Hiking Cotopaxi

The weekend before my birthday, Javier and I scheduled a day trip to the closest volcano outside of Quito: Cotopaxi.  We had heard from friends that the trip out and hike up to the glacier was a worthwhile adventure, so we booked with Gulliver Expeditions and layered up our warm clothes.

Remembering how naive we were the last time we decided to hike a volcano.

The day included breakfast and lunch at an adorable hostel just outside of the national park.  Then a drive through some gorgeous scenery and wild horses in the park.  The Cotopaxi National Park is pretty huge and is home to four different volcanoes.  The weather had not been cooperating on our trip in; lots of rain and clouds...but we were staying hopeful for a change once we reached the the base of the volcano.....it didn't.  This meant a pretty steep walk up with a lot of snow and sleet in your face....fun, right?!

Here is a good view of the ash we were climbing up.

at El Refugio...we just walked up that hill you see behind us...

this one . . . trust me, it was quite steep

The Refugio was an awesome spot to take a breather and drink some hot beverages.  I think some folks on our tour didn't realize what they were signing up for because they decided this was as far as they could go...
(can you see the snow that is falling in my pic?)

After a little rest, our guides asked who was heading farther up to the glacier.  Keep in mind, it took us about an hour to hike from the bus to the Refugio and the glacier was only another 20/30 minutes.  Out of the 21 of us who started the ascent, only 7 agreed to plow on to the glacier...

but even with the snow and wind...the 7 of us agreed it was so worth it!  (pictures just don't show how amazing it looks)

we made it!

Here is a look at our steep path to the glacier...lots of snow and loose gravel

it opened up a little on our hike down and the views were breathtaking!

Part of the day included a bike ride down the volcano after our hike.  We were very interested in the idea of biking down the volcano.  In truth, it was a bit scary.  The road was all gravel and super steep.  We basically never pedaled, but man did I wear out my brakes on that trip down.  The next day my wrists were actually sore from gripping my handlebars so tightly!

This was the truck that we followed on the way down (look at that view!)

We stopped on the way to check out this herd of wild horses!

there were so many of them!  A few of them that were closest to us stopped and watched us the whole time we were nearby

We ended our bike ride a gorgeous lake where the sun finally came out!

not bad

It was too cloudy to ever see the top of Cotopaxi, but you can see the snow line starting to peak out in this picture

On the way out, we stopped at an information center and walked around a bit.  The views were incredible.
(pictures just don't do it justice...)

We had so much fun on the trip.  Even with the snow and sleet, the hike was 100% worth it.  We both agree that Ecuador is one of the most beautiful places we've ever been.  And when you're this close...who wouldn't hike a volcano?