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Published: March 29th 2005
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Classes at the orphanage were cancelled last week for the Semana Santa (Holy Week) but I still went in Monday - Wednesday to help with the few children who were still there (most spend the night at another location that doesn´t have a school). On Wedenesday, I brought Johanna with me and we spent the day playing Go Fish, helping with math homework, and picking up food donated to the orphanage.
On Thursday, I took the day off and Gabby, Julia´s spanish teacher, took us to El Panecillo, a vantage point to the whole city, topped by a statue of the Virgen de Quito (a symbol that combines both Incan sun worship and the Catholicism of the modern city). We were also able to go to the bottom of a well dating back to the spanish occupation of the Incas, which is decorated at the bottom with an Incan mural depicting both themselves and the Conquistadors.
Afterwards, Julia and I wandered around old town, then walked to Mariscal to buy good socks and a better fleece (for me) for the Cotopaxi trip before hitting up the pancake happy hour at The Magic Bean Cafe (they offer a special price
for a giant gourment pancake and a latte weekdays from 4 to 7). Afterwards, I went over to the Hotel Amaranta to watch more basketball with Ramon for a couple hours, then Julia met me and we all went out with some hotel guests working at the Embassy.
The next afternoon, Good Friday, we caught yet another bus to the Hostel Valhalla. The trip should be a breeze by now, but we slept for 5km past our stop and had to grab another bus to get back. By now, we know that stretch of the PanAmerican Highway unusually well. When we arrived, Frogger and her puppies were out to greet us... and Paul once again hadn´t been told to expect us. This time, there were also two more guests (three if you count the high school student with altitude sickness sleeping upstairs, but we we didn´t meet him for a while).
We did meet Jim and Crsytal who are both teaching English in Cuenca, and who would be climbing Cotopaxi with us Sunday and Monday.......which was a surprise for us because we thought we were climbing Saturday and Sunday. The agency forgot to let us know they were
postponing the trip a day. We were actually not at all upset, even though it meant missing a day of school (and we could´ve spent Friday night in Quito). Instead, we played cards and got to know our fellow climbers and saw a bit more of Machachi.
When it was time to leave for the climb, I was a bit nervous. The chaperone of a high school group that stayed at the hostel Saturday night told us about their experience (four of the seven made the summit, two had altitutde sickness and another was too tired), and it sounded pretty rough. Jim and Crystal had prepared much more than we had (including a lot of weekends hiking with full packs and a lesser climb on Friday), and were less nervous than Julia and I were.
During the hike from the parking lot to the refuge, I was definitely falling a bit behind, but I kept reminding myself that we´d have much lighter packs the next day. Still, it would´ve been smart to practice more before we went. I was tired when we got to the refuge, but was able to eat a sandwiche and felt only a little
lightheaded until we headed to glacier school.
Glacier school is kind of a fancy name for one of our guides, Roberto, walking us over to the glacier and teaching us a few techniques for walking up a sheet of ice using crampons and an ice axe. The more we practiced the more dizzy and uncoordinated I became. Altitude sickness was hitting me pretty fast, but not that hard. The nausea and headache weren´t even as bad as really bad migraine, but I couldn´t trust my balance at all...even inside the building. At 4800m, it was the highest I´d ever been (the same height as K2´s base camp, and 500m higher than Pikes Peak) - and the top of the mountain was still 1100 meters away. By dinner I couldn´t eat, and had given up any hope of climbing with the group. My revised goal was to get through the next 24 hours without throwing up (kind of gross, I know, but a goal I was able to achieve).
While I slept, Jim and Crystal made it to the top with one guide, and Julia made it almost to the top of the first ridge with the other guide, Roberto. He said she could´ve made it farther if she´d wasted less energy talking, but she wouldn´t have enjoyed it as much.
Well, we´re safe and sound in Quito now (my last week living in the city) and I´ll try to climb something shorter next time.
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