Cotopaxi National Park, Ecuador
On the trip until now the guide told us about both Ecuador, Quito and the volcanoes and their origin. Immediately after we had driven into the national park, the road to a dirt road (lava gravel). We made a stop at a small local cafe where we got a hot tea brewed on coca leaf (containing cocaine?) and added a lot of sugar, which would make it easier for us to stay in the thin oxygen-depleted air here nearly 4000 m above sea level.
We continued through the national park and stopped at a lake formed by meltwater from snow-covered volcano . Here we went around the lake about 2.6 km . We could feel the thin air , but felt no more discomfort than we were a little out of breath.
Cotopaxi Volcano
Cotopaxi is a stratovolcano in the Andes Mountains, located about 28 km south of Quito. With a height of 5,897 m, it is the second highest mountain in Ecuador and it is one of the highest active volcanoes in the world.
Cotopaxi is one of the few volcanoes covered by snow making it extra dangerous when erupting.
Since 1738, the Cotopaxi erupted more than 50 times, which has resulted in numerous valleys formed by mudslides around the volcano.