ECUADOR

Aiming high

TravelBOSTON SUNDAY GLOBE JULY 17, 2011 | BOSTON.COM/TRAVEL

M

QUITO — Edgar Ricardo Vaca Vega met his wifeinside a volcano. The year was 1983 and the town ofBaños, the Ecuadorian gateway to the Amazon, wasa bustling climbing destination, with outfitters onevery corner touting guided trips up Tungurahua,the purportedly extinct stratovolcano that hovers ov-er the humid town. The summit crater was chosen asthe site for a university mountaineering club confer-ence. Patricia Sanchez Alonso, a Colombian studyingin Quito was there, as was Vega, astudent at a Quito technicalschool. The couple met in the in-active crater. Five years after theconference they wed, and Vegahas been an outfitter and guide inthe high peaks of the EcuadorianAndes ever since.

But the hot spot of their firstmeeting is gone. In 1999 Tungu-rahua (‘‘Tongue of Fire’’) eruptedagain, and has not stopped spew-ing volcanic ash since its rebirth.

Vega is a friend of a friend andalthough we were not using hisguiding services, we relied onhim to provide our transporta-tion, make our local reservations,and cook for us during our two-week climbing expedition in May.My climbing partner, Conrad Yager, and I were goingto attempt to climb three mountains: Illiniza Norte,its sister peak Illiniza Sur, and Ecuador’s fourth high-est volcano, Antisana. Our tour would take us on a500-mile, counterclockwise circuit through the cen-ter of the country where we would walk among highAndean mountains, vast grassy plains, and damp,dense jungle.

Vega is a spry man with only a score of chin whis-kers and chiseled forearms. He climbs hard in themountains. He has summited Antisana, arguably Ec-uador’s most difficult peak, around 25 times. Hedrives a 1987 Toyota Land Cruiser that needs a newbattery. He always parks facing downhill, routinelypopping the clutch to start the rusty machine. Vegadropped us at the Hostal Charles Darwin, a pleasantmid-range hotel in a quiet corner of Quito’s NewTown. We rested and in the morning set out to find a

PHOTOS BY BRIAN IRWIN FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE

Climbing Andean peaks, in desolate grassland,amid volcanic plumes — and llamas

B Y B R I A N I R W I N | G L O B E C O R R E S P O N D E N T

The author’s

hiking

companion,

Conrad Yager,

looks toward

Antisana’s

summit. With

time exposure,

a headlamp

trail streaks

across the

night sky at

Antisana base

camp.

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higher altitude so we could beginto acclimate.

Quito is the second highestcapital in the world. Aside fromLa Paz, Bolivia, it’s the only cap-ital where commercial airline pi-lots have to wear oxygen masksduring landing to prevent faint-ing. Instead of blowing air intothe cabin to pressurize it uponlanding, in Quito, they suck airout.

Above Quito is the extinct Pin-chincha volcano, which we vis-ited on a gondola that glides to13,400 feet. After a breathtakingride, we huffed our way into theadjacent valley. Bright insectsand roaming llamas wanderedthe hillside while smoke floatedout of a cement lean-to structure;inside a family tended a grill ofbeef and plantains. After a mealof knobby corn we headed backto the thick, welcoming air ofQuito.

In the morning Vega took ustwo hours east to the pueblo of ElChaupi, where our objectives, Il-liniza Norte and Illiniza Sur, tow-ered over the quiet cobblestoneroad. An enormous statute of awoman milking a cow stands inthe center of town. Gauchosclicked their way down thestreets. We were about to hireone.

Beyond Chaupi the road fallsapart, degrading rapidly into abraided system of deep mudchannels. Vega grinned as hedrove with one tire in each track.Higher up the path he positionedone tire in a groove and the otherhigh on the embankment, toss-ing the vehicle into a 30-degreelean. He proudly announced thathe has never flipped a car — buthe knows friends who have.

At the road’s end Vega easedhis truck between two árbol depapel, sturdy trees with twistedbranches and paper-thin bark.After greeting our gaucho, weloaded our supplies onto the

flanks of his horse and hiked fortwo hours up glacial moraine andsandy hillsides to a rustic, brickhut at 15,200 feet.

The Illiniza Refugio is a dankbackcountry shelter that sits in asaddle between the two Illinizas.This depression was once thesummit of a conjoined volcano.When it exploded, it left twopeaks. One is rocky and suitablefor novice mountaineers. Theother is more challenging, withwithering glaciers and overhang-ing ice bands.

At sunrise we left for IllinizaNorte, the northern, drier peak.We clambered up pulverized ig-neous rock, wound our way be-tween spiny rock towers andacross steep scree fields until wecould scramble to the apex. Westood on the crumbling summit.There a rusty iron cross adornedwith prayer flags and memorabil-ia framed Illiniza Sur just to thesouth.

