Caca de la Vaca...or was it Casa de la Vaca?

Well, Luke's wish came true in stages. First, we were awoken on the bus at 4:30am, having arrived in Quito, and sent out to the cold streets to find our next bus headed south. (Colder climates...check.) The problem was that we weren't quite sure where in Quito we were...or where we needed to go for our next bus.  Eventually we took a trusty taxi across town to the main bus terminal, where we all bundled up a bit more before running (literally) to our next bus.

The rest of Luke's wish came true as we took a bus about 45 minutes south of Quito to Machachi, where we then flagged down another bus to drop us at the turn off for our hostel in the country. Surrounding us were beautiful, green rolling hills and volcanoes in the distance. (Mountains...check.) We proceeded to walk up the somewhat steep dirt road until a friendly guy offered us a spot in the back of his pick up truck. We happily agreed and rode the rest of the way to Papagay bouncing in the back.

Hosteria Papagayo used to be owned by the grandson of Simon Bolivar and therefore still often hosts famous military and government officials. The day before we arrived there was a party for some governor and they still had the birthday banner and balloons scattered around the main house. But, once finally arriving at the hosteria we were so tired that we didn't really care what shape it was in, just that it had beds for us to sleep in. We ended up sleeping most of the day and being grateful for our quiet little mountain retreat.



 Over the next few days we took full advantage of the in- house restaurant, trying every kind of breakfast they had and rotating who got what to eat. Although it looked as though the hosteria had a lot to offer besides breakfast (there were horse stables, a volleyball net, a mini soccer field, a game room, a jacuzzi, and a travel agency), we must have come at a bad time because we weren't able to use most things or there was no one around to help us with them. We still enjoyed the quietness of our surroundings and a hot breakfast in the morning (with coffee!).

View inside Cotopaxi National Park

 Besides the beautiful views and peaceful surroundings, we also stopped here because of its close proximity to Cotopaxi National Park, which contains the world's highest continually active volcano at 19,347 ft. It is also home to wild horses, some llamas and foxes, various species of birds, and the rare spectacled bear. Like always, we didn't do much research on getting in and around the park, so we headed out on a bus going toward the park entrance and hoped for the best. We had asked at the hosteria, but their tour was full for the day and our guide book said it might be difficult to find something else in the off-season.

Looking down on the valley from the hike up to base camp

Refugio Jose Rivas (base camp) at 15,748 ft.

Thankfully right as we got off the bus there were taxis eagerly waiting at the road to the park, competing for our business. We had a bit of a mix-up while discussing prices and what the tour included with each of the taxis, but in the end settled into a 4 wheel drive vehicle with a young American couple and Luke happily in the trunk. The taxi driver ended up being a great guide for us and actually spoke understandable English. He proudly told us all about the Quechua names of rivers and volcanoes and what they meant in English as we passed them on our way to the base of Cotopaxi.
                                                  Once making our way up the winding road the taxi driver told us we had 2 hours to hike up and down the steep trail another 1000 ft. to base camp, and that he would wait for us with the vehicle. Ooftah! Coming from beach lounging as our daily activity, it was a bit of a shock to the body to hike straight up hill with the cold air constantly whipping around you. Kyra's lungs started to burn shortly after, but got some good encouragement from Liz and they finally caught up to Luke at the base camp in time to share some hot chocolate and take a few pictures. The taxi driver told us it would only take 5 minutes to get back down, but we were not convinced so we started down with 30 minutes to spare. And what do you know? Five minutes later we were back in the warmth of the car strapping on our seat belts. 

Liz enjoying the fresh mountain air breeze (aka, insane arctic force wind), while Kyra concentrates on her feet

We made it to the base camp!

As we made our way out of the Park we also stopped at Laguna Limpiopungo, a shallow lake at the base of another volcano named Ruminahui, to see waterfowl and take some last pictures.




 After our tour we felt like we deserved a treat, so we headed to a restaurant along the Pan-American Highway that Lonely Planet said had, "straight-off-the farm cheese served with every order". Once arriving at Cafe de la Vaca and taking a look at the menu they certainly had a lot more than just cheese to offer. It was like a dream come true for us Minnesotans! We decided to settle on chocolate shakes to start and ended up getting a burger and potato soup to split.

Luke's meal: steak, eggs, fries, and more!

                                                                            Although we all would have liked another round of shakes, there just wasn't any room left after the delicious meal. It was just what we needed to warm us up and fill us up before making our way down to Baños for some more beautiful mountain views and hot springs.

 By the way, as you can see from the pictures, EVERYTHING was covered in cow print or had a cow on it- from the soap dispenser to the building we sat in.