I was waiting for a long time to go to the Altar, so I decided to do this tour and I traveled to Quito to do this great trip.
I arrived in Quito and I decided to waste my time walking around the city because my tour started at night.
I left the hotel to our meeting point with my partners on this tour.
I don’t like to hire tours but this one was worth it. I arrived at the office of the agency at 1:30 am where they gave me walking sticks.
The bus departed punctually at two in the morning to the Candelaria, in the province of Chimborazo which is the place where this journey begins. It was 8 in the morning when we arrived at the parking lot of the bus in La Candelaria. After half an hour we started our walk to reach the camp that was located on the Releche farm.
Part of our luggage was carried by the horses, we put on our rubber boots, they would help us to walk in a better way although they were not comfortable, we would reach our destination.
We started a long journey and we found a road in good condition but as we went forward this was getting harder. We were lucky, It had not rained in those days and the road was not so full of mud that is what makes the way more complicated. After a few hours of walking, we reached a small valley where we stopped to rest and we ate some of the food that we had brought.
One of the things I love is walking, but I live on the coast of Ecuador so it was quite tiring to walk this distance that practically was 7 hours of trekking. The campsite was located at 3800 mts approximately.
Once I arrived at the campsite, I started helping to build tents for my partners who had not yet arrived. My knees hurt me a lot after the trekking, a small drip fell and my fingers practically froze I never thought I could feel something like that, I had crystals on my fingers. I had never felt such extreme cold.
Once we were in our tents, we all went to the tent that made the dining room and kitchen to feel a little hotter, We could drink tea or coffee until we wait for the dinner. After eating and talking for a while with the other people on the tour. I went to sleep, although it was very early everybody was tired so we needed to rest. The next day we had to start walking towards the Altar and its yellow lagoon.
I got up at 6 in the morning and the Altar awakens us in all its splendor, it almost cleared in its entirety, inviting us to be closer to him.
After breakfast and prepare our lunch for the trekking, it was 8:30 and we headed to the Altar on a road full of mud, water, we had to cross a river and a forest of Polilepis ( called paper trees) we started this ascent that lasted 2 hours and 30 minutes, many people wanted to give up the climb but after much effort and sacrifice we were all to admire the beauty of the Yellow lagoon.
The beauty of the Altar and its Yellow Lagoon left more than one hypnotized with all its splendor. After the photos and admire its beauty we had to return, it was much simpler and faster in total were 5 hours of this trekking that left us all of the tour excited.
I wrote this post sitting in front of the Altar while I was recording the Altar, it is something that I can not describe the tranquility that this place gave me. Seeing the Altar and writing with practically frozen fingers made me want to write more and everyone could see the same thing that I saw at that moment, you have to encourage to do this awesome trekking, which for me will not be the last I do.
Dawn and I noticed that my glasses are frozen, it had already happened the first day, too. This feeling of returning made us all get up early and pack our things that we were going to get on the horses and that they would go with us. After breakfast we started to disarm the tents where we had slept, we started to descend, the road was not as tired as the climb, but the mud had made us put a great effort for the descent. It was 5 hours of walking to got back to the parking lot where the bus was going to pick us up. Everyone celebrated that we had finished this amazing trekking.
Excelente