Saturday, February 12
Get my small backpack and walk to the meeting point at Plaza San Blas. The bus arrives and with 6 tourists we go with guide Alex to South. Breakfast is just before entering the national park. Then another hour of bumpy road to the starting point. On the way we are lucky. The sky is clearing and the clouds move away. Now we can see why we are here, the volcano Cotopaxi in total, with the top covered in white snow and ice. From the starting point we walk slowly up and at this altitude it’s still very challenging. Luckily we started above 4000 m. After a few stops and more climbing we arrive at the restaurant at a height of 4864. We have a hot chocolate and after the toilet break we descend. The way down os on a mountain bike. Helmet on and off. The bumpy road is preventing high speeds. We stop for some pictures of flowers and after a while it starts to rain a bit. Still not too bad. We stop for a fox along the road and a bit further is the end point at Laguna de Limpiopungo. Back in the bus and to a restaurant for lunch and back to Quito. I’m happy we saw the snowy top of Cotopaxi.
