Volcano Adventure Take Two - Biking Down Cotopaxi

On June 7 we took part in a mountain bike tour on Cotopaxi Volcano which is the highest active volcano in the world at 5897m. Last time it erupted it destroyed Latacunga, a town 40 km way with the ensuing mudslides. Right now it is pretty dormant and not dangerous. We arr ranged the tour at the travel agency called The Happy Gringo, the trip was run by the Biking Dutchman and we met at the Magic Bean Resturant.... neat names eh?

The basic idea is that we would drive up to a height of 4600m (we couldn´t bike down from the snow capped peak)which is the last parking lot. Then we´d hop on mountain bikes and make our way down to the entrance of the national park. We would descend about 1600m and travel around 35 km.

As we got close to the mountain we were worried we had gotten an unlucky day - overcast and raining. But our guide and owner of the company assured is the weather would improve as we drove above the clouds! Right he was! The weather was fantastic, just a bit of rain as we biked the last kms before the entrance.

Up at 4600m we were well above the tree line, there was nothing but dirt and some snow. It was as cold as any winter day back in Canada. We were happy we had worn long underwear! The weather changes so quickly. The edge of the glacier was about 200 vertical meters away. But we went down instead - fast! We never had to pedal, just keep from flying off the road, stopping regularly to take pictures and enjoy the view ( which we did alot of.)

At our first break we were at a large rocky plain (that had llamas) at around 3800m. A few more kms and we had lunch beside the lake. The lake used to be huge and cover the plains in every direction. However it was emptied by the last Cotopaxi eruption in the late 1800s which sent raging rivers of mud 40 to 100m deep flying down off the hills. That´s how a town 35km away can get wiped out. That kind of raw power is beyond my comprehension.

Lunch was incredible! we started with homemade quiche in phyllo pastry. The main course was tuna pasta salad with fresh amazing bread and ginger tea.There were lots of seconds. It was topped off by the best brownies we´ve ever had! Apparently Ecuador exports its´cocoa to the most prestigious chocolate manufacturers in Europe. Somehow Jan gets his hands on a supply of it. His wife then makes it into dessert for the trip.

After lunch it was a 20-25km section of flats, gentle down hills and two up hills which really emphasized how there´s less air up at 3600m than the sea level we´re mostly used to! (and it really showed how much a difference a few days of acclimatization makes)

We both agreed that this was one ( or the) most fun and awesome thins we´ve done on our whole trip!!!

Mountain Biking Cotopaxi