Cotapaxi, the most famous volcano in Ecuador.
It is Friday, I think.
We climbed Cotapaxi this morning, over 19,375 feet, a mountain famous
for its beauty, but it has been erupting a lot, so only recently has been open
to climbing. I trained yesterday by getting up at 4:00AM, then we drove for
quite a while with Marco, our guide, who took us to the shelter at the base of
the mountain. It was really beautiful
scenery, very open lots of large boulders from earlier eruptions. The mountain itself is a strata volcano, on
the edge of a much better underlying volcano.
This area is called the avenue of the volcanoes.
We got off to a bit of a late start, around 12:30 AM, my
fault, I was trying to get maximum sleep (I went to bed around 4:00 PM), but I
could have got up earlier. Why does it
take an hour to get dressed when I go to bed already dressed? It was so beautiful
climbing by night, and then seeing the sunrise, and seeing the steam coming out
of the crater and seeing the lights of Quito in the distance.
The shadow of Cotapaxi at the sunrise, the plume of steam rising from the volcano indicates how recently it has been active.
The infamous Brighton Banner. Note steaming volcanoe.
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