An even earlier start..up at 03.45, and out of the door and onto the bus at 05.00!! It was a fairly long and nervous bus ride to the base of the mountain, but again, an extremely beautiful one.  Cotopaxi is an active volcano (apparently due for an eruption...) and is an almost perfect cone shape.  It rises to a height of 5897m - a big mountain! 

We were all excited by the sight of it!  Those of us who were not climbing then piled out of the bus with one climber's kit in a full rucksack and a few kit bags with pots, pans, food and ropes and set off to the refuge.  I had been warned about this very short walk..it is at such high altitude that physical exertion is extremely exhausting, and it is all volcanic ash, so every step you take up, you slip back a little...so a walk that was about 3/4 mile took over an hour!  We got there though - just about.  In the refuge we laid out the climbers' sleeping bags and kit, and then cleaned all the pots and pans in the kit bags so that they would be able to use them later.  Once everything was prepared, we took a few photos of us and the peak (an incredible view from below - it towers over the refuge, but, at the same time, looks almost no distance away) and then headed back down to the bus and the rest of the group.  They then piled off the bus and, a few photos later, we waved them off as they set off to the refuge.  Those of us who were left and still feeling ok (2 of the non climbers were not feeling too good because of the altitude and so rode in the jeep) gathered our stuff together and jumped onto bikes and, quite literally, rode down the base of Cotopaxi!  Not many people can say they've done that, so it was just about accepted as a substitute to attempting to reach the summit... There is no point in hiding the fact that we were all upset not to be heading in the opposite direction with the others, but we had a good time and we'll be back to get to the top! 

Sarah Grey