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Published: October 14th 2007
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Guagua Pichincha, 4,800m
View of Summit from the car as we drove towards the refuge... We arrived in Quito on Tuesday night, and were very pleasantly surprised when we got to our hostel, The Secret Garden. Notwithstanding the fact the the garden is so secret that it does not actually exist (unless you call a small fish pond a garden, which i certainly don´t) the hostel is lovely. Spread over 4 floors with a roof terrace, there is a strange inside-outside feel to the place, with no proper doors dividing areas, nor heating of any kind! The roof garden is where all the eating and socializing is done, and has great views over Quito, which is in a valley.
Having dumped 2 armfuls of stinking laundry upon the poor unfortunate woman who had to handle my socks and boxers, which had gone beyond a ripe rocquefort and were heading toward noxious, we were able to relax and catch our breath. At 2,800m, catching your breath in Quito takes some doing. Getting to the roof terrace in one go renders you unable to wheeze your dinner order on arrival! Sleeping was a bit restless too, with plenty of psychotic Malaria-induced revelations in the wee hours. After a day of focused inhalation, we were ready for a
hike.
The next morning we woke at 7am voluntarily (almost) and had a good feed before heading off with our guide Gustavo toward Pichincha- an active volcano! Thankfully said volcano was no more active than me on a Sunday morning, so it seemed safe to approach. Gustavo was great fun, very little english... his favourite words were "approximation", and "recommendation", eg. " I recommendation good trekking to summit, approximation 4,800m, recommendation rain, approximation 2pm, recommendation good trekking down, then recommendation car, approximation 1 hour"...
We drove out of Quito for about 90 mins, and reached the climbers refuge, after manys a popped ear. The refuge was at about 4,500m, where the air was Keira Knightly thin, not even size zero! We started to trudge up at a snails pace with the hostel manager´s advice still ringing in our ears ("you run, you die"). After 10 steps the heartbeat was pounding and the lungs...well...empty feeling! My pulse was 140 when i was feeling strong enough to count it, so no doubt it was higher at tougher times. We walked for about 50 mins to the top, a staggering 4,800m. At this point Kate´s hands were frozen solid, and even
with gloves on and hands in the armpits, feeling was a distant memory. The pocket hand warmers donated by Gregory were broken out. Even then it took two more hours for her hands to thaw out.
We had a nice snack at the top where we enjoyed glorious 360 degree views of grey cloud. Occasionaly it broke to reveal the volcano crater below, a sheer drop. We descended a different route, through soft ashy soil. This is were the altitude sickness got the better of Kate and the giggles possessed her! She was frog marched down the mountain by yours truly, back to minestrone soup at the refuge. Soup has never tasted so good, and headaches have never been so bad. We were all suffering the effects of the thin air. Kate was very white in the face at this stage, with headaches and nausea. The rest of us had to walk down a bit further while Kate got to ride in the jeep with Gustavo. A bit more walking down where we encountered a friendly horse, and a hailstone storm that pelted us with lumps of ice bigger than peas. It really hurt! We all started to feel
Guagua Pichincha
Pichincha, flushing the jacks in the climbers refuge! a bit better after descending a bit further. Gustavo brought us back via a big statue of The Virgin Mary which overlooks the city. A bit of a poorman´s "Christ the Redeemer", but then again this is Ecuador. A celebratory collapse on the bed was had, and the calories were replaced by the excellent hostel dinner.
The rest of our time in Quito was spent lolling around the hostel, where Kate dilligently took a couple of Spanish lessons with her teacher, Darwin. Of course, she was loving all the praise he gave her ... "muy, muy bien Kathy, muy bien!", "tu es estudiante muy intellectual"! Loving it! (Mark failed to understand why anyone would ever want to voluntarily study while on holidays!). We also wandered around the Old Town enjoying the Colonial architecture. It is a beautiful, but incomprehensibly large city. There seemed to be a worryingly large amount of Poilce loitering around the place, a couple on every street corner. This was not as reassuring as you might first think, but hey, we were fine. Our last night at the hostel featured a traditional Ecuadorian band who played for about 30mins, by the bonfire. They were really good,
Guagua Pichincha
At the refugio, before we started to trek to the summit and their traditional dress didn´t dissappoint!
We then hopped on a bus to Latacunga, headed for Cotopaxi Volcano. All that is left to say is travelling by bus in South America is a unique experience! There are traders all over the bus station (just like the streets) flogging everything from bags of apples, magazines, drinks and ice cream cones! They hop on and off the bus as it goes from stop to stop, bribing the driver with free merchandise and peddling frantically. Then they hop off at the next sub-10mph opportuinity!
Stay tuned for more public transport tales in the next installment!
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Tom
non-member comment
looks great...
hello there team Mc! photos look great, and the travel writing is brilliant (was it mark writing) - i think people should just pay you to travel around and write funny stories about what happens! seriously though, looks awesome, i'm jealous, i'm caught up in the beaurocracy of organising kayaking for kids!! life is good in general, but i am tired and hungry after a weeks sea kayaking/camping! take care, and look forward to hearing your next installment... love tom