CUELLO DE LUNA, as this stratovolcano is known, one of the highest in activity with an altitude

of 5897m (19.347. 11 ft), is the second highest after Chimborazo, within the Cotopaxi National

Park, the first tourist visit area in continental Ecuador, located south of Quito at 50 km (31 miles),

thousands of tourist seek to reach the summit of this volcano per year, for its ease in connectivity,

climate, on the routes we do not have climbing walls, just we walk to the top, additional to 4.800m

(15.748. 03 ft) we have the refuge Jose Rivas and with the transport 4x4 to the parking lot to

4.600m (15.091.86 ft), excursionists without experience begin their activity in Ecuador their first

high mountain is the Cotopaxi, additional its perfect conical form covered with glacier calls the

attention and hypnotizes so that you take a photo and better in its crater, in our tour of 2 days we

took you to the summit, the excursion of attack to the summit is made from the midnight, the time

in approximate hours is between 7 to 8 hours.

ITINERARY.

Day 1.- We will check the equipment with your guide in the offices in Quito, 10:30 a.m. we will

leave in direction south until the town of Machachi for the lunch, then with our 4x4 vehicle we

will arrive to the parking lot 4.600m (15.091.86 ft), here we put on most of the equipment so that

you do not have to carry everything to the refuge, we walk 45min until the José Rivas Refuge at

4.800m (15.748.03 ft), in the afternoon we will have a talk and school of glacier to handle

equipment, depending on the climate, dinner and rest.

Day 2.- At the beginning of the second day 00:30 a.m., we will have a cup of tea and our bags

pack with the necessary things and we will go out to attempt to the summit between 7 to 8 hours

walking on ice, very slow, to arrive to the sunrise between 6 to 7 a.m. return to the refuge,

breakfast, return to Quito about 14:00 p.m.

We work in ropes of 2 tourists 1 guide, if one of the tourist makes the decision to go down

without reaching the summit for any reason, all the ropes return and if the group is bigger and

we have more guides, one guide goes down and the others continue climbing.