Cotopaxi

Last night the time of departure had been postponed to 07:30, so we had time to have breakfast at the B&B. But the driver just arrived a few minutes before 8. We had packed everything already in the morning so we could continue further South after finishing today's tour. It was foggy the whole way which took about 1.5 hours up to the parking lot of the volcano. The first stop would've been the Laguna de Limpiopungo but it was too foggy to see anything. I already expected that we wouldn't see anything at all today when the fog broke and we could see the volcano in all it's beauty 😍 It was surrounded by three shades of white from the snow, clouds and vapor straight out of the volcano. With that magnificent view the jeep made its way up the volcano to the parking.
In great weather conditions we started our ascend to the mountain hut (refugio) offering snacks, drinks and beds. The 1.5 km long hike was on a perfectly prepared trail with switchbacks winding up beautifully. The altitude difference wasn't that bad, from 3600 up to 3850 but Julia got a bit altitude sickness 🤢 So we had a Coca Tea and some chocolate which helped a bit. The view from up there down into the valley was equally amazing as from the valley up 🥰 We spent a little time in the refugio before continuing further up until the edge of the glacier. There was beautiful intense deep blue snow and ice stalactite. The trail ended just a few metres in altitude below 5000 metres, afterwards there was just loose gravel. Hiking up would've been dangerous for ourselves and also for the ones hiking behind because of sudden rockfalls. The fog/clouds had been also moving in again so the sight got pretty bad. Therefore we decided to go back down which was an easy pleasant walk 🙂 We were super happy to have seen that gorgeous views of the volcano!!
Afterwards we went back to the laguna, which was now fully visible lays beautiful in a mountain range. The sight reminded us of the lush green hills of New Zealand and specifically "The Shire", filming location of the Hobbit Village. The 3.5km walkway around the laguna consisted of a boardwalk at first and then turned into a beautiful trail with views over the whole valley and Cotopaxi.

Our taxi driver brought us back to the entrance and the highway where the buses stop going South. After a few minutes we caught it and were on our planned way to the Laguna Quilotoa. At least that was the plan but as it turned out the laguna closes at 3, so it would've been impossible to go there today as the bus takes 2 hours. Also we wouldn't be able to do a tour tomorrow in Baños, so we decided to skip it and just kept going in the bus 😅 On the way we booked a hotel/hostel room for the night and then relaxed more or less on the 1.5 hour bus ride(s). On the second bus they tried to charge us 10$ instead of 2.50$ but Julia checked back with other passengers and called him out for trying to scam us 😁

Our hostal (seems like that's a hotel here, not sure which ones are the hostels then) was right next to the main bus terminal so just a bit of carrying luggage around. Afterwards we went directly to explore the town which is very lively with bars, restaurants and tour agencies. We wanted to do an activity for the next day so we stopped by the first agency and decided to go canyoning which will be in the morning so we have time to explore in the afternoon. Then we walked through the town and took pictures of the few sights until we stopped at a restaurant for dinner. There we tried the Canelazo, a sweet, thick and hot fruit juice with alcohol. A little bit similar to hot wine...
Afterwards we bought some snacks for the tour tomorrow and the local beer. We decided to stay another night as it might get too late tomorrow but we booked another hotel as it was pretty loud there...Read more