Blogs from Cotopaxi, Centre, Ecuador, South America - page 8

hola everyone! we´ve finally arrived in banos after a great few days in cotopaxi. the area around where we were staying in cotopaxi is one of the most beautiful places we have ever seen. the hostel was in a valley surrounded by 7 or so volcanoes (don´t worry though.. only one is active). the active one, cotopaxi, is of course the one that we did some hiking on. cotopaxi is arguably the highest active volcano in the world. i say arguably because some charts have it as one, others have it at two or three. regardless, the volcano is really high. the hostel we stayed at was somewhere around 3,500m. from there we took a day trip up to the volcano and started hiking at around 4,500m. we hiked up to the refuge (where crazy people ... read more

So we have left Quito, and we ventured to Cotopaxi. Our original plan was to spend one night at a hostal in Cotopaxi, and then go into the National Park to camp for a couple days, then continue on our adventure. When we arrived at the hostal in Cotopaxi, we were struck with awe with the views we had, and with the overall atmosphere. It was a real nice change from the feel that we had in the city. A combination of the hostal, and the surrounding area, plus the fact that it seemed to rain every afternoon, and the temperatures were always in the low double digits, we decided to just spend 4 nights at the hostal, and venture into the park and surrounding areas on little day trips. The hostal was warmed by wood ... read more

So with Caroline gone, we decided there was only one thing for it, thats right we decided to go and climb the worlds largest active volcano....Cotopaxi!! (you can see how the two are linked!) Cotopaxi presents a tricky challenge and Paul who runs the Secret Garden travel agency, Carpe DM, has attempted it three times already, only to be cruelly turned away from the summit like Oliver asking for more food at the orphanage. Well not exactly like Oliver, infact it was due to fatigue and poor weather not a nasty old man, so really I guess it was nothing like that...damn and I thought that analogy made me sound so smart too! But seriously he actually made it 300metres from the top once, only to be turned back by bad weather! We booked up a ... read more

img=http://photos-a.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sctm/v215/89/64/193107857/n193107857_35249560_1109.jpg center There is such a sense of tranquility in the National Park with no-one around you - except for the guy on the left! For anyone who doesn’t know about Cotopaxi, it’s one of the highest active volcanoes in the world (the summit is at 5,897m above sea level). Before you ask, no, we didn’t climb to the top - we actually only climbed about 200m of it, and even that was only to base of the glacier that sits on top of the mountain. But let me tell you, it was the most difficult 200m of our entire lives. Lack of acclimatization definitely played a part in that! Apart from the grueling walk, the reserve around the peak was a dramatic landscape of volcanic debris, glacier-melt streams and green fields dotted with the occasional ... read more

Hey all, So after taking off from Santa Lucia a week early we left Quito to go to a hostal about an hour away called Hosteria Papagayo. We were dropped off at the side of the highway and had to walk a bit, but it was well worth the walk as the hostal was beautiful. It is an old farm house surrounded by miles and miles of farmland. The staff were very welcoming and we were given a huge room overlooking a lush garden. After all the rain that we experienced at Santa Lucia, the weather was great...lots of sun and warm air.....and no mud....woohoo! In our first few hours there we were given a map of the surrounding areas and we took what we thought was going to be a little walk, that ended up ... read more