4.800m / 15.744ft

 My day began at 6:30am.  Fortunately I had already taken a shower the night before so all I had to do was wash my face and wet my hair again 'cause it was all messed up.  Oh, and I brushed my teeth as well.

My host mom had called Robert (host dad's brother in law) to confirm he would be renting a vehicle for us and also driving all of us to Cotopaxi.  He showed up at 6:30am, an hour early, but we still left at 7:30am.

Bummer there was no radio in the vehicle.  It had been stolen so the ride was good, but not as fun as it probably could have been with music.  We ate breakfast near our destination which was about 1hour and 30minutes long.  The name of the restaurant was El Cafe de la Vaca.  It was delicious.  I had ham omelet, bread and chocolate.

Things that happened during the ride that I think are worth mentioning.  

--The road is not in good conditions here so Juan Jose hit his head a few times on the window because he was too close to it and because the vehicle would swerve a little because of the bumps and potholes.

--It was neat traveling far in a vehicle as opposed to a bus.

--The view was better because of that.

We stopped at the park entrance, paid our entrance fee and continued on the dirt road.  It was a very bumpy ride.  It was annoying.  But as we approached the beast it was amazing.  It was soooooooooo white.  The closer and closer we got we were further amazed and saw people and vehicles up the mountain.  We went up as far as a vehicle could go and were surrounded by snow.

It wasn't my first time at a volcano, but it was the first time my feet had ever gone so deep into the snow.  It literally went up to my knees.  I was very excited!  When I had gotten off the vehicle, I geared up a bit more and than ran to the snow with my host dad and brother and started throwing snowballs.  Woah, I felt dizzy and lightheaded rather quickly.  It was a sucky feeling.  I walked back to the vehicle and sat there for a few minutes until I felt better.  Then I went on track with my host dad and brother again, walking up the mountain.

It was insane to look up and see some people clearly, but those that were further ahead I could barely see because of the clouds and/or fog.  It looked like some people were slowly disappearing.  I liked looking back because I saw snow and further down there was dirt; crazy contrast.  Stupid me left my shades in the vehicle and I realized it a little too late.  At one point the sun was really strong and the snow was obviously reflecting it on to my eyes.  It was not good for my poor eyes.  Compared to the Pichincha walk we did, this was a bit harder because of the altitude but easier because of the track.  At times it was slippery in the snow but that made the going downhill part awesome.  

Highlight of the day: When we got to the refugio it was cool.  It snowed very little but enough to make you think "wow," and it seemed like it was a way of God saying, "Good job you made it."  

I was impressed with my host dad because he was fast.  He had to return at the beginning and leave Juan Jose at the vehicle because he wasn't feeling good.  He caught up to me, passed Yonseili who was way ahead of me, got to the refugio first and still waited a while for us.  Yonseili had a soup and I a chocolate inside.  When we headed back down it was THE COOLEST THING EVER!  When I barely started sliding down in my black Nike shoes, I slid down for a while and I felt like I was snowboarding.  It was harder on the legs than going up because I had to make a bigger effort to stop myself or I could keep sliding uncontrollably and then fall.  Because of this my feet got really wet.  The Nike shoes were not the best shoes for this.  By the time we got down my socks were soaking wet and so were the bottom of my jeans.  Fortunately I had brought an extra pair of pants and Yonseili let me borrow her extra pair of 'feet.'  Her brown boots were comfy and dry...-er than my shoes.

We left and it was nice to enjoy the scenery.  We were all shut down energy-wise so exiting the park, right next to the booth to pay for the entrance, we ate corn.  As soon as we got inside the place it started raining cats and dogs.  God must really like us because we were lucky for the good weather that day and we were lucky the rain didn't get us at the top of the volcano.  Before leaving, Robert drove the car closer to the corn stand and we ran inside.  We all felt much better.

We stopped at some place to have lunch.  It was good.

Moo

Our ride

Family portrait

Dun dun dun

Juan Jose was pretty tired

Almost there!

Yeah yeah we did it, we did it, we did it yeah!

Insane in the membrane

After we got back Yonseili and I got ready to go out with Raquel.  She picked us up at around 7:30pm and caught up at a coffee shop, Sweet & Coffee.  We shared with her more than she shared with us.  I was reminded not to say "haiga."  The correct term is "haya."  She's awesome.