Cotopaxi was one of our favorite sites we've visited so far!
We arrived at our secret garden hostel at 11:30 just in time for lunch. The sights are just insane here. Everywhere you look there's a volcano haaha!
We joined other hostel mates on a hike to the nearby waterfalls around 2. Our guide is quite funny and decided to take us on the more "exciting route" aka hiking through a Lord of the Rungs looking river up to the falls. We scaled rock walls, ran through the river and bouldered a lot of the way up. There were two times where we had to walk across little rocks on a wall that dropped off into 15 feet of rocky water--I was very nervous during those two times. But other than that it was great!
The waterfall wasn't that incredible but the fun and challenging hike was worth the sweat.
Today we woke up at 7:30 to eat breakfast and then hike the mountain Pachauacha. It was so difficult and challenging but we did it in 5 hours! We hiked uphill through more LOTR looking jungle and then just straight up the mountain. Mike and I felt fine during the first parts but the last stretch up to the rocks at the tippy top was so hard. We felt like our legs were ten times heavier and I could barely get enough oxygen to my lungs. We were up 10,000 ft by the end of it and it took a while to get our breath back.
The view at the top was amazing. We could see four volcanoes and also all the way to Quito!
The next day, we took our bikes up to the top of another mountain and set out to ride down. The first three minutes were perfect. The road was smooth and the view was just incredible. Then for the next fifteen minutes we rode straight downhill on rocky cobblestones. It was horrible. My hands hurt so bad from gripping my brakes that I involuntary started crying haha.
I almost wiped out twice and screamed because you could get scraped up so easily. We got down to the end and I was so happy. Mountain biking on cobblestones just isn't my thing. We hiked up to another waterfall after our bike ride and had mint tea and banana bread. It was a beautiful afternoon and I began to be sad it was our last day at the hostel retreat.
That night we played scum for hours with new friends. We had the most delicious fajita dinner and then played more scum! The stars were absolutely breathtaking. They sparkled and twinkled so much!
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