The Cotopaxi volcano

(Quito, Ecuador, 13-15th of October 2017)

Back in Quito again after our visit to Mindo we decided to stay in another area than we did the last time we were here. The Miraflores area is where most ”gringos” stay, with a lot of bars and restaurants and close to the Artisan market. The hostel we stayed at was really nicely decorated but the owner did not speak any English and they did not serve breakfast on Sundays, which we found out first after taking place in the restaurant asking for our, as we found out later, non existing breakfast…  a spanish speaking man gave us some coffee and a piece of cake and some cheese as we were quite angry as our booking stipulated that breakfast should be served, however, what we was served was not tasty, neither enough to take our hunger away, it was probably what he found left in the fridge. As he did not understand us we could not really tell him how angry we were, but he probably got it anyway…so after this we ended up in a coffee shop serving us a decent breakfast.

Our last day in Quito we had booked a day trip to Cotopaxi, the world highest active volcano. We started really early in the morning and stopped for a breakfast break before we headed up to an altitude of 4500 mts and got out of the bus.

We hiked up to 4860 meters and if you wanted you could continue up to 5000 meters. Christel was really affected by the altitude and stayed at the base station at 4860 mts but Johan hiked up to 5000 meters.

When we hiked down to the bus we met some of the American girls we stayed with in the Amazonas. So strange to meet them here of all places!

Down by the bus we got our mountain bikes and got ready to start the trip down the volcano. One girl fell over after 25 mts and that made the other girls a bit scared, as Christel was the only female that made it down, the others chickened out and went with the bus.