Mountain biking or is that Volcano Biking

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Hello everyone, hope all is well

In case you don´t know, the small South American country of Ecuador has quite a few volcanoes in it. To give us a good idea of what a volcano is like we decided to venture up one of these volcanoes and have a closer look.
However in order to make it more dangerous and exciting (hence fun) we decided to mountain bike back down the volcano. Our tour started in the town of Riobamba where we were driven up to 4800m above sea level to the last refuge on the volcano. The drive up was really pretty. Along the way we went past a bull fighting farm where our guide proceeded to show us how angry bulls can get by whistling at them. It sent them nuts as they ran around the paddock towards us- thankfully the fence consisting of a few sticks nailed together protected us from the insane bulls.

At the top of the drive we got the chance to walk up to 5000m above sea level. This was a real test as we had spent most of the last few weeks at sea level however we managed and even have a stamp in our passport to prove it.

The real fun started however when we got our bikes and started down the volcano. To say that the first bit was fast would be an understatement- the bike seemed to just roll down very easily. This would have been ok but the ¨road¨ in the loosest sense of the word was really just a track and had big rocks all over it and was bumpy from the rain that had washed over it. The first bit also saw Triona fall of her bike (again) luckily this time she landed on her shoulder and not her head but she was pretty shaken up by it. After this she got back on and kept going. The ride saw us stop at many places on the way to take in the scenery. The ride down was really good and a really exciting way to spend a day.

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Photos

Volcano Chimborazo
Peak of the volcano. This was the clearest that we ever saw it! It clouded back over about 10 seconds after this photo was taken

5000m Club!!!
Triona is now officially a member of the 5000 metre club!!

5000m Club!!!
Peter is also a proud member of the exclusive 5000 meter club!

Peter sending a letter at 5000m.
This would have to be the highest (or at least one of the highest) post boxes in the world...