That night I awoke gaspingfor air. I was Cheyne-Stokesbreathing, a phenomenon thatoccurs at altitude. The body mis-behaves when there is little oxy-gen to breathe. It responds bydriving your respiratory rate upto that of a pant, followed by apause, or apneic period. It feelslike someone put a plastic bag ov-er your head in your sleep.

It was 4 a.m. and the snow on

Illiniza Sur would be frozen solid— we hoped. So we left the hut,navigating across the rubble-strewn slopes of Illiniza Sur bythe cones of light from our head-lamps. We swiftly crossed themountain’s apron, climbed a gul-ly of loose rock, and pulled ontothe winding glacier of IllinizaSur’s West Face. Our route wasobvious: Ascend 70-degree snowand ice, thread two huge crevass-es, and summit. We were the firstparty of the year to attempt Sur.

We plodded up the steepslopes and approached the sum-mit only to have soft, unsafesnow conditions halt us a fewhundred feet from the top. Two

more weeks of baking in theequatorial sun and Sur’s snowwould be the density of frozenbutter and much less likely to av-alanche. That day it was unsafe, adisappointing reality to whichclimbers must submit if theywant to live to climb again. In thedistance, the conical Cotopaxivolcano, Ecuador’s most popularmountaineering objective, tow-ered over the valley.

Leaving the Illinizas behind,Vega coasted with us into the qui-et hamlet of Papallacta, where agravel road led us to HotelTermes de Papallacta, a lush re-treat of grass-roofed cabanas sur-rounding courtyards bright withlilies. Faucets hidden insidecracked terra-cotta pots pumpedcrisp, hot, spring-fed water into adozen tiled pools that wind be-tween the cabanas. In the UnitedStates this resort would cost$600 a night. In Ecuador, it cost afifth of that.

More impressive than the finedining (local trout stuffed withmashed casaba), the top-shelf $8wine, or the myriad spa options,including a colon evacuation andchocolate immersion bath, wasthe view. The bulky mass of Anti-sana, our next objective, toweredabove the cloud forest, an inter-mediate zone between Ecuador’seastern jungle and the highgrasslands known as the páramo,where shrouds of mist stick totowering stands of trees.

We were only the fourth partythis year to attempt Antisana. It’sa remote, serious mountain sepa-rated from civilization by hoursof 4-wheel-drive, cross-countrytravel. The peak stared over ourbase camp as we quietly sippedVega’s tomato bisque with pota-toes and fresh trout. We were theonly climbers, the only people,within 20 miles.

After climbing all night toagain take advantage of colder,firmer, safer snow conditions, Iclimbed up to my friend Conrad’svantage point, the apex of a steepice ramp on the Antisana’s south-east face. It was zero degrees andthe air was thin at almost 18,000feet. The summit block was juststarting to glow from the risingsun.

A maze of gaping crevassesspread out before us, each onecapped with a thin snow bridge,beyond which a 100-foot-highwall of overhanging ice led to thesummit. To our left the glacierspilled 4,000 feet to the páramo.To our right sat a junkyard ofazure glacial ice blocks teeteringlike upended boxcars, oozing aneerie blue light over our heads aswe assessed the many uncontrol-lable hazards and talked aboutour families. Here, 800 feet fromthe summit, we turned back.

Our Land Cruiser wound itsway up the snaking concreteroad and across the páramo to-ward Baños. After a few hours

the road dropped down into thecloud forest, the pavementsteaming from the humidity. Aswe descended into the vapor, vis-ibility collapsed. At a bend in theroad Vega pulled over, shot me acrooked smile, and pointed intothe milky sky. The clouds split,revealing the bony summit ofTungurahua. As the Pastaza Riv-er roared in the lush valley below,the tip of the dark mountain si-lently bellowed a puff of blackash high into the sky.

Brian Irwin can be reached atbattenkill1@juno.com.

Breathless about 3 peaks, under the spell of 2 volcanoesº ECUADORContinued from Page M1

Where to stayHostal Charles DarwinLa Colina 304 y OrellanaQuito011-593-2-223-4323www.hostalchdarwin.comQuiet, spacious rooms, anopen courtyard, and impres-sive breakfasts. Only 15 min-utes from the airport, $40 pernight, and free Internet andunlimited free calling to theUnited States included.Hostal Villa Santa Clara12 de Noviembre y V. IbarraBaños011-593-3-274-0349www.hotelvillasantaclara.comOpen, villa-style rooms sur-round a courtyard with foun-tain. Quiet and secure, $10per night.Hostal AustriaTarqui y Diaz de PinedaTena011-593-6-288-7205hostalaustria@gmail.comA small, family-owned opera-tion directly across from RiosEcuador and only a block fromthe footbridge to downtown.Comfortable rooms with ham-mocks and hot water willsurprise you for $10 per night.Convenient if you are headingto Tena, the next town east ofBaños, to white water raft.What to doRios EcuadorTarqui 230 y Dias de PinedaTena011-593-6-288-6727www.riosecuador.comThe classic 25-kilometer ClassIII float down the Rio Jatunyacuis world famous and costs $59per person. The Tena region isa white-water capital of thecontinent and is only a coupleof hours from Baños, so checkout other rivers, such as theUpano. Kayak instruction,jungle camping, and multidayfloat trips are available.Outfitting Services andMountain GuidingEdgar Ricardo Vaca Vega canarrange trips of any length andcan tend to any details, fromcooking to jungle tours, fromclimbing expeditions to treks.Custom tours like ours average$800 per person.edgarguide63@gmail.comwww.edgarguide63.webs.com

If you go . . .

PHOTOS BY BRIAN IRWIN FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE

Llamas on the alpine plateau in Ecuador known as the páramo,overlooking Quito; the author’s hiking companion, ConradYager, on Illiniza Norte; and children home from school in theAndean village of Pappallatca.

SEPT. 2-5PINEHURST, N.C.Pinehurst Food & Wine Festi-val: This wine-oriented fest atPinehurst Resort, often calledthe cradle of American profes-sional golf, concentrates less onlauding already-celebrated labelsand more on serious wine educa-tion. Festivalgoers can learn theins and outs of the blind tastingprocess, for example, explore thecharacteristics of different clonesof a grape variety, or sample thenew organic wines of SouthAfrica. Among the guest chefs isRobert Sisca of Boston’s Bistrodu Midi. Best deals are the pack-ages of lodging, all meals, and allactivities. Pinehurst Resort,packages $280 per person perday, events $40-$65. 800-487-4653, www.pinehurstwinefest.com

SEPT. 3-5WEST JEFFERSON, OhioAnnual Ox Roast: It mightseem like an awful lot of troubleto go to to make roast beef sand-

wiches, but there’s somethingawe-inspiring about cooking5,500 pounds of round roasts inan underground pit. The 140-foot-long, 4-foot-wide pit is filledwith 30 tons of slab woodburned down to glowing coals.The seasoned and foil-wrappedmeat is laid in the pit and thewhole thing is buried for 10hours. By 2:30 p.m. on LaborDay, the meat is excavated andthe slicing begins to make thosesandwiches. The roast beefchowdown climaxes a weekendof parades, beauty contests, a carshow, belly dancers, talentshows, and rides and games.Garrette Park, admission andparking free, Labor Day sand-wiches $5.25. 614-879-8818,www.westjeffoxroast.com

SEPT. 13-15SANTA ROSA, Calif.The National Heirloom Exposi-tion: Billed as ‘‘the World’s PureFood Fair,’’ this initial gatheringof farmers, gardeners, seedsmen,and foodies promises to be an

all-American take on Slow Foodwith a focus on the superior tasteof heirloom vegetables. Tangytomatoes with old-time flavorare only the tip of the gastro-nomic iceberg, and organizersare promising samples of organ-ic heirloom fruits and vegetablesgrown all over the country. After

you stock up on seeds for nextyear’s garden, visit the nearbySonoma vineyards. Proceedsbenefit school gardens and foodprograms. Sonoma County Fair-grounds, 1350 Bennett ValleyRoad, adults $10, under 18 free.707-509-5171, www.theheirloomexpo.com

SEPT. 13-18BARDSTOWN, Ky.Kentucky Bourbon Festival:We suspect that each of the sixdays of this festival will beginwith the 2011 official drink: aBluegrass Sunrise of bourbonand orange juice with a dash ofgrenadine. Folks in Bardstownclaim they have been makingbourbon since 1776, and thathas been cause for celebrationever since. Sour mash makes forsweet times for everything fromthe Bourbon Breakfast to thefree live concerts. Aficionados ofthe country’s contribution tointernational whiskeydom willenjoy the tastings and mixologysessions. Social butterflies cansavor the black-tie dinner andhistorical tours. The Great Ken-tucky Bourbon Tasting & Gala,with dinner and dancing, is theclimax of the festival. Variousvenues, including distilleries insurrounding towns, most out-door events free, ticketed events$5-$140. 800-638-4877,www.kybourbonfestival.com

PLAN AHEAD

SEPT. 29-OCT. 2KANSAS CITY, Mo.American Royal BarbecueContest: The season finale forthe competitive barbecue circuitis often dubbed the World Seriesof barbecue as more than 500teams from across the UnitedStates and Canada battle for thegrand champion title here.Sauces, seasonings, and (ofcourse) barbecued meat are onsale each day. American RoyalComplex, 1701 American RoyalCourt, $13. 816-221-9800,www.arbbq.com

PATRICIA HARRIS ANDDAVID LYON

Events are sometimes canceled,rescheduled, or sold out; checkonline. Patricia Harris andDavid Lyon can be reached atharris.lyon@verizon.net. Readtheir food and travel blog atwww.hungrytravelers.com.

PINEHURST FOOD & WINE FESTIVAL

A Carolina-grown Biltmore Estate wine draws some samplersat the Pinehurst (N.C.) Food & Wine Festival.

Destinationsf o o d

Wine, oxen, Sonoma seeds, bourbon chaser