Cotopaxi

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Today we return from Baños to Quito. The end of our week long tour. On the way we stop to visit the Cotopaxi volcano (not the erupting one - don't worry mums). This is going to be an altitude test (nick has been taking diamox to see if it weel help with the altitude - for the inca trail). This mountain is actually higher than anything we will do on the inca trail. The carpark is at 4500m and the plan was to walk up to the snow line at 4800m.

When we arrived at the park, there was no mountain. It was all hidden by low cloud. And hopes of it clearing started to fade as as we headed up the slopes it actually started to snow!!!. There were some lovely wild flowers on the drive up but we were all a bit more distracted by the weather that lay ahead. We we arrived at the carpark it was snowing pretty steadily and we really didn't need to walk to see the smowline as it was at the bus door! Some mad buggers still decided to do the walk anyway (Nick was mad and Tiare was sensible and stayed on the bus). So up we headed into the snow storm. You can really feal the altitude, you only take really small steps and move so slowly, even then you are puffing like you are running a race. Its kind of strange, youre not really fatigued but feel out of breath! But step after step Nick made it and we are posting the photo to prove it!! Nick feels soory for the guys that work in the hut up here having to do that walk every day to get to work. On the way back down the snow had turned into mini hail which was quite painfull and we were very glad to see the bus come back into view.

After that it was just the ride back into Quito.

All in all Nick really enjoyed the tour - Tiare wishes she hadn't been so sick.

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Photos

4800m
Nick at 4800m - Not nearly the summit but close enough for me

Walking in the Snow
What a lovely day for a walk in the park.....

Cotopaxi
This is a picture of a postcard we bought just to show what the mountain would have looked like if we could have seen it.