Saturday, September 29, 2012

twice the fun



A few weeks ago, my friend Javier and I decided to climb the Fuya-Fuya mountain. I had tried to summit it earlier this year but the weather did not cooperate. We left Ibarra around 6:30 am and started hiking an hour later. The sight of the lake and the surrounding mountains was beautiful and made it worth it waking up so early. The hike takes about 2 hours with a few water breaks and lots of pictures. Even though we had completed a higher and more difficult mountain just days ago, Javier had a really hard time going up. His physical conditions delayed us a bit, but every time we would be able to see some amazing scene, he would get so encouraged and start walking fast again. The view of the lake, surrounding volcanoes and the sky was absolutely beautiful. Here are some pictures:

Cerro Negro and Mojanda Lake

Fuya Fuya
We could see Cotopaxi at about half way to the top. 

View from the top. Cotacachi in the background. 

After eating lunch and returning to our car, the weather changed a little bit. Clouds rolled in and the temperature dropped. Right before I started driving, my friend suggested that we should go home the long way, which meant that we had to go around the lake to another exit. This also meant that we would go right by Cerro Negro, which was enough to convince me. Now, to be completely honest, we were not planning on hiking Cerro Negro at all. But after talking to a guy who was very familiar with the area, we agreed that it was "only" an hour and a half longer. So we went for it and hiked up this mountain. Needless to say, I was very concerned that Javier was going to pass out on this one, especially after his difficulties on the first mountain. Thankfully, nothing happened and we made it to the top and down without problems. Here are some pictures:

At the top! Gorgeous view even though it was cloudy.
Caricocha and Yanacocha Lakes (Mojanda).


Thanks for reading! As most of you know, I am now living in West Palm Beach, Florida. I'll have a post about that soon :) Check this out and have a good one!