On the 16th September, Tel and I decided to book a day trip to the highest volcanoe in the world, Cotopaxi National Park in Ecuador, 2 hours out of the capital Quito. We were glad of the day trip distraction from the hectic and smoggy way of life that was Quito. In Ecuador, there are 50 so volcanoes of which 37 of them are active, pretty scary fact considering most of them were situated around the capital city. Cotopaxi last erupted in 1905 and has erupted in general every 100 years so is definately due! The tour begin by picking us up from the hotel and driving us out to the National Park on the Pan American highway, a road that strecthes all the way from California. When we arrived, the rain did too and the cloud and the actual volcanoe was covered in cloud so we didnt have much of a view. The altitude by now was around 3800m and was difficult to breathe properly. We sat and drank coco tea to help with the altitude. 
Our guide, Wilson let us free for 45 minutes to walk around the vast park which has hundreds of deep cravesses caused by the volcanic eruptions every 100 years. You can distinctly see each eruption and lava flow.
We then drove as far up the mountain as our car would take us, we reached to about 4400m before the snow caved in on us and literally made us turn around. The snow was so heavy that the car was skidding in all directions. We decided to get out though and have a little snow fight. Felt so strange to be with the snow considering only a few hours ago we were in shorts and tshirts!
The evening was spent in the new Hotel, Hotel Majestic where we met our tour group, Oasis Overland crew. There are currently 16 of us from all over the world, Germany, Australia, UK and Italy. Everyone is amazing, a great crew. We spent the evening eating 1 dollar a slice pizzas and catching up with everyone, hearing all the travelling stories and drinking beers. Perfect start to a 5 week trip on the truck, overlanding!
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