Cotopaxi Volcano & National Park

Today we began our road adventure to the Cotopaxi National Park, after a relaxing day spent at our lodge watching humming birds, admiring the spectacular views and enjoying some G&T's at sunset - which as mentioned before, happens very quickly. We were joined late afternoon by our Ecuadorian friends Mariacecilia and Xavier (mates of Alice's from Scenic Eclipse). Our journey today was only 60km, but it takes a few hours due to the atrocious roads. We are staying at a remote lodge, Tambopaxi, located inside the National Park. It's elevation is about 3800m so hopefully won't play further havoc with my altitude cough (an actual altitude sickness) that I seemed to have picked up in Quito. Interestingly the place runs off a generator which must be switched off at night due to National Park regulations (or more likely to save some diesel!). The valley we are located in is the bed of an old glacier, so I am looking forward to our tour tomorrow - that's if I don't freeze to death tonight.

Just some more trivia - Cotopaxi is one of the highest active volcanoes in the world. It stands at nearly 6000m. It has erupted nearly 50 times since the 1700's. In 1802 a European by the name of Alexander von Humboldt was the first to climb Cotopaxi, and we will hear much more about this bloke later!