During these past few days, the United Llamas have been enjoying some awesome adventures!

After traveling for a few hours, we made it to our hotel, the beautiful Hacienda Porvenir, at the foothill of the Cotopaxi Volcano:

As part of the experience of the traditions of this place, we dressed as Ecuadorian cowboys/cowgirls known as “chagras” and headed out on a horseback ride:

We made it to the APUs, the protectors of the mountains. These totem figures are a traditional Andean sculpture that represent the llama, the male and female chagra and their work in the “páramos“, which is the name of the type of ecosystem that surrounds Cotopaxi.

Later on, we enjoyed the hotel’s spa and took a cooking lesson where we learned how to make mini fried cheese emapanadas, canelazo (a traditional hot drink), ají (traditional spicy salsa) and 4 leches, a dessert that was very popular with many of the United Llamas! Here we are at work:

After a good night’s rest, we got ready to hike up to Cotopaxi’s first “refugio” (lodge). With the altitude, the rain and cold this was an enormous challenge that the United Llamas overcame together!

To finish our day, we had a formal presentation of the independent projects that each one of our students had been working on during our stay in Las Tolas. We’re so proud of how much they’ve learned and grown as Spanish speakers!