After breakfast we got on our tour bus to head to Cotopaxi Volcano. I didn't listen that people in the front of the bus need to wear their seat belt so as we rounded the bend I almost fell out of my seat! Crazy driving in Quito! We drove out of Quito and further into the highlands (Andes). We stopped at a fruit stand along the road where Victor purchased a large bunch of bananas (still on the branch) and gave everyone a banana. He paid $1.50 for over 40 bananas! We were admiring how ripe and beautiful the pineapples were so he bought us one too. We mentioned that we needed a knife so victor used the man's machete to carve the pineapple for everyone.
We continued on to Cotopaxi stopping at a gas station to use the restroom. Indigenous men were selling beautifully painted pictures of people in the highlands with Cotopaxi behind. I bought a small one for $5. They are hand painted on the lining of sheep stomach...ewwww gross! I felt really bad about it except I'm sure they eat the sheep or use them in some manner...I hope. The bathrooms are staffed by an indigenous woman offering toilet paper for a fee. We tipped her anyway (brought our own). It's customary in Ecuador. We purchased a few different types of banana chips, sweet plantains and regular. Both were delicious!
When we arrived at Cotopaxi of course there were more indigenous women selling hand made goods. I bought a hand knitted llama for Ashby that the woman said took four days to make by hand. It had little people sitting on it. It was drizzling (common in the highlands) and about 45-50 degrees F. We used the restroom and continued on our climb by bus up to Cotopaxi. We passed many introduced trees including eucalyptus (smelled awesome) and Canadian pines. British scientists introduced the pines because they wanted to see how high up they would grow. Seems kind of stupid to me to disrupt an ecosystem...they were out-competing most of the native trees. The eucalyptus too. We climbed higher in elevation and noticed a more steppe landscape with few trees. Mostly grass, shrubs and lichens colonizing the volcanic rock. We drove through a small stream...pretty cool! We went on a hike around wetlands. The wetlands were drainage from the glacier on Cotopaxi. There was a lot of llama or wild horse poop along the trail! Hoped to see a puma but no such luck! Many small purple, yellow and red wildflowers. We were looking for condors but didn't see any until the bus ride down the mountain. The hike was very long because the kids elected to walk the whole way around the wetlands. It was a very long walk. I was feeling pretty out of shape until I remembered that I was hiking at 12,500 feet! I was very warm because I had over-dressed with a tshirt, sweatshirt, rain jacket and my new alpaca scarf from the handi-craft market. I could have just worn a long sleeve tshirt and rain coat. It was cool when we weren't hiking though. We took the bus halfway down to the visitor center where we ate a bag lunch. Papaya juice box with chips and a ham and cheese sandwich with fresh avocado spread. Pretty good for avocado! We bought coca tea made with real whole leaves. It helped with my headache. Many of the pines at this elevation had very burnt orange trunks. It was from the minerals from the volcano. On the bus we went back over a lava flow area filled with water (kinda interesting). The local guide stopped the bus and allowed us to collect volcanic rock. She showed us the difference between ash (light color), reddish rock (lava), black smooth rock (magma) and pumice (not dense). Headed back to Quito.
Upon arrival in Quito there was a mistake where another group was coming (already arrived) and they thought we were leaving. Half of our group had to move to Viejo Cuba across the street for the night. Our school volunteered to go (the hotel was cute). Some of the girls found that the hotel packed all their things and there were already new people in the room! Drama! Mary and I thought our new room was cool. It had a loft that looked like a treehouse with a staircase winding up to it and access to a private balcony halfway up the stairs. The room was small and circular but very cute! The whole hotel was decorated pretty nicely. 
We headed to the supermarket to buy Ecuadorian chocolate for our families and had one for the walk back! We headed back to the handicraft market to buy a big bag ($18) to pack all of our extra souvenirs in to get them home! Dinner was at our hotel. We ate chicken, rice, potatoes, vegetable salad and cake with ice cream for dessert. After dinner, Mary and I headed back to the Coffee Tree Cafe to get something to drink. Went back to the hotel to sleep. It was chilly at night...they don't have heat or air conditioning. At this altitude there is little seasonal change.
Tomorrow, off to the Galapagos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
