Cotopaxi in January

This is the Cotopaxi the world knows. It is one of the highest active volcanoes in the world, and is located about 50 miles south of Quito.

This is the Cotopaxi I know. This is a picture of the Sloan family (from left to right, President Sloan, Stephanie, Natalie, Sister Sloan and Jessica). Their faces look funny because we were in the middle of a driving snowstorm, and the snow was flying right into their faces; they could not open their eyes.

During the first week of the new year, President Sloan invited me to accompany his family and the family of two stake presidents in "hiking" Cotopaxi. Despite advice that it was really better to see Cotopaxi in June, we caravaned up the mountain as far as we could go and then parked the cars on the side of a road.

I believe one of the stake presidents' families exercised great wisdom in recognizing that the white stuff flying in the air meant that it was pretty cold. They never left their car. The rest of us enthusiastically exited the vehicles and started hiking up the mountain. For me, that meant just about 100 steps up to the parking lot. By that time, I was bent over double, gasping for air. President Sloan asked me, "Are you all right, Sister Griesemer?" I was far too proud to answer, "No, President, I can't breathe and I'm dying." Just then, bless their hearts, Stephanie and Natalie said they wanted to go back to the car. My hand shot up into the air. "I'll take them" I shouted with all the breath left in my body. President and Sister Sloan insisted that I take their picture in front of the sign in the parking lot. By the way, in the parking lot, we were at 4500 meters altitude. That's 14,764 feet tall.


We were delighted to reach the car. Sister Sloan is always ready with food, and the girls (and I) had a little snack. Natalie, who is 10, was working on composing a ditty. There's a saying that's peculiar to this country. It's "siga no mas." The direct translation is "continue no more," but it really means "go ahead." Natalie was setting the phrase to the 1986 "Gimme a Break" jingle for the KitKat Bar (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSqucD0C). Naturally, her song went something like this (hum the jingle in your head--you all know it):

Siga no mas,
Siga no mas,
Siga, siga, siga, siga
Siga no mas!

It was a musical triumph! (Or our brains were frozen--take your pick.)

I took a few more pictures. . . (yes, more clouds).




When President Sloan, Jessica and Hermana Sloan returned to the car, we were blocked in by cars that couldn't get up the road. The snow had stopped, but the road was very sandy where we were, and Ecuadorians have no living idea how to drive their cars when the wheels spin. So President engaged in one of his favorite activities (so says Hermana Sloan)--pushing people's cars out of the snow-mud-sand-whatever. President Sloan is wearing the green jacket and red hat.

He would tell everybody to get back into the car (for some reason, when the wheels started to spin, everyone would bail out), and then give the driver instructions. He would yell "No pare para nada!" (Don't stop for anything!) and direct the troops in pushing the car. I think we watched for 45 minutes while he cleared the road with the help of others. Meanwhile, the car heater was running, Nat was singing away, and it was all kinds of entertainment to watch the cars slip and slide. What a day!