.
I stopped on the side at one point to find a dead, weirdly looking melted rat. This might got to Nature vol. 4, but actually its great that it died, seeing as it is a real pest on this and all other islands, eating turtles eggs, birds, and other small animals and their eggs, severely reducing some species numbers.
Further along we saw a finch on one of the mossy covered branches, looking for food.
As the mist started to clear away, we saw a beautiful flower that was already starting to wilt; the night flower. It blossoms in the night and wilts as soon as the first rays of sunshine hit it.
After quite a steep start, we reached a little more even planes where we could marvel at the clouds in the distance of the sea.
On the other side of our view we saw the large crater. Wow!
The clouds falling into the crater over the cliffs, the vast land that is just covered in volcanic rock and the planes in the distance that are still covered in primary vegetation, where the new eruption didn’t while spreading out its lava fingers around the crater.
After this little lookout place we headed on, walking through drier areas, with still very lush vegetation.
We reached a little resting place under a large tree, where we stopped and snacked on apples or crisps and rehydrated.
We moved on only to find that the vegetation was becoming more arid, and more desert like. It reminded me a little of the Canary Islands, or something you have seen in old Western films.
Our guide pointed out an oven pocket for us, where you can still feel the warmth rising up from the ground. You probably couldn’t have roasted any marshmallows here, but it was still very hot.
Moving on we now only got to see cacti and little scrubs, as the landscape was more desert and volcanic stone covered.
We then saw one of the lava tunnels, where the lava on top had cooled off, while underneath new hot lava was still flowing creating a tunnel like structure.
We now reached a point where there was no more reddish sand, but just lava formations where you could clearly see how the lava rivers had flown.
We also stopped by a little lava fall, where a little crater had collapsed and the running lava had flown over the edge back in to the little crater.
I was surprised that I was keeping up so well, but we did several stops and kept up with the water so it went alright.
In the distance we could see different colourings of the volcanic stones in yellow and white, where sediments of sulphur had coloured the rocks beneath it.
We climbed up further and finally reached a first collapsed (larger) crater. Quite impressive! And below vegetation was already growing.
The adjoined crater too looked quite cool, and we hiking further up along its edges, to stop at the point where all the little dots are in this picture.
Finally at the top of the Chico volcano we played around with photos, careful as to not fall down the edge. After the long hike I felt like I was on top of the world. From here we had a great view of other little islands around Isabela, the see and further volcanic rock formations.
We hiked back to the tree to finally have lunch and rest our aching muscles a little. The only problems I had had so far were aching little toes that had stopped aching on the way back. I didn’t dare to open my shoes and look, thinking that afterwards I might not be able to step back into them.
For lunch we had some lovely vegetable rice, some juice, some melted chocolate (if you wanted), an apple and water.
After lunch we carried on hiking and passed more lovely plants, such as this cactus with its lovely cactus flower.
We walked back slowly leaving us more time to admire the landscape. (I loved this as it was something different to snorkelling and animals :)). As soon as we reached the area of the mist again it was such a relief, seeing as we had been walking along in the scorching heat for a while now and the mist felt like a cold shower without water. Delightful!
We headed back to the bus and the hotel, where we checked our wounds. I had had two blisters on either foot between my pinkie toe and the one next to it. One had not yet popped while the others had. (That must have been the relief I felt when the toes no longer hurt walking up…) I noted that I would have to tape my toes together when climbing Machu Pichhu in order to avoid blisters forming again.
We had some free time and so roamed around the streets, trying to find a tank top with the national parks logo on it, no luck with that, and some postcards and stamps. I only managed to find the postcards, which I bought, even though they were so expensive for the bulk amount I was buying them in, and left the stamps for Isla Santa Cruz.
I headed back to the hotel for some much needed internet time to tell my family and friends that I was fine and that I hadn’t been affected by the earthquake and the resulting Tsunami warning. In fact, we hadn’t even noticed it at all, and only when I opened my mail account and saw some very concerned emails dating back a day, I quickly replied. (The Internet connection here is terrible!)
We headed out for dinner at a lovely grill place, where we had a sort of buffet with lobster, chicken, vegetables, red cabbage salad, potatoes, and beans. It was delicious and several rounds were made to stock up on more food. Yummy!
We walked back to the hotel, which was just down the street and settled in the patio area, where we enjoyed some more poi, the sounds of the guitar playing and more rum and coke. What a great way to end the evening.
