Hola,

I´m back after a week of no communication!!!!

Cotopaxi Volcan was amazing. It was a day trip from Quito to the Cotopaxi national park where there are 3 volcanoes (active i think). I went with 2 girls i met at school and we spent the whole day laughing. The trip was about 2 hours by bus to the national park. When we arrived we were given explanations of plants and the landscape... It was kind of like the moon.... no tall plants and lots of rocks!

After a long drive through the national park we left the bus and started the hike. The altitude was incredible. We went up to about 5000m, Quito is at 2800m so that was a big jump! I´d bought a new alpaca jumper (bright green like a proper tourist) and some matching gloves and hat - they really did the job. The hike was really difficult even though it was only a short distance. It took about 1.5 hours to climb a few hundred feet in the snow. After every 10 steps i had to stop because of the lack of oxygen. A couple of people in my group were really altitude sick so for some time there were more than just the 3 volcanoes!!!! I´ve just realised that it looks like i´m continually misspelling volcano - in fact volcan is spanish so be in awe of my language abilities!

I am so impressed about the impact that altitude has... remind me never to try and climb mount everest. my lungs are just not big enough. On the upside now i´m in the Galapagos after a week in Quito and a day in cotopaxi i feel really quite fit. I can see why olympians train at high altitude (no, I´m not quite ready for the Olympics!!!)

After the climb we mountain biked down. THis was really scary and after a while i got back into the car as i didn´t want to break anything - far too dangerous! I got back on the bike when it was a bit safer and that was a lot more fun.

At the end of the day ihad my last meal with my host family. They have invited me to come back and stay with them when i´m in Quito next month... ahhh, so nice!