At Santa Fe de Bogota he was attached to the staff of General Bolivar as colonel and traveled widely in the northern parts of the continent. Between March and December 1831, he attempted to climb seven Andean volcanoes: Puracé, Pasto and Cumbal in Colombia, and Pichincha, Antisana, Cotopaxi and Chimborazo in Ecuador. In 1831 he climbed to a new highest altitude by a Western explorer on Chimborazo (6.006 m) in the process.