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Published: April 27th 2007
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....We chose a hostel that was a hut with enough beds for us all, and that had a proper little wood burning stove! You actually had to chop your own wood with an axe that was left conveniently outside, and of course the boys loved displaying their masculinity with this task, so I didnt have to get involved...! And Kat took the role of fire woman, going through two boxes of matches massive notebooks worth of paper and a fair amount of egg cartons, with a scary, manic "If this fire doesnt do what its told I'm going to kill someone" look on her face, before managing to start a magnificent fire. Believe me, by the time night arrived, we knew exactly why there was a fire in our room, I have never been so freezing but cosy in my life (we all, yup all 7 of us, squished into one bed, trying out the tranferring body heat theory, which works!)
We got up bright and early to watch the sun rise over the volcano crater, which was gorgeous. However, we turned round just as the sun was coming up, to discover that we had been followed to the
Sunglasses and hats
Now this is something you could never get away with at home....hehe!
P.S.repayment please! viewing point by, I think, the whole indigineous population of the village, carrying their handmade stuff to try sell to us. As these things happened to be nice woolly hats and gloves, and we were in the coldest place on earth, their trade for that day was very successful. I bought an amazing hat with ear flaps woo! Its ace. After a nice filling breakfast, we orgainsed our trek down the volcano crater to the lagoon at the bottom, which is about a 40 steep downhill walk. The only problem for me was the way you get back up. It is strongly advised you get a mule back up. Now, i am not a fan of horsey things, basically anything that you're meant to sit on that has a mind of its own and could fling you whereever it likes, there is absolutley no chance of getting me on one. So, I insisted that i could walk back up, despite the fact that they said only experienced hikers should, and it was a two hour trek up a nearly vertical slope. Of course, Mat and Ben said they'd come with me ( what gentlemen hehe ) And so we were
Going down...
...Little did I know how red I was to become... ready. The way down was the most scenic and beautiful hike I've ever done, and there was noone else to be seen, and when we stopped nattering it was completely silent. When we got to the bottom we found some kayaks and went boating, hehe, I went kayaking in a volcano! When you just sat back and looked up at the crrater walls surrounding you and the clear blue sky (yes at this point I was slightly dubious about whether I would be able to climb the crater which just looked impossible....) it was one of those moments you cant really describe....just the silence and beauty and impossibility of it all. Its one of those things you have to experience for youself I think.
So our time was up, and I was slightly dreading what was to come! The others mounted their mules and trotted off, I couldn't look them in the eyes ( the mules, I do think they have plans to destroy the world) andthe boys decided that instead of following the tourist track, we should ask the local kids nearby if we could get upa different way. Of course this way was much steeper. When you
Pretty
But can you tell how steep it is??! combine the heat of the day, the extreme altitude ( we were at 4000 metres above sea level) and me trying to walk up a near vertical wall, which was sandy, so evrytime you took a step you slid down a bit, you get an extremely out of of breath red object! Hah, seriously, we were taking about 15 steps, and then just collapsing! Of course Mat and ben were managing a little better than me....but we cracked on, and surprisingly we made it to the top in an hour and 10 minutes ( all the guide books said it would take two hours!) I was V.v. happy to have completed the challenge, v.v. tired, and needless to say I looked like a tomato, except with a strange white moustache, because that was the only place that didnt turn a brilliant shade of red. Unfortunately for you all, I didnt think to take any photos of that particular moment, but I can assure you, it was Very attractive.
At dinner that night, the people in the village did a little typical ecuadorian indigineous dance for all the tourists, which was ermm, interesting , they were waving their hats about and bobbing up and down a lot in very colourful clothes. At which point we discovered that in order to leave this middle of nowhere place, we had to get a bus from somewhere no one was really sure of, between the hours of 3am to 530am, again , noone was quite sure. So we got up at 3, hung round till a few minutes before 530, then due to the inginuity of various people ( not me, i was having trouble just focussing!), we found a bus a few minutes after 530. Everyone fell to sleep immediately on the bus, and I only just woke up as we were pulling into our destination....
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