Today, we spoiled ourselves and took a mountain biking tour up to El Volcan Cotopaxi. Fun Fact: At 5897 meters, Cotopaxi is the 6th tallest active volcano in the world.
We lucked out and caught some great weather in the morning. We were able to see the summit of the volcano from it's base. After enjoying the view and taking our fill of pictures, we hiked up to the refuge at 4800 meters (15,748 ft). The refuge is, basically, the starting point for the people that hike to the summit of Cotopaxi.
Even after hanging in Quito which is at 2800 meters, we were definitely feeling the altitude. To top it all off, the trail was basically straight up the mountain. After we reached the refuge we traversed over to check out a glacier. Turns out the glaciers in the region are slowly receding...global warming sound familiar?
After lunch, the trip got a little interesting. As we were headed down from the refuge to grab our bikes the weather took a turn for the worse. The clouds rolled in and hail started pelting us...in the face.
Our guide voiced his concern of riding downhill given the icey conditions, but we all thought..."what the hell...let's get what we paid for." We took off down the hill with our poorly adjusted bikes and safety helmets.
At the beginning it was a blast! The dirt road was a bit slippery, but we managed to not eat crap.
About a half hour later, we were singing a different tune. There was enough hail on the ground to make it really icey and I couldn't feel my fingers...the fingers in charge of breaking the bike...the bike that was close to the edge of a cliff.
My fingers went past the no-feeling stage and were well into the painful stage when I noticed that I was totally soaked. Cold, recovering from the flu, and envisioning frost bitten black fingers, Brandon and I decided it might be a wise choice to flag down the guide and hop into the truck. The majority followed our lead, but two guys DID end up making it all the way down to the meeting point. Good on em!
Great fun, but we're ready for some warmer weather. We're off to the Amazon on Saturday.
We lucked out and caught some great weather in the morning. We were able to see the summit of the volcano from it's base. After enjoying the view and taking our fill of pictures, we hiked up to the refuge at 4800 meters (15,748 ft). The refuge is, basically, the starting point for the people that hike to the summit of Cotopaxi.
Even after hanging in Quito which is at 2800 meters, we were definitely feeling the altitude. To top it all off, the trail was basically straight up the mountain. After we reached the refuge we traversed over to check out a glacier. Turns out the glaciers in the region are slowly receding...global warming sound familiar?
After lunch, the trip got a little interesting. As we were headed down from the refuge to grab our bikes the weather took a turn for the worse. The clouds rolled in and hail started pelting us...in the face.
Our guide voiced his concern of riding downhill given the icey conditions, but we all thought..."what the hell...let's get what we paid for." We took off down the hill with our poorly adjusted bikes and safety helmets.
At the beginning it was a blast! The dirt road was a bit slippery, but we managed to not eat crap.
About a half hour later, we were singing a different tune. There was enough hail on the ground to make it really icey and I couldn't feel my fingers...the fingers in charge of breaking the bike...the bike that was close to the edge of a cliff.
My fingers went past the no-feeling stage and were well into the painful stage when I noticed that I was totally soaked. Cold, recovering from the flu, and envisioning frost bitten black fingers, Brandon and I decided it might be a wise choice to flag down the guide and hop into the truck. The majority followed our lead, but two guys DID end up making it all the way down to the meeting point. Good on em!
Great fun, but we're ready for some warmer weather. We're off to the Amazon on Saturday.
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