We Kayaked ALONE Inside a Volcano.

Welcome to Ecuador, the land of volcanoes. In the valleys of the Andes, people and animals have coexisted with the volcanoes for centuries, knowing that at any point, earth may descend on them with all her wrath and leave nothing behind. Despite this prospect, people here are so calm, grounded, and warm at heart. Perhaps this is a lesson in humility. Volcanoes are a constant reminder of our insignificance. Life suddenly becomes so much less scary once we remember how little we actually matter, and that the only thing that counts is our own happiness and how we touch the people around us. Funnily enough, reminding ourselves of our smallness may just make our hearts grow bigger. Today we'll show you our visit to Ecuador's majestic Avenue of Volcanoes. But first, we'll pay a visit to Quilotoa Lake. Around 600 years ago, this volcano had a catastrophic eruption. And since then, the crater has accumulated a 250 meter deep lake. Okay, we're approaching Quilotoa Lake. We're going to see it for the first time. Let's see. Wow. Hey, you like this view? After hiking around the edge of the cliff, we decided to make our way down to the lake's beautiful blue and green surface. It has this color due to minerals that have dissolved in the water. We headed out onto the lake in our two-person kayak. As luck would have it, it started raining within the next 10 minutes, but we just laughed it off and headed back to shore. Oh my god, you're so cute. You're so cute. While the hike down into the crater was relatively easy, the hike up proved to be much more strenuous, which wasn't really a surprise considering we were at an altitude of over 3,500 meters. The limited oxygen levels up here make walking up the side of a mountain feel more like running. This is not for the fainthearted. It's hard to appreciate just how beautiful it is here when you're dying from climbing up, but it's so amazing. High five for making it. High five. Look at this. Alpacas, lamb, sheep, cows. Ecuador's Avenue of Volcanoes lies just an hour and a half outside Quito. The area features a corridor of more than 10 active volcanoes. The most infamous of them all is Cotopaxi. Given that she's still active, she could erupt and devastate much of southern Quito at any moment. The last eruption was as recent as 2015, and the volcano has just recently been reopened to visitors who dare challenge the temperamental volcanic spirits. And as always, when there's a great imminent threat, we said, let's visit. It's so windy. Okay, we're ghosts with sunscreen today. Oscar. We're starting at 4,500 meters. 4,500. That's where we're starting. I can't even talk. Honestly, it's like, this is really next level. You'll probably understand how challenging this climb was. And most stupidly of all, since we planned this trip so last minute, we didn't bring any real hiking gear. Yeah, we weren't the most prepared we've ever been. The view is amazing. It's tiring, but it's an adventure. We made it up to the base of the glacier, sitting at almost 5,000 meters. We would have loved to go all the way to the crater, but only licensed climbers can accompany tourists who want to do it. And it takes a full two days to complete. Let's just say we were not in a place to continue. Turkey. Do you see your country? Okay, time to head back down and clouds have enveloped the whole mountain. We're wet, we're cold, but it's an adventure. Well, our ancestors have lived here for centuries and centuries. These are normal way to live. A very important situation is the respect for them because the volcanoes are a part of our life. Sometimes when I was a child in Quito, we had the eruption of the volcano and we needed a mask. So it's kind of, it's not normal for us, but it's a situation that we could expect, that we could expect that happened. We hope you enjoyed coming along with us on our adventure in Ecuador, our 61st country. See you all in our next video.