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Published: September 21st 2005
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I got to Quito safe and sound. The flight was not too bad as I got to sit next the emergency exit. Lots of room to spread my long legs! However the landing was very bumpy and after we landed the steward told me it was the second most dangerous airport in the World!
I stayed the first few nights in a hostel recommended by my cousin. It’s at the edge of the old town and has a rooftop terrace with amazing views over Quito.
The weather in Quito is rather like a British summer. It gets to the twenties during the day but can be a little cold at night. It’s strange to think we’re only a few miles from the equator.
The reason the temperature is less than you’d think is because we’re at 2850m above sea level. This also means you get out of breath much more quickly that normal.
I tried to learn some Spanish before I came out but now I’m here; I’m realizing how little I can speak. Quito is a centre for Spanish Language teaching and so I decided to take some lessons. It’s well cheap! Only $4 per hour
for one-to-one teaching.
It’s Wednesday today. I took lessons last Friday and every day this week. It’s frustrating not being able to understand things and make myself understood. My knowledge of French is helping me and you can get by speaking English in many places, but I don’t want to be that kind of tourist. Not in South America anyway.
I’ve moved out of the hostel and am staying with a local family. There are other gringos there but still, I’ll learn Spanish faster than if I only spoke to gringos.
Actually, I’ve just signed up for four more days next week. It’s strange: my time in South America is very limited (only six weeks) and I initially didn’t intend to do any Spanish lessons as I want to get out and see places. However, I’m making good use of my time and a fun part of travelling for an extended period is that you can go with the flow and do whatever you want to.
Ecuador has some really cool things to do and I’m not going to be able to do a fraction of them. Even though I’m here for six weeks: certainly longer
than I would have if I were just using paid holiday time I’ve been meeting gringos that are travelling for really long periods just in South America. One guy I met says he may be here for 18 months. I think if I won the lottery I’d go off and do that too!
One cool thing that I have done since I got here is a two day tour of the countryside south of Quito.
The tour was recommended to me completely independently by two people and I would now extend the recommendation.
There is a volcano here called Cotopaxi. It’s the highest active volcano in the world (5,897m) and is a classic Mount Fuji style cone shape with a glacier on top. It last erupted in 1880 or something like that and they reckon it will erupt again in the next 10 years or so. This hasn’t stopped Ecuadorians building a track up to the bottom of the snowline at around 4,600m. Actually, it’s very popular for people to climb to the top. I met a guy at my hostel who did it, though he was the only one in his group of 16 to make
it to the summit. The altitude is a real issue. Coming from the UK, where the highest point is only 1300m and from Europe where the treeline stops at 2000m or so in the Alps it doesn’t quite feel that you are really so high. However you notice whenever you try breathing.
I went with a tour where they drive you up to the refuge and then you can descend on a mountain bike. It was fantastic and we were really lucky with the weather too as the guides tell us that more often than not it’s cloudy.
With it being so steep you can go really fast, though I didn’t want to and kept stopping loads to take pictures and admire the view as it was so great!
At the bottom of the main slope we kept on cycling, mainly downhill but with a couple of short uphill sections that really did tell us about the altitude and had lunch by some Inca ruins.
We were chatting with our guides for about an hour and a half over lunch. We talked about South American politics and the injustices that go on in this continent. We
The Biking Dutchman Van
Cotopaxi is in the background. We´re headed for just below the snowline then went even further downhill with lots of bumpy tracks and fast tracks and more stops to look at the amazing scenery.
They then drove us to our night’s accommodation. It was about three hours to get there. We went back down to the main Panamericana road and then up the other side of the valley (if that’s what you call it). Then up a very long and very windy road which made two of our group physically sick. I kept on looking out the front of the 4x4 and it was indeed a very long journey!
We stayed at an altitude of 4200m, just below the crater we were to visit the next day. The village is a co-operative owned by the local people (all indigienas). We stayed overnight in a hostel they have built for the many tourists that come this way (you’ll see why they do in a minute). It was a very cold night! I quickly nabbed what I thought was a prime bed next to the wood stove, but it very quickly burned out and the cold woke me up again. I was quite chuffed that I managed to get it lit again.
I put all my clothes on and slept some more. Eventually it went out again, but it was soon time to get up.
We were staying at the rim of a huge volcanic crater called Quilotoa. Apparently as recently as 1700 it was a volcano just like Cotopaxi but then they had a massive eruption and the volcano collapsed in on itself. It left this huge crater with a lake inside made up of the molten glacier. Don’t quite understand why the glacier didn’t all melt with the lava or why the water still hasn’t evaporated but I’m sure someone reading this blog will do some research and find out why! (Dave) ;-)
We walked all the way down to the lake and all the way up again (on foot, not on bikes). It was really beautiful!
The rest of the day we descended the road we had driven up the night before. It was all tarmac and you could go really fast. The last stretch must have been a greater drop than Ben Nevis but it didn’t seem so as there are much bigger drops all around.
All in all, an excellent experience! The company
we went with is called Biking Dutchman (http://www.bikingdutchman.com/) - actually there are so many Dutch people round here but that’s another story. They’re not the only company doing this kind of thing but they were the pioneers. The whole trip cost US$100 and though that’s a lot of money in these parts it was well worthwhile!
Anyway, I have another week in Ecuador before I got to Bolivia. I decided to get a direct flight as I’m short on time and it would take days to get there overland. Bolivia and Peru are where the really cool stuff that I want to see is. However Ecuador has some great things to do and I could easily have spent six weeks travelling around here.
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Mia
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Hey!
Fantastic panorama of the crater Nick! Glad to hear you're having such a great time. Keep on trying to breathe - I hear it's quite good for you!! Mx