Yomps, Adventure Travel Experiences

Cotopaxi and Indigenous Community Project
Full Itinerary

Volunteer in a community, learn Spanish, see amazing wildlife, meet indigenous cultures, scale the Cotopaxi summit, and discover an amazing country having the experiences of a lifetime!

Ecuador

Weeks 1 and 2 - Ecuadorian Andes indigenous community project

Our first destination is approximately three hours overland travel from where we land in Quito. The small communities residing roughly an hour from Otavalo are surrounded by an abundance of wildlife, and are where our adventures begin - repairing and constructing necessary school buildings. Living in homestays with local families in Otavalo will give us the full warmth of a lovely community, while we will travel daily to the workplace. The first few days will be spent planning and buying the materials we need, before we set about constructing much needed classrooms as part of a sustainable long-term project initiative. Supplying the manpower for this essential project will give us a true sense of achievement, as we help one of the poorest regions in Ecuador. The area is normally inaccessible to tourists, so to stay, work, aid, and learn from these communities is a rare opportunity and great honour. It is hoped we can make a huge difference to the local communities by providing necessary new classrooms for the overcrowded schools. The end of our stay will be commiserated and celebrated with an Ecuadorian party to mark our success and bid farewell to our new found friends.

Ecuador

Weeks 3 and 4 - High altitude treks including a summit attempt on Cotopaxi (South America’s highest active volcano)

We then transform from happy burly builders into daring thrill seeking mountaineers to make a summit attempt on Cotopaxi volcano, a stratovolcano that has one of the world’s only equatorial glaciers. During the first two days we will explore Quito (officially ‘San Francisco de Quito’), the capital city of Ecuador which resides in the Guayllabamba river basin at 2,850m above sea level making it the second highest (elevation) capital city in the world. Our guides will take us to explore a city that contains a vista of Ecuadorian art, history, arcitechture, and culture. Staying in Quito will also provide the ideal opportunity to acclimatise ourselves to thinner air, before we head to Cotopaxi National Park to be taught the fine art of climbing. Classroom lessons and practical sessions on the mountains will cover the practical uses of equipment which includes harnesses, knots, and ice screws, as well as the vital essentials of mountain rescue and basic yet life-saving first aid. Once trained, a variety of treks will further get us acclimatised to the thin air by getting progressively higher each day. Days begin early and will be challenging, but the resulting improvement in your climbing and stunning views will make all the hard graft all the more worth it. For company we will have some awesome wildlife including condors, eagles, wolves, foxes, deer, and frogs unique to the area – all of whom are bound to offer us some encouraging caws and ribbits as we head off to the volcano! Cotopaxi is Ecuador's second highest mountain (measuring over 19,000 feet) and has long been considered the highest active volcano in the world. Blessed with the highest number of clear days in the Ecuadorian Andes, the Cotopaxi region thus warrants climbs any time of year. We climb the perfectly conical peak using crampons and mittens to reach the summit of a volcano iced with glaciers and providing a once-in-a-lifetime photo opportunity of the surrounding view – the extraordinary and stunning Andes. It’s sure to get the blood pumping and face grinning, being an awesome and fitting final extreme adventure to our expedition. Some serious celebrating awaits us after our descent, where we will hold an unusual awards party with some even more unusual awards! The party will guarantee you an amusing prize to take home and will provide the perfect way to bid farewell to Ecuador as the sun goes down on our awe-inspiring, challenging, and extreme Yomps adventure.