2800m
Well, I thought that yesterdays breakfast was interesting. Today we entered the same dining room as last night, again with a distinct lack of patronage and was soon informed that breakfast would be in two stages.
Stage 1; we would be served fruit salad, muesli with yoghurt and fruit juice.
Stage 2; we would be served eggs with a slice of ham and cheese and bread.
It seemed that was only one waiter and one cook, and the stages took a while to complete. The power went out to the hotel which also meant that the water stopped as well.
We left Riobamba with not the best thoughts in mind about its existence. However, in front of us was Chimborazo, the highest volcano in Ecuador, and we did get a fairly good view of it leaving the town. The highlight for today was to visit Cotopaxi volcano, but unfortunately it is currently active and overdue for an eruption. As such it is on yellow alert and certain activities, including what we were going to be doing, we’re now not allowed. Just in case.
In addition, clouds were forming around Cotopaxi in the distance, and this might have made the hike even worse. As such, we drove up to Lake Limpiopungo and spent 90 minutes walking around the lake looking for wildlife. We did see a number of birds, but again, no condors or hummingbirds. Cotopaxi had by now disappeared even though we were at its base. We had lunch in the National Park which started with a bowl of lupins and toasted corn, followed by a very sweet drink made from tree tomatoes and local herbs, and then quinoa soup. Again different from any we had tried previously. As we we’re finishing the heavens opened up and rain and hail started pelting the building. As Javier had to get back to Quito, drop us off and get to the office, we dashed to the car, being hit with hail all of the way down.
The drive to Quito was back on the Pan American Highway, and we made good time until we hit the traffic of Quito, which slowed us to a crawl for the next 35 minutes. As the hotel is on a pedestrian street, we parked the car in a multi storey car park and headed for our hotel, a big improvement on last night!