#229. Thursday 25/11/04
Posted November 26, 2004, 18:29 CET
Today we climbed a volcano. Cotopaxi is 5897m high and the second highest in the country. It's active and erupts about every 100 years. It last erupted in 1904. We only got to 4800m, but even that is higher than any point in Europe. In fact, because the world bulges at the equator, it's closer to space than the top of Everest.
It was quite distinctly a volcano. There are huge boulders strewn around the surrounding national park. In some parts it looks like a lunar landscape. We climbed past the snowline (snow on the equator!) and trekked across a glacier for a bit. The snow was beautiful - white, clean, soft and very good for snowball fights. The view from here would have been great, but we were surrounded by clouds. Altitude sickness was not so bad and chocolate helped.
Cotopaxi National Park was pretty. Wild horses, condors, cougars and we saw our first (farmed) llamas. I shall upload photos soon. We drove home past other volcanos along the Pan-America highway. This road, which goes from Alaska to the Tierra del Fuego is very scary at times. Especially when the clouds are low and there's no lights or lines on the road and the other trucks don't bother turning on theirs. When they repair the road they don't bother closing off the section with no tarmac. 4x wheel drive is a very good idea.
