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Published: July 22nd 2006
Illinizas From The Quilotoa Crater
We're climbing the mountain on the left!Hello again, just thought I'd write a quick blog before we set off in the morning to start our acclimatization for the mountain climb on Sunday. This week's title is a bit misleading, as we only aim to climb Illinizas Norte, and not every mountain in Ecuador this weekend (something that might take several months, if some lunatic wanted to attempt it). The plan is to set off tomorrow to a hostal south of Quito in the main Sierra, and then to do a preparation hike to get us used to the high altitudes of Illinizas. I think we will be fine as we've hiked at similar altitudes before when we hiked a part of the Quilotoa loop a month ago. On Sunday morning our guide will pick us from the hostal, and we will drive up to 4000m to start our walk. Hopefully, with a good wind behind us we should reach the summit four hours later, and then get down again after two or three hours, pausing for cheesy summit photos at the top. The intrepid team are: myself, Ulrich, Nurm, John and Christine, John's aunt. Keep your fingers crossed that the clouds stay clear for us, and we
Digging a Trench
The boys get stuck on with their hoes... get good views and no altitude sickness! Thank you to everyone who sponsored us, you're brilliant and your money will go a long way here and do a lot of good.
As far as this week at the reserve goes, we completed the trenches for the water project, I did some more detailed work on a brochure for the Education Project, did a bit of work on a booklet of plants for the meditation garden, and (the most fun of all) did a tree-climbing minga, which involved climbing up the fruit trees in the orange and mandarin orchard and peeling off all the moss, lichen and bromeliads on the branches. I don't think I have ever been as thoroughly dirty!! Even my inner ears were black!
The animals are all doing well, with no sign of the promised foal, but lots of scampering piglets and some new chicks from one of the hens who managed to avoid the egg collectors. I'm hoping to post some pictures of the pigs and a few of us working on the trench and up the trees...
That's it for now. Got to go climb a volcano.... I'm not going to do this very often
so I thought I'd take the opportunity to say it now!
Take care and keep in touch - thanks again for all your messages and comments - they are much appreciated!
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Nurm
non-member comment
Anna, Reading your journal entries makes me want to go back to Ecuador (esp. La Hesperia). US is not even comparable to a tenth of Ecuador when it comes to the fun factor (make it everything). I've been thinking about Ecuador a lot lately. It was probably the best thing that has ever happened to my life. I just have this feeling of wanting to go back always. A lot has changed about me. I tore my ACL, so I cannot do sport until I get a surgery and recover completely. I have gained my weight back and it is sad. I guess that's life. Only memories remain and everyone must walk through life a step at a time. Best regards, Nurm