Cotopaxi

We headed north to the town of Latacunga which is a city close to Cotopaxi. The hostel, Tenia, was a bit like camping. We had to share a bathroom with others there and there wasn't much hot water. Not as nice as the last one, for sure, but it was only for 2 nights. The city has no touristic value whatsoever, crowded and dirty, but the reason we are here was for ...

... hiking in Cotopaxi National Park and seeing Cotopaxi, elevation 19,347 ft. If you measure from the earth's core it is the highest mountain in the world. You can summit the mountain in two days, but we just wanted a look. :)

This is the second most visited destination by tourists, after the Galapagos. We asked the tour guide what he recommended and he said the south face of the mountain as it was beautiful, very few tourists, plus you save the $10 entrance fee to the park on this tour.

We started out at 8:30 with a 1 1/2 hr ride in a 4WD up a very rough road. The day was cloudy, not a good sign, but we hoped for the best. We started out at about 4,000 m (13,100 ft) and climbed to 4500 m (14,800 ft). Some people have problems at this altitude and they recommend "acclimatising" a few days before climbing. We were okay because we have been living in Cuenca for 3 months at high elevation and we are in great physical form after all the walking we do, ha ha ha.

Great scenery from the get go. Lots of different plant life too. This park is more rugged than the Cajas. It is full of volcanic lava and we pretty much followed the path it flowed in 1904 which was the last time it erupted.

They supplied us with coats and we were glad they did because it got cold and started to rain and hail on the way back. It was a wet and cold ride back in the truck but we had a great day overall. Ecuador is so beautiful!!!


Let the climb begin!


The trail on the way there. The path was like walking on sandy gravel and they basically carved the path by making a 2 foot ledge along the side of the mountain.


The clouds lifted briefly and we got a glimpse of snow on the mountains.




Waterfalls.




This looks like blowing snow but it is actually clouds. You can see a bit of snow on the mountain. Cotopaxi is hiding behind these clouds, boo hoo. We never got to see the summit but as you can see from our photos, it was not too much of a let down.






Hail marks the trail on the way back.




The lava flowed through here in 1904.

Some of the plants along the way ....







This ground cover had no roots, it just layed on top of the ground like flakes.