At 6310m Chimborazo, considered extinct, is the highest volcano in Ecuador. It is also the farthest point from the centre of the Earth due to the Earth´s equatorial bulge and it is higher than any other mountain in the Americas further north. We drove up gradually worsening roads and onto bumpy potholed gullied tracks up to a mountain hut at 4,800m. From here we hiked very slowly up to a climbers hut at 5,000m where climbers and mountaineers spend a few days acclimatising before ascending to the summit of the volcano. At this altitude it is easy to get out of breath very quickly and become dizzy. Half-way up my legs turned to lead and it was all I could do to shuffle one foot in front of the other. Slowly but surely though we plodded on until we reached the hut. Our descent was much more rapid and although I felt like I had just done a marathon, one of our co-travellers remarked that we looked like we had just walked round the block!

Our last overnight stop was an old hacienda which had been converted into a hotel and was a short ride from Cotopaxi volcano near a town called Machachi where we stopped the following morning to buy lunch before heading off to the Cotopaxi National Park. Our first stop was Lake Limpiopungo for a short walk before heading off up the Cotopaxi volcano. At 5897m Cotopaxi is Ecuador's 2nd highest mountain and the world's highest active volcano. We arrived at a car park at 4,500m and were intending to walk to an acclimatisation hut at 4,800m; however the cloud and mist descended rapidly and was accompanied by horizontal ice-sleet and very cold temperatures. Other people who had started hiking up to the hut were turning back so we decided not to attempt it. Just a quick walk in the near-blizzard conditions left you breathless and hacked by ice particles.

From the Cotopaxi National Park it was back to Quito where we spent the following day visiting Parque La Carolina in the north of the city. Here we also visited the small natural history museum of Museo de Ciencias Naturales, the botanic gardens (Jardin Botanico) and the Vivarium where we saw lots of reptiles and I ended up holding a boa constrictor!!!

Intro / Quito | Old Town/Equator/Market | Quitsato/Cuy/Hot Springs/Jungle | Puyo/Banos | Volcanos