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Published: October 20th 2008
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As the title suggests we having been cramming a lot in and so for everyone´s sanity we will keep this one to the point! We have also been trying to download all our photos for this entry but technology in Per has proven a headache so more photos to follow...
Up in the Mountains we went to a a place called Papallacta which is a beautiful area but due to it´s location also generally very wet and grey. However, they do have some hot springs which we chose to enjoy rather than risk blisters hiking too far!
That day is also noteworthy of Andy´s journey to becoming a man because we visited a trout farm and it was my first experience of eating something that I had caught!
Unfortunately Cherie´s sight of my staring trout made her feel rather unwell and her afternoon involved a series of increasinmgly frequent visits to the toliet on our route to Cotopaxi. Her mood, however, did lighten when she saw this sign at a Doctor´s. See attached.
The next day we were climbing the Cotopaxi Volcano. Admittedly we drove part of the way up and then stopped at the refuge half way up
but it was one hell of an effort and we climbed to 4800 metres in the wind and snow. Those that climb to the summit leave at 1 am and it is a further 7 hours climbing at -25 temperatures.
We favoured lunch at the refuge and then bounding down the way we had just come to get warmed back in the car.
As a birthday treat Cherie kindly offered to take us horse riding, knowing my dislike of horses (particularly falling off them - from an unfortunate incident involving a donkey and a tree when I was in the Himalayas with Mr Brooksbank) I was obviously delighted by the prospect.
The day started out badly for me and with laughter from Cherie when I was introduced to my stead and was heard to utter: "god, they´re big". Once bravely astride we set off and things were going at a nice slow pace whilst our guide pointed at animals and said their names in Spanish which we then dutifully copied. Things took a turn for the worse when we started heading steeply uphill and I realised that our journey would involve track roads edged by sheer drops, therefore combining
my fears of horses and heights. Cherie was happily trotting next to the vertical drop whilst I talking words of encouragement to my mule to keep him glued to the edge furthest away from the drop.
Overall the day was fantastic but I did have one further scare when I thought that the speed and jolting from my horse had made my testicles bleed but all was well as I had in fact ridden through a blackberry bush!
I was able only to get my own back on our "nature walk" in which our guide would crush up leaves for us to smell and give us bits of random fruits to eat - much to Cherie´s horror when she saw how dirty his hands were...
I spent my 30th birthday morning visiting a beautiful lagoon in a huge volcano and true to Andy Hill luck after weeks of cloud in the area we awoke to beutiful blue skies! The view had clouded a little by the time we got the car jump-started (but I blame the bad luck on Cherie!).
From there we went onto a town called Riobamba where we met the Danish couple (from Galapagos, hope
you´re keeping up) for birthday drinks. These started as a sociable affair and ended in a usual boozy haze to show none of us have matured that much.
I will also attempt to attach a video of Cherie´s version of "the worm" which went some way to explaining why she couldn´t move her arms or lift her backpack the following day!
The following day arriving after about 5 hours of vodka-spaked sleep and we were at breakfast before stumbling to the train station to catch the "Devil´s Nose Train". The guidebooks highlight this as an amazing train ride for 5 hours seated on the roof of a train through beautiful scenery but after so much amazing scenery it all looked rather the same and Cherie was more concerned about the lack of toilets on the roof of the train. Probably the most interesting event was when Cherie punched me (accidentally, apparently) on the chin and chipped my tooth!
Having said that, we had the remains of a bottle of vodka to ease my pain.
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