When we were planning our trip Scott used generative AI to help with some of our itinerary planning. He would give it a prompt, refine it, and run it against multiple AI models. Time and time again, AI was adamant that when we were in the Cotopaxi area, we should stay at the Secret Garden Cotopaxi, a hostel at the base of the famous volcano. We dug further and loved what we saw. It promised stunning views of the snow-capped volcano and offered an affordable several day package that bundled together transportation, housing, meals, and some excursions.

So on January 14, we packed up and checked out of the “Hotel & Rooftop King Experience by David” and strolled a few neighborhoods over to reach the Secret Garden Quito and catch the shuttle from their Quito location to their Cotopaxi location. We had enough time to check out the hostel and wandered all the way up to their rooftop bar and restaurant and enjoy the views of Quito. It was time to load up and about 20 of us handed off our luggage to their driver and piled into their small bus.

The drive took about two and a half hours- the first part of the drive offered smooth sailing on interstate type roads. About an hour and half in, we turned off and were treated to an authentic Ecuadorian experience. The roads were paved, but with rocks the size and shape of soccer balls, and despite the driver carefully nursing the bus over them, it still gave us the roughest ride we had experienced to date. We eventually came into a village and started seeing cows, donkeys, and llamas tethered by halters and grazing on the lush steep embankments that lined the road. As we bumped and bounced our way by them they barely acknowledged us and just continued on with their grazing. Finally we reached the Secret Garden Cotopaxi.

We spilled out of the van and were directed into the building for a briefing and lunch. We received warm welcomes from the staff and were shown to the long tables and instructed to take a seat. One of the managers, a woman from Holland, introduced herself and gave us a run down of what to expect during our stay as other staff made their rounds serving up demitasses of mulled wine.

All of our meals were included and she spelled out when each was served. We were told to help ourselves to the unlimited banana bread and bananas, but save the peels for their resident llamas. The iconic alpaca wool ponchos that we had noticed being sported by most of the staff and other guests that arrived prior to us, were ours for the wearing for the duration. We should help ourselves to the various amenities such as hammocks, catamaran-boat style trampolines around the property, yoga room, and hot tub that was filled with water from the nearby volcanic spring. We were encouraged to visit the llamas and should come bearing the aforementioned banana peels to entice them to be friendly.

She then listed out our various excursion options, passing out an activity menu of sorts. Of the hikes that were available, Scott and I chose to do the Cotopaxi base camp/glacier hike the following day. It had been on our radar and I felt fit enough to tackle it. When she came around later in the evening to see what we had chosen, I felt butterflies when we told her because I knew it would be challenging.

A waterfall hike was one of the included activities and would be departing after lunch. We were advised to go to their equipment garage if we wanted to participate, and to select a pair of tall rubber boots as the hike was muddy and parts of the trail included wading through the creek.

A hearty soup was served for lunch and we all dug in. As we ate we chatted with our neighbors and learned where they were from. We were seated near a Brazilian woman who had quit her job to travel for several months (this was a refrain we heard time and time again from various travelers), and a nurse from North Carolina who was spending a few weeks traveling before starting a nurse anesthetist program. On the bus we had sat next to an Austrian couple that were doing a six week long South American journey. The husband worked at the Austrian embassy in Washington DC in some sort of finance role¹.

One of the things that we fell in love with during our stay at SGC was getting to meet travelers from around the world. At the next night’s dinner I counted, just at the end of the table we were at, folks from eight different countries. And here we all were- gathered together, conversing, eating, drinking, playing cards, and enjoying hearing travel tales from like-minded wanderers.

After lunch, we were directed to collect our bags and were shown to our accommodations. We had wanted to stay in one of SGC’s iconic “hobbit homes” but there were only three of these kitschy dwellings and sadly, they were all booked, so we had settled on a “birdhouse.” SGC is a hostel and as such, offered some group housing, or dormitory style sleeping, and while Scott and I were on board for the big picture idea of the hostel, and had no trouble with a shared bathroom, we felt way too old to fool around with any sort of group housing situation.

The Birdhouse, or the “BH” as Scott dubbed it, was a single small heater-less room on stilts. It was little more than four walls, a floor, a roof, and a giant picture window that gave you a perfect view of Cotopaxi. To get inside it you had to climb up a series of pylons, scaling them as if you were a mountain goat. We fell in love with it as soon as we saw it. We love weird and eclectic hotels and this was exactly that.

Soon it was time for our waterfall hike so we went to find our rubber boots. This would be the first of many rubber boot occasions that we would have in Ecuador. SGC had several resident dogs and one of them, an older hound mix, lived for her daily waterfall hike. When she saw the group getting booted up, she ran around excitedly, nipping at the dangling straps of hiker’s backpacks.

A group of about 20 of us set off on the hike, led by two of the SGC staff, all of us clad in rubber boots, and we clump-clumped our way through the pasture to reach the trail. We eventually made our way into the woods and then had to drop down into the creekbed. The woods looked out of this world, and were covered in the same layers of plantlife similar to what we had seen the day before in the cloud forest ecosystem of Mindo. We picked our way over boulders and through the running water, sometimes climbing up the steep and muddy banks to get out of the creek for a short bit before scrambling back down the muddy banks and going back down into it. Some of the hairier portions had ropes strategically placed to assist, and the SGC staff lent a hand in a few of the tougher spots.

It took us a little over half an hour to reach the waterfall and it was well worth the muddy and wet hike. The creek was about 20 meters above our head and it spilled over a cliff creating an impressive waterfall that dumped into a swimming hole at the base. A few brave souls stripped down to their swimsuits and went for a very brief swim. We were told the water was 8℃ or about 46℉, aka frigid!

When the brave swimmers were done and bundled back up, we turned around and headed back to the hostel, doing the hike in reverse. I was pleasantly surprised by the boots- they were much grippier than I had expected them to be. We took a slightly different route on the way back, spending more time in the pastures than in the creekbed. We made our way back to the hostel and all had to walk through a series of water nozzles to hose our muddy boots off. The whole hike took about an hour and covered about 2.5 miles.

We had been told that snacktime was at 5 PM and dinner would be at 7 PM. We had some downtime and we went to clean up and get settled into our “BH.” We unpacked and changed and decided to take a little nap. We were unsuccessful. We had noticed that we had been sleeping poorly the whole entire time we had been at Quito, and based on how hard it seemed to be able to nap, we finally pieced together that it was the altitude that was affecting us.

It turns out that high altitude, can in fact, affect sleep. That was really the only symptom that either of us ever experienced from being at 8,000+ feet thankfully. My doctor had sent me with medication for altitude sickness and Scott’s doctor friend had prescribed it for him as well. Neither of us ended up taking it but were glad that we had it because we both ended up giving it away to fellow travelers towards the end of our SGC stay who were experiencing altitude sickness. (It is a prescription medication in the US but in Ecuador does not require a prescription, so we didn’t feel too naughty sharing it.)

We finally abandoned the nap idea and went back to the common dining and lounge area to sit by the fire. A gregarious German girl approached us and some other folks, looking to put together a group to play a card game. We agreed and ended up playing “Asshole” which I am still unclear as to what exactly the game’s rules are, but we had fun chatting with her, a Canadian guy, and a Bostonian. The game petered out after a few rounds and Scott and I donned SGC alpaca ponchos and found a loveseat near the fire that on a clear day would also offer a perfect view of Cotopaxi. It had clouded up and become rainy so we had to guess what it would look like.

Snacks were served, as promised, at 5 PM, and we were treated to “arepas,” which were little corn cakes filled with some sort of yummy and savory filling. We continued hanging out and chatting with various travellers until dinnertime. Dinner was similar to lunch, in that we all sat at the long tables and got to know our neighbors. We sat near the Austrian couple again and learned more about their trip and shared what we had done so far.

We hung out and socialized for a little longer after dinner and then decided to wrap it up and head back to the “BH” so that we could get to bed at a decent hour and attempt to have a good night’s sleep so that we would be well rested when we tackled Cotopaxi the next day. (Spoiler alert: We slept terribly again because of the altitude but at least we tried.)

I almost forgot to tell you about the outdoor bathrooms at SGC! Both the toilets and the showers were elevated so that you could have an unobstructed view of Cotopaxi as you were doing your business. You entered the stall, shut the door, then climbed three stairs to reach either the throne or the shower and the strategically placed windows allowed an unobstructed view of the volcano. It was certainly unique and might have provided some of the best views on the property!