We meet and greet in English, German or Spanish at your hotel, bus station, airport or wherever you want.
By private 4×4 car we go to the viewpoint of Cinto and enjoy an excellent view of the capital.
Only 20 minutes outside of Quito we enter the pure nature! We cross the small village of Lloa with its everytime lush green surroundings of natural vegetation, crops and pastures.
Flowering bushes attract Hummingbirds, Flower Piercers, Tanagers and other small birds. Often we spot Caracaras, sometimes Buzzards and even the mighty Condor roars there.
The bumpy, dirty road leads up higher and higher and provides everytime wider views to the Andes. Some mountains are glaciated like Antisana, some are still active volcanoes like Cotopaxi. And there are so much more!
Soon we are higher than 4000m and if you want to acclimatise (for the climb of even higher mountains in Ecuador) you may want to leave the car behind and trek to the refuge at 4560m. Here ends the rough road.
We already crossed and left the wet grass land of Páramo vegetation and are surrounded by sandy volcanic sediments now.
A broad trail leads up to the crater of Guagua Pichincha. On weekends local catholic people come here to pray at a virgin and a big cross.
Congratulations! You are at our first summit of the volcano at 4675m! Take pictures to memorize this moment!
The crater of Guagua Pichincha formes a half circle similar to a horse shoe and is open to the west. In this direction we can see the everytime green cloud and mountain forest dropping down, down, down to the coast area. Very impressive!
Guagua Pichincha is an active volcano. The last big eruption was only in 1999! Now it's safe to approach the crater, but the mountain is not dead! Depending on the wind we may smell the sulphur and if you are strong enough to continue to the second summit, we can see the fumaroles inside of the crater.
But sometimes the clouds are quicker, cover the landscape and we can't see a lot.
The trail turns steeper and more demanding. We pass instruments which control the volcanic activity and we have to negotiate some rocks on the edge of the crater, that we follow in direction to the second summit at 4776m. A monolith marks this point.
The main summit is not far any more, but now we have to climb some rocky sections. If it is dry it's not difficult, but sometimes the rocks are wet, snow covered or icy. I bring a harness, carabiner and a rope for the short difficult part.
The everytime stronger smell of sulphur, the overwhelming view to the entire U-shaped crater and wonderful view to the impressive mountain range of the Andes compensate our efforts. We are 4794m above sea level!
From the summit we return to the refuge. On weekends we may have there a warm dish and a hot drink to warm up.
By car we return to Quito and enjoy the unique scenery from a different angle. We may stop to enjoy different plants and flowers.
After a thrilling, adventurous day I drop you off wherever you want and say goodbye.
