After the Quilotoa loop we had a rest day to let our legs recover before taking a day hike up the Cotopaxi volcano. Despite being a rest day we still managed to book our New York accommodation for 5 months time on Airbnb and looked into internal flights in Argentina (also a long time in advance). Both an attempt to save money by being organised. That evening Tijs and Jacqueline cooked an amazing stir fry with a satay sauce for us and we watched a movie in the hostel.

The next day the four of us were picked up in a 4x4 by our guide and we set off for the volcano. Cotopaxi is 5,897 metres tall and its (somewhat dubious) claim to fame is that it's the highest active volcano in the world with a perfect conical shape. But it last erupted in 1942 so we felt pretty safe. It's also a very accessible volcano as we were driven up to the car park at 4,500 metres but when we arrived we were surrounded by clouds so couldn't see more than 10 metres in front of us. We walked up the less steep of the two sandy paths but still felt it really hard work in the thin atmosphere. Katy seemed to cope with it better than me. I felt like I had just played a 90 minute football match and was then trying to walk up the steepest hill in Bristol despite the path being relatively flat. Luckily the clouds started to clear and we got glimpses of the snow covered peak. As we climbed, the ground became redder and this with the black volcanic rocks and white snow looked really neat. We eventually arrived at the refuge at 4,864 metres and after a short rest our guide pushed us on to the glacier at 5,000 metres. The weather had improved dramatically for us and I thought that the volcano was one of the most beautiful things we had seen on our trip. I took so many pictures because every turn in the path and every movement of the clouds showed a new view. At 5,000 metres we couldn't go any further without special equipment but got our photo taken next to the start of the glacier. We then headed back down and could almost feel the air getting thicker. I even ran down the steeper sandy path and didn't feel out of breath.

Shortly after leaving the car park Tijs and Jacqueline were set up on mountain bikes as they had opted to ride down. They set off but we quickly caught up with them as Jacqueline had taken a fall on the bumpy gravel road and hurt her hand and knee. Tijs continued but Jacqueline joined us in the car for the trip down to the lake where we had a very quick walk before heading home. That evening it was our turn to cook although we couldn't compete with the Dutch team's satay sauce. Afterwards we headed over the road for a pint.

Simon