Day 3
Pure outdoor adventure. An hour and a half south of Quito by train or car, Cotopaxi National Park
awaits your discovery. Here in the second most visited of Ecuador’s national parks (after Galápagos),
you can hike, mountain bike, and camp within view of the stunning, boulder-strewn, snow-covered
crater.
Those in superb condition can hire a guide and make a gradual ascent into the thin air
of Cotopaxi, the second-highest active volcano in the world at 19,347 feet. Outside the park,
you can visit or stay in one of the many Andean haciendas and observe the equestrian skills of
the chagras, Ecuadorian cowboys. Why not go for a horseback ride yourself and imagine the days of the Spanish colonial landowners and their grand ranches? A little farther south, visit plantations
that grow some of the best roses in the world.
