Corazón Volcano

Corazon is another volcano located near Iliniza Mountain Lodge, and an activity that does not require too much planning. We had to fill out a paper form with some basic information, and bring helmets, but other than that you can go by yourself fairly easily. You can arrange transportation with Iliniza Mountain Lodge to take you to the trailhead, which is a 20-30 minute drive, or, you can walk. We walked from the lodge and tested our luck with hitch hiking. It is around 5 km to the trailhead, so walking adds a sufficient amount of time, but luckily we got picked up by 2 friendly locals; one who drove us close to the mountain, and another group of park rangers who drove us right to the trailhead (they also checked for our papers and helmets.) The official start of the trail lies around 4000m, and it is roughly a 4km walk up to the peak which is at 4790m. Unfortunately, we chose a rather cloudy day to summit this volcano, and were in the fog the whole time. The first part of the trail is very clearly marked and easy to follow. The last 2km, however, are a little more difficult. The last part requires some rock climbing and scrambling. Some of these areas were a little exposed, but never to a point that felt unsafe. The way up was very windy, but the summit was surprisingly tranquil. Our poor choice of days to hike left us with no view, but I can only imagine how stunning it would have been on a good day. The way down was much quicker, however we had to be very careful in the first part with the steep scree. Luckily, we were able to catch a ride down with the same park rangers to the first entrance gate. It was a 45 minute walk to Iliniza Mountain Lodge, and we were back in our comfortable abode before 4pm. This was a great acclimatization hike that was not too difficult to complete. We met some extremely generous people along the way, and despite the weather not cooperating, it felt like a true volcano climbing experience!