Cotopaxi

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Today we hiked up Cotopaxi. Cotopaxi is the largest active volcano in the world according to our professor, but this is disputed by many. He also says that Cotopaxi has a perfect cone. At the beginning, two of the girls from our group were feeling really sick. Our professor from Toronto Tony left with them and took them to the hospital in Quito. One of the girls had altitude sickness and swelling of the lungs. We joined them back in Quito later that night. This time it was a shorter hike. We hiked about 1 km but we went up about 500 m. It was very very steep and the ground was like sand that gave out under your foot which made it much more difficult. We literally would take ten steps and then rest. It took about an hour to get to the lodge. This was 4800 m (15 750 ft.). At the lodge we had hot chocolate and then walked over to the glacier. The glacier has severely retreated in the past few years because of global warming. At the glacier there was a group of people climbing the glacier with spiky boots and rope and everything. We got to go touch the glacier. Then we walked back down to our bus. We stopped at a lake at the park where there was wild horses. Then back to Quito. The 8th would be our final exam in the course and we all had to study.

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Photos

Cotopaxi Hike
We had to climb to the yellow lodge.