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Published: November 26th 2018
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Relaxed start to the day as we didn't have to get to the meeting point for the tour bus until 08:50. There was one meeting point for the tour in the old city and tour to Cotopaxi Volcano officially started at 09:25. The weather didn't look the best for the tour but with just two full days in Quito, we didn't have much choice. The drive there passes many volcanoes so it was an
It was a fair distance to travel and after picking up a local guide, Paulini it was 11:00 when we reached the entrance to the park. It was a quick toilet stop before arriving at the visitor centre, where Paulini took the English speakers through and explained a few things about local flora and talked about the volcanoes in the area.
It was then another 45 minute drive on an extremely bumpy road to the car park before our hike to the Refugio. It was only 1.5kms but takes about 60 minutes because of the steepness and altitude. Daisy said it was the hardest thing she has ever done. As usual you just take one step at a time, don't look up and stop to
drink if your mouth feels dry. I find that after every stop and drink I get a new burst of energy. On the way up it was at first raining but then started snowing. It certainly was a welcome sight when we saw the refugio and Paulini said, just another 5 minutes. At the refugio there was ice and snow on the ground but it was lovely going inside and getting a hot chocolate. We had reached an altitude of 4,864m asl, the highest Daisy has ever been.
We rested for 30 minutes and then started our descent down a different way. It was like sliding down a ski slope. Daisy of course took it carefully but found myself almost runnimg down at times and stopping occasionally to take photos. It was certainly a lot easier than going up.
Once everyone was back in the bus we were driven to Laguna Limpiopung where there is a lot of bird life, but just before that, the bus stopped and we watched a fox for a few minutes as it wandered around the roadside before running off. We had 15 minutes scheduled at the lake but that stretched out a
bit because clouds started to move away from Cotopaxi and we saw it for the first time.
By now I was busting to go to the loo, all this cold weather has an effect but luckily just had to hold on for 20 minutes when we reached the park entrance.
We were driven off the main highway to our lunch stop at a lodge near a town called Chaupi. By now it was 16:20 and everyone was hungry. We had a course lunch which was good and filling and we happily got back in the bus at 17.15 for the trip back.
We were quite tired after today’s hike and I slept for part of the way back. The bus dropped us off close to our hotel and we will have an early night for our 06:45 flight to the Galapagos Islands, our last big adventure before flying home.
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