Keepin' it real... again: Volcan Cotopaxi

I need to backtrack a little and tell you about a bike ride that I did starting from the volcano Cotopaxi, just a 30 minute drive outside of Quito. It is said that if this volcano blows in the direction of the capital city, it would take as little as 40 minutes for hot lava to engulf the city, Vesuvious-style.

I opted to pay into a tour group that would ferry us partway up the volcano, then the truck would follow us along the road down and through the trails in the rest of the park. I would, however, break away from the group and stay for the night inside the park to get another day of riding.

On a clear day, the top of the volcano can be seen. But on this day and the next, it was fog, winds and occasional rain that covered the top. The refuge in the middle of this photo is the starting point for mountain climbers who dare to try. It is consistently cold and windy (so much so, that it could blow one off a bicycle if not careful) and climbers have to start at midnight to make it to the summit by sunrise. It is necessary to descend back down at this time because of the possibility of snow melting and avalanches that cause death. The group of climbers that tried to climb on the night I was there had to turn back because of the snow and winds made for a miserable, if not impossible, climb.

this is the view of our descent from the volcano

this is my 8 km descent down from Cotopaxi. While the road was rally wide, the surface was loose gravel (soon to be paved into a three lane road) and taking corners was sketchy at high speeds.