Feb 14th 2009 - Cotopaxi

This Valentines Day I reached the highest point of my life. Five thousand metres high to be precise.

We were up at 6am so we could get the bus from Uncle Ho’s and were treated to stunning views of the city and plenty of runners. We were heading to the Valley of Volcanoes in the Andes and to a particular stratovolcano called Cotopaxi, one of the highest active volcanoes in the world although the last eruption was all the way back in 1940.

On the bus I chilled with Joana listening to some German Reggae (Patrice – Freee PatriNation) and visited a little market where a kid tested how good my anti-theft belt was – it stood up to the test. The drive consisted of gorgeous Andean landscape rolling past our window and when we caught our first sight of Cotopaxi looming threateningly before us the bus stopped and we climbed on top of it to soak in the moment. And we also got some pretty damn fine views to the local llama population too!

We arrived at a car park 4500 metres above sea level covered in cloud. We walked up to 4800 metres to a restaurant through hail and soft ground. Some people struggled more with the oxygen deficiency than others, including Tara so I helped her with her bags. Others of us did not struggle too much and so carried onto 5000 metres – the official year round snow zone – and did what any group of adults would do…we made snow angels.

Just past 5000 metres there was a little cave with stalactites and stalagmites which was beautiful and it seemed like the perfect place to turn around. The walk back down to the restaurant was stunning too, especially when the clouds thinned a bit, and I took at bit of ice from the cave with me so everyone could touch 5000 metres.

We cycled back down the volcano but I had to apply the brakes virtually the whole time to stop the speed getting uncontrollable. Therefore I just stayed with the slow crawler group with Camilla, Joana, Louise St, Mia, Helle and Sally. I didn’t want to go faster anyway as I was enjoying the view more than the speed. As we journeyed on towards Latacunga the cloud dispersed briefly so we could see Cotopaxi in all of it’s powerful and threatening glory. Unfortunately I didn’t get a shot of that (just a mental photograph) but I do love this picture of Cotopaxi with the cloudline and the outline peaking through the clouds. It was a toss up between this shot and one of me at 5000 metres but this one summed up the day itself more.