PowerCycle

01/20 With my new bicycle frame on the way Karin, Marten and I set off for Volcano Cotopaxi on the morning of the 19th. Our plan was to make it to Rumipamba and camp where another cyclist stayed–on a basketball court (there’s not a lot of options in the tiny village). Things changed thanks to a late start and heavy rain so we stopped at a lodge called “campo base” in the village of La Moca.

This ended up being quite a good deal. We had full use of the kitchen, private rooms, hot showers and could lounge around next to the fireplace sipping some hot chocolate. All that for $10. The woman running the place was very friendly as were her 2 kids.

The road to La Moca was pretty brutal–the rough rock surface made for very slow riding and there were plenty of steep hills. Not being on a bike for well over a month didn’t help. The max grade we hit was 16% and I sure felt it. I did manage to ride up all the hills although with frequent rest stops. This section of road was definitely in my top 5 hardest places to ride.

Our next stop after a short but tiring day was another lodge called Chilcabamba. This place wanted $25 for just a bed in a dorm room and $70 for a private room. We opted for a camping spot in a garage for $7.50. We had access to a hot shower and a fireplace so it wasn’t too bad but this was still a very high price to pay for camping in South America. It was even worse because we’d just paid $10 for better rooms just 11 miles down the road. On top of the base prices there was also an additional 22% charge on everything (12% tax and 10% for the guy working here).

We did end up beating the rain by about 15 minutes saving ourselves from what would have been a chilly ride. The temperature was about 45 F and we were up at 11579 feet so the wind made it much colder.

The road to Chilcabamba wasn’t quite as bad as the day before but there were still a few tough climbs. After passing a makeshift church next to the road things leveled out a little and riding was a lot better. We even managed to catch a glimpse of the bottom of the massive volcano when the clouds broke a little.