Jun 13, 2010 - Cotopaxi - Mountainbiketur ned ad vulkanen

Vores foerste "ilddaab" i vulkanland startede med endnu en tidlig morgen (kl.5.00). Kl. 6 (+ de saedvanlige 20 minutters ventetid paa de indfoedte Ecuadorianere) koerte vi afsted med mountainbikes paa taget med vores guide fra Biking Dutchman. Vi var i godt selskab med to tyske fyre og vores Galapagosven Nita (Englaender med indiske roedder) samt en rigtig flink guide, Fernando. Efter lidt over to timers jeeptur naaede vi vores startsted 4600 m oppe ad vulkanen Cotopaxi (Total hoejde omkring 5.000 m.). Undervejs maatte de to danskere dog...

Feb 2, 2010 - Un volcan s'éteint, deux êtres s'émerveillent

Commencement de la journée avec une grosse déception à Quito. Nous nous sommes levés tôt pour aller voir la ville d'en haut, depuis le téléphérique, ça était très dur d'y aller. Il nous a fallu faire une heure d'Ecovia et puis prendre un taxi car la liaison entre l'Ecovia et le téléphérique ne se fait que le week-end, chose que nous ne savions pas. Arrivés au pied du traine-couillons, nous apprenons que la montée coûte 8,50$. Wahou! Trop cher pour nous! Après avoir perdu notre matinée, nous sommes repartis à l'auberge pour profiter...

Apr 5, 2009 - Summitting Cotopaxi Hike

Hah! Take that Kili! I just summitted Cotopaxi which is considered the highest active volcano in the world (5897 m or 19,347 feet) and is just a little higher than Kili (5895 m or 19,330). This hike was all about redeeming myself after getting so sick on my Kilimanjaro hike last Oct. We arrived in Quito on April 1 and immediately headed out to the Hacienda El Porvenir (3500 m or 11,483 feet) (booked through volcanoland.com). This area is southeast of Quito and is a little higher than the top of Mammoth Mountain which is at 3368 m or 11053...

Feb 4, 2009 - EIS ZEIT...

Halli Hallo Ihr Lieben! Wie geht es Euch? Habt Ihr es schön warm? Es soll ja ganz furchtbar kalt in Österreich und Deutschland sein. Eine ganze Menge Schnee soll die letzten paar Tage gefallen sein... Ja, kaum zu glauben dass ich hier am Equator sitze und so ehnliches erlebe! Angeblich ist seit (hunderten) Jahren das Wetter nicht so schlecht wie die letzten zwei Monate... Nach den 2 Wochen Pululahua, Nebel und Regen wollte ich ja etwas sonniges, etwas wärmendes erleben, auf eine Insel fliegen oder einfach am Strand die Sonne...

Feb 1, 2009 - Der Berg ruft !!

Jaaaaa, die Berge hier haben gaaaaanz laut nach mir gerufen und ich hab sie ganz deutlich gehört! Somit waren die vergangenen Tage ECHT TOLL!!! Waaaau, ich hab garnicht gewusst wie sehr mir die Berge fehlen und noch viel mehr auf die Berge rauf zu kraxln!! Wenn ich da auf einen Berg steige bin ich in einem so angenehmen ausgeglichen Zustand den ich kaum von mir kenne, das ist echt angenehm. Ich hab mir einen Bergführer angeheuert (für 8 Tage 1.100 USD drei Berge besteigen inkl. Unterkunft & Transport) und als erstes sind wir eine kleine...

Jan 23, 2009 - Cotopaxi and Laguna Quilotoa- 2 day biking and hiking trip

So since my core group of USFQ friends decided to be cool and have class field trips this weekend (aka Papallacta), I decided not to waste a weekend sleeping in my apartment and to find something else to do- biking and hiking! Cuz I am so athletic... (er not).. but it was the funnest thing I have done thus far in Ecuador! I booked a 2 day trip with Aries Bike Company - guide, transport, all included, mountain biking and hiking in the Cotopaxi-Quilotoa region which can be difficult to get to transport wise, especially when you dont have a...

Sep 15, 2008 - Cotopaxi

So we thought we would be slightly adventurous and go and check out Volcano Cotopaxi - the most climbed volcano in Ecuador (2nd highest at 6200m or so). The weather was not great a bit cold and overcast but we thought we´d just do a day tour of the park surrounding the volcano. It turned out that our tour included a little hike round the lake in the park down the bottom and then they drive you to the lower carpark (at 3200m) and let you climb to the base camp refuge at 4200m - sounds easy enough doesn´t it - yeah right. Well we drove into...

Jul 17, 2008 - Cotopaxi National Park

At 10:30 we continued our day trip with a visit to the Cotapaxi National Park with the highest active volcano. The skys had been cloudy all morning but as we approached the park, the sun began to break through and the mountain peak became clearly visible. We drove up to about the 12,000 foot level on a rough road (including fording a stream) and hiked around with a guide from the national park. We saw layers of mud, stone and silt from sequential eruptions and a variety of birds includian a CaraCara and Andian gull. Also hiked around the...

Apr 12, 2008 - Volcan Cotapaxi

The day began with my two new Canadian friends at 7 am on a bus to a town called Latacunga. After a couple of hours I realized that we had passed a sign that said ´Quito 9km´. Yes, I realized we passed it and ended up having to take that bus an extra hour and a half to Quito. Now Quito is a city of over 2 million people and traffic is a mess as is. But as of a week and a half ago had become even more trying due to a giant sinkhole that had occurred along a main arterial which has caused several diversions of traffic throughout the city....

Jan 21, 2008 - Mountain Bike Adventure

Another very early start (I thought this was supposed to be a holiday) and at 7am I found myself being hustled into the back of a jeep setting off to Cotopaxi volcanoe to come hurtling down it on a mountain bike. We drove out of the city and turned off into the Cotopaxi National Park (Cotopaxi is one of Ecuadors highest volcanoes at 5800m). The drive was pleasant as I met a lovely couple from the South coast and a really interesting couple from San Francisco (he was a wine maker in Napa valley). We stopped part of the way up to sort out...

Nov 7, 2007 - nationaal park vulkaan cotopaxi

de vorige 3 dagen in het nationaal park van Cotopaxi doorgebracht. Aldaar was er geen communicatie mogelijk, enkel in de hostal waar men over een sattelietverbinding beschikte die de helft van de tijd niet werkte. Ik heb dus 3 dagen boven de 3500m doorgebracht, de hostal lag op 3750m en was prachtig. Ben wat rond gaan stappen in het park en ben tot aan de sneeuwgrens geweest van de vulkaan op zo'n 4700m, de vulkaan zelf is ongeveer 5930m hoog. Het weer is er erg veranderlijk, maar normaal gezien is het droog van rond middernacht tot 's...

Oct 2, 2007 - Conquering Cotopaxi

Look south east from Quito and you can clearly see the snow-capped summit of the volcano Cotopaxi. At 5897 meters it is one of the highest active volcanoes in the world (the second highest summit in Ecuador) and is part of the chain of volcanoes around the Pacific plate known as the Pacific Ring of Fire. Now any sensible person would take all this in, process the words like 'active volcano', '5897 meters' and 'Ring of Fire' and decide that it's better to relax at the base and takes pictures rather than try and climb it...of course I've...