Meeting Point

Hotel Pick Up

Quick stop for breakfast or groceries

We make a short stop on the outskirts of Quito, in the town called Machachi, there is a gas station, there you can have breakfast or buy food and water to take away, maybe use the ATM to make purchases inside the Cotopaxi National Park.

Entrance to the national park

Entrance to Cotopaxi National Park. Here we present traveler information, including passport numbers, nationality, age, and other basic data requested by the protected area administration for statistical purposes.

Mariscal Sucre Interpretation Center

In this museum-like setting, we'll explain the history and important facts about the national park, the main plant and animal species, the volcano, the glaciers, and permitted activities. You can also enjoy hot chocolate or the well-known coca leaf tea and use the restroom at the adjacent cafe before entering the mountain.

Limpiopungo Lagoon

We make an acclimatization stop at Laguna Limpiopungo, at more than 3,500 meters above sea level, a small remnant of a lagoon that hundreds of years ago was much larger. Here we observe some species of birds. If the weather permits, we can see the great Cotopaxi volcano and also the Rumiñahui volcano.

Volcano parking lot

We begin driving along the third-order road toward the parking lot. After approximately 30 minutes, we will reach the volcano parking lot at 4,600 meters above sea level. After some specific instructions, we begin the hike toward the volcano's refuge or base camp.

Cotopaxi Base Camp

After a hike of approximately one hour, we finally reached the Cotopaxi base camp at 4,864 meters above sea level. From this point, climbers begin their summit assault. From there, it's a roughly six-hour hike to the highest point of the mountain. We arrived at the shelter, took beautiful photos, and rested for a few minutes. If you wish, you can have hot chocolate or something to eat inside the shelter. Then we began the return hike to the parking lot.

Return to the parking lot

We went back down to the parking lot where we left the vehicle, and drove back to leave the national park.

Lunch stop

After all our mountain adventure, we go for a delicious lunch, which in most restaurants consists of 3 courses: starter (soup), main course (rice, potatoes and a protein) and natural fruit juice, sometimes a dessert.

Return to Quito

We begin driving back to Quito, depending on traffic it can take an hour and a half to two hours.

Ending Point

We'll end by dropping you off at the same place we picked you up in the morning, either at your hotel or at a specific drop-off point we can coordinate during the tour. This concludes our full-day tour of Cotopaxi National Park.