Blogs from Centre, Ecuador, South America - page 95

¡Hola! Que bueno! Yes, at 6:15 yesterday morning, just in time for sunrise, I summited my fourth major peak in Ecuador - Volcán Cotopaxi, at a breathtaking 5897m. It was the singularly most physically and mentally demanding activity I have ever undertaken and the others are en acuerdo on this point. Was it worth it? Oh yes. Por que? The feeling of achievement I think more than anything. OK - the sunset and moonrise were stunning. And once the moon had gone, the sky was studded with every star. If I wasn´t so delirious at the time then I perhaps could have appreciated it more. It´s difficult to describe the climb to anyone who hasn´t done anything similar. So I´ll try to paint the picture. The refugio is at 4,800m, just over a kilometre below the ... read more

This morning when we woke up one of the four guys in our group was feeling sick. He decided he wanted to