Or, the photographic proof that we did, in fact, make it at least part of the way up Cotopaxi without asphyxiating.
- En route to Cotopaxi. Pretty tranquil, no signs of exploding lava so far.
- Coca tea, to help us acclimate to the altitude. Don’t worry, Mom, it’s perfectly safe. And legal.
- Gazing across the volcanic plains, marveling at nature’s majesty, and so on
- Now we’re talking. This looks more like the craggy terrain I was expecting
- The first joyous glimpse of the wild horsebeasts!
- baby horse baby horse baby horse!
- Ehrmagerd SNOW
- You guys seriously can’t comprehend how filled with joy I am at the sight of this snowy goodness
- Clouds, clouds, go away. So I can find some snow to play…. with. (this rhyme brought to you by Jean-Ralphio)
- And then we saw the horses again! More of them!
- Look how fuzzy he is! Don’t you just want to snuggle him?
- You look like a painting, horse. I like you, horse.
- Onwards! To conquer the mountain!
- Hummingbirds, what are you doing all the way up here? Do your wings even work in air this thin?
- We begin our intrepid trek, full of confidence!
- That’s where we’re going. It looks so close, doesn’t it? HA.
- I kinda feel like the Mars Rover or something up here. Except I don’t have a room full of nerds cheering for me
- Just….keep…putting….one….foot…in…front…of…the…other…
- My friends, trying not to fall off the edge into the abyss
- Sometimes, hiking a volcano feels kind of like you’re on another planet
- If only I knew at the time how much fun this would be to slide down
- Hark, other (better-prepared) humans!
- OH GOD IT’S STARTING
- Standing at the edge of the world, or something close to it
- That’s fine, ground. We won’t miss you
- Hah! Puny other humans! Look how much higher we are! With so much less oxygen!
- SO CLOSE. If only my body still felt like moving.
- AH, THE SWEET TASTE OF SUCCESS.
- Well-deserved victory soup and hot chocolate.
- Preparing for our gleeful slide back down
- How do you DO that, atmospheric conditions?
- We just CLIMBED that. Feeling pretty badass right now.
- Oh, also there was a very scenic little lake nearby. A good place to finally catch one’s breath.
- I could probably hang out here for a while, too. If my hands weren’t freezing.
- Bye, Cotopaxi. It’s been real. I hope this isn’t the last you see of me. Until then, enjoy being the world’s most photographed volcano. You deserve it.
It reminds me of the first time I met the snow, as you know in Colombia is hard to find snowcapped peaks, I was about 15 some friends and I made a trip to “El cocuy” peak specifically to go and see the famous snow, not the ocasional Bogota hail but the real one that falls up in the highest mountains , so we took the good old flota and then we walked and climbed for hours and waited up there then after what seemed a lot, there was it SNOW, now after so many years sometimes in winter I still remember how snow used to feel special
actually read the title of this post and LOLed. Good one North Star