Day 6 Cotopaxi And Ruminahui

Day 6 started off with a clear view of Cotopaxi. 

At first I thought that was just an odd vertical cloud but it never moved like the other clouds.  Then I realized it was steam from the volcano.  Cotopaxi is a live volcano that last erupted from August 2015 to January 2016.  
 

Every view was amazing. 

Emily thought it looked like we had photoshopped ourselves in front of the volcano.  

This is my postcard shot.  I thought it was pretty iconic to have a llama standing in front of Cotopaxi. 

While I was looking up things for this post, I found this poster on Etsy.  Proof that my postcard photo is quintessential Cotopaxi.  Had I seen the poster first, I might have tried to move the llama over a lit bit.

 

The view from breakfast was just a breathtaking.  

And who wouldn't want to ride in a round pen with that for a background.  

But today's ride was to a different volcano, Ruminahui.  It is a long extinct and heavily eroded volcano.  

We started off the same as yesterday, down the road and to the park entrance.  

But then we turned in the opposite direction.  

You can get an idea of the locations in the video.  Yesterday we rode off toward the left, and today we are going right.  

This was the entrance to the Ruminahui part of the park.  I am not sure what Rumicorral means.  

That is our guide Patricio.  I am still riding Apache.  

Cotopaxi was once again clouded over before lunch.  

Speaking of lunch, the ponchos make a nice chair when thrown over a clump of Pajanol grass.  

And Jose didn't pack a typical lunch.  We had rolls, slaw, sausages, salami, corn on the cob, cheese,  banana chips and a variety of cookies and candy.  A little siesta was nice after lunch.  

The clouds started rolling in after lunch. 

Joe had switched back to the horse he liked yesterday and took over the camera.  

The views went on forever.  

That is until it started thundering and lightning, then hail and rain.  I had to switch horses again since, as you  might remember,  Apache doesn't like rain ponchos.  This time to the one Joe had just been on.  But this time he wasn't as spunky and I didn't have any issues with him.  The rain wasn't very hard and it had stopped by the time we got back.  

After a little rest we enjoyed a delicious dinner of lentil soup and trout.  

We finished off the evening relaxing by the wood stove before heading off to bed.