Arrived safely in Ecuador after a very long journey……..A dash from the days instructing to Manchester Airport for the flight to Heathrow, a few hours sleep before meeting the team at the airport, a fight to Madrid, 5 hours in the airport then 12 hours on the flight to Quito! Fortunately we were just delayed by a few hours in Madrid. Landing in Quito is very exciting as the airport is located right in the centre of the city - and I do mean right in the centre!

The team are currently based in Quito making final arrangements for the mountain phase of the expedition as well as checking out the sights of the city. Initial impressions of the country are great. This is also an important aid to acclimatisation as the city is located at 2850 metres. Tomorrow we are walking up a local volcano to a height of 4200 metres then gradually increasing the height gains until our ascent of Cotopaxi in about 8 days time. Several teams have been unsuccessful in the last week due to poor weather but hopefully we will get a long enough weather window for our ascent.

I´ll try to update the blog as often as possible.