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Published: August 30th 2007
Well protected
The constant presence of heavily armed security forces, anywhere, anytime, is a real theme in Quito. Apparently, they have 7 types of cops! Even KFC had a dude with a sawnoff standing in the entrance! Fast food cop?Ecuador
The extra night in Santiago, en route to Quito from Brazil was a good opportunity for me to grab my much loved prescription sunglasses, which I had accidently left on tour in Chile just after New Years. So, sunglasses back in possession, I no longer had to squint like a badger and was feeling quite proud of myself. My joy was to be shortlived however, as I eventually lost them proper 2 weeks later in a southern Ecuadorian town...
Quito One of the first things we learnt about Quito is that it sits in a narrow vallow, surrounded by live volcanoes. In all, Ecuador boasts over 100 active volcanoes, so Heath and I promptly sought means by which we could climb one, aggreeing that in a country of 100 volcanoes you were bound to find yourself
accidently up the odd volcano from time to time - so why fight it?
So we set off early from our hostel to
Niño Pichincha, one of the volcanoes overlooking Quito. Our "ride" was a beat up Ford F100. With a party of seven, Heath and I drew the short straw and crammed into the back with another american kid.
An hour and several bad smell mysteries later we hit a village at the base of the mountain. At this junture, our giude ran into the park office, and emerged shortly after with a flattened-out cardboard box. He pointed to this item and said "seat" and then pointed to the roof-rack on top of the truck. Not wanting to miss the opportunity to fall from a fast moving vehicle off the side of a volcano, Heath and I jumped at the chance to get out into the wind (see vid). Several hundred meters into the ascent, sore asses (surprisingly, the cardboard box didn't offer much in the way of
comfort) and some decent wind chill threataned to make us regret our choice of seating.
Tena - hiking rainforest canyoning, river rapids, village hostel
Baños - Agua Termales (Las Piscinas de la Virgen), Mountainbiking, La cascada de Río Verde, o el Pailón del Diablo
Cuenca -
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simon
non-member comment
sounds like a real pendeho....
sounds like all is well ... you seem to have acquired some more growth on your melon ! where is the famous travelors beard ? should we take this to mean you are still trying to pretend to be civilised ? come on wontok..... get your beard on it the done thing in south america ! all the best mate hope you are safe and well !