Cotopaxi - hike and bike

Culture yesterday - nature again today - pure. The Cotopaxi has somehow done it to me, maybe because it's so high and snowy, maybe because it's active at the moment, maybe just because it only shows up sometimes. When Andrea and I visited it three weeks ago, it was quite overcast. In the hope of hiking this large volcano again on a clear day, I had booked a tour for today that left Quito at 7 a.m. by bus. I was there at ten to seven, and we didn't leave until an hour later. It doesn't matter, I didn't have any other appointments today. The small group of 7 included several backpackers including two women traveling alone - I find it so admirable and enviably courageous to travel solo across South America as a woman.

After about an hour and a half drive through partly dense clouds of fog, we were able to start hiking from the last parking lot and surprisingly the clouds thinned out more and more and fortunately the view became clearer. This time you could actually see more of the snow-covered part, but unfortunately it was forbidden to go any further to the edge of the glacier. So after a short stay and hot tea in the Refugio, the 250 meters of altitude we had laboriously climbed downhill again at a leisurely jog. The closer we got to the parking lot, the thicker the clouds became again. How annoying, because the second part of this excursion should now begin - a descent by mountain bike to the lagoon at the foot of the volcano. Even before we had distributed the bikes and put on the helmets, it was already raining quite heavily and after about five bends on the bumpy gravel road I was not only soaked, but also frozen through from the downhill wind. So I let the bus pick me up again and was glad that I still had a dry jacket up my sleeve.

What a pity - I think this descent would have been a lot of fun if the weather had been better.

The Cotopaxi was completely covered again during the drive back to Quito so I think I just have to try again sometime in my life to see this magical place in more light.