As Elizabeth said in the previous post, Cotopaxi was absolutely amazing. Trekking up impossibly steep slopes of untouched snow and ice in our crampons, surrounded by beautiful ice formations both in the moonlight and then the rising sun was a truly surreal and emotional experience.
The views were incredible on the way up and as we stood on the summit I really did feel like we were on top of the world. I have never seen anything like it in my life – from the top you can see all of Ecuador from the jungle to the Andes, the plains, valleys and the other ice-capped giant volcanoes We were so high above the clouds I felt like we were in Heaven with the world below us - scanning the horizon you can actually see the spherical curvature of the Earth! Elizabeth was crying her eyes out and (dare I admit it) I felt like doing the same! It was without doubt one of the most rewarding things I have ever done in my life and something I really will never forget.
Anyway, after all the effort and emotion we took a bus to Quito where the bus terminal (and most of the roads) were in complete chaos as a four day holiday weekend was just kicking off in Ecuador. After much queuing at the bus terminal and then several hours of deliberating over whether to turn the trip on its head and venture north into Colombia (this idea coming from Elizabeth following one conversation she had about the country with some traveller bum, and also coincidently at the same time half the Colombian football team had been kidnapped and beheaded by a guerrilla gang near the Venezuelan border), we eventually came to the conclusion that Colombia ought to be saved for another trip...So instead we headed south where en route we made what initially seemed to be an annoying five hour stop in a town called Ambato. Actually it turned out to be a great place to stop – described by the guide book as ‘an authentic Ecuadorian town with no tourists’ we saw one of the country’s largest markets which was really interesting to walk around and found a great pizzeria where we went for lunch. We then stopped in Latacunga where we took a bus and a collectivo (like a small pickup truck) to Laguna Quilotoa, a beautiful emerald green lake that was once a volcano crater.
The following day we headed to Cuenca, a colonial city in the south of Ecuador. We spent a day chilling in the sunshine by the river and walking along the picturesque streets and plazas. Having been in some pretty poverty-stricken towns and countryside the last week it was amazing to see such a refined, European-like city which had an almost pretentious air about it in the same country – quite incredible.
Having had an awesome time in Ecuador we then travelled the next day towards the Peruvian border (apparently the most dangerous in South America), crossed over without any issues and travelled down the hot and picturesque Peruvian coast to Mancora, a popular party beach town and our next stop! By this stage we were both looking forward to lying on a beach in the sun and doing nothing for a few days!
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