Ever since first going to see Cotopaxi in early 2008 it had been an ambition to go back and try and attempt to get to the summit.No mean feat given it has an elevation of 5,896 m (19,344 ft), making it the second highest volcano in the country.To put it into perspective Quito the capital is some 2800m above sea level. That's twice as high as Ben Nevis the highest mountain in Scotland - but only half as high as Cotopaxi! Although not the highest volcano in Ecuado...

Rather than upload a months worth of pictures I decided to break them up a bit but I still managed to upload over 70 for just a weekend. In fact not even that - only two days away in the end. Oops! Yee haa no work on Saturdays this term so we get 3 days off. Love this job! Our first jaunt of the New Year was to Cotopaxi. We took the night bus from Cuenca which although it had lots of room it was freezing cold and he drove like a bat out of hell. We got d...