|
|
|
|
|
Adventure Tours |
 B1 PICHINCHA The Pichinchas are two volcanoes, Guagua, the active and higher one at 4794m and Rucu, extinct and slightly lower at 4780m, lying just to the west of Quito. This one day biking outing takes place at the more western one, Guagua Pichincha and leads up to 4600m amid high alpine vegetation and ends at the Rio Blanco at 2400m in a lush cloudforest area. The total bike run takes around 5-6 hours and covers a distance of approximately 45 km from top to the bottom end on 4x4 proved dirt and gravel roads. Guagua Pichincha - Rio Blanco Day 1 We leave Quito in the morning and head south towards Lloa, a small agricultural village 20 km SW of the city. From there we start driving up on the road leading up to the active volcano and stop at the last farm at 3800m. There we get on the bikes and ascend the last 800m to the refuge, which is located close to the top of Guagua and arrive there after a 1 to 2 hour ride depending on the time pushing up the iron horse. We stop there and hike then up the 15 minutes to the crater rim where we have a great view of this enormous active volcanic crater with its continuous emissions of steam and vapor. After enjoying this display of fumaroles, we head back down to the refuge, where we get on the bikes again for our downhill biking adventure, going rapidly down on the passable dirt road, which we drove up, to the town of Lloa, located at 3300m. After a small break we continue on a wider gravel road towards the cloudforest region of Palmira. After passing some stone quarries, the road narrows to a path, leading us through sub-tropical cloudforests towards Rio Blanco, where the road ends at 2400m and so does our biking expedition. We have lunch there and enjoy the beautiful environment with its many trees, full of bromeliads, mosses and other epiphytes and great variety of birds. You may also take a bath in the river or just do some exploring on foot. After enjoying this special surroundings, we head back by jeep to Quito, where we arrive after 1 hour.
|
|
||
|
|
