• 3 1/4 inch diameter
• Cast in fine pewter
• Button Felt backing
  
• In a fitted fleece interior of a clear-acrylic covered gift box.
  

Place Name: Mount Cotopaxi
Elevation: 19,347 ft.
Coordinates: S 0° 40'50'' W78° 26' 16'' 
Location: Ecuador

According to locals who speak Quechua, coto means 'neck' and paxi means 'moon' and phakhsi 'moon'). This refers to the crater of Cotopaxi that looks like a crescent moon. The mountain was honored as a sacred mountain by local Andean people, even before the Inca invasion in the 15th century. It was worshiped as rain sender, which served as the guarantor of the land's fertility, and at the same time its summit was revered as a place where gods lived.

With 87 known eruptions, Cotopaxi is one of Ecuador's most active volcanoes. Its first recorded eruption was in 1534. This eruption appears to have deposited an ash layer in the lakes of Cajas National Park.

The first non-Spanish European who tried to climb the mountain was Alexander Von Humboldt in 1802; however, he only reached a height of about 4,500 m (14,760 ft). In 1858 Moritz Wagner investigated the mountain, but he could not reach the summit either. On November 28, 1872, German geologist Wilhelm Reiss and his Colombian partner, Angel Escobar, finally reached the summit of Cotopaxi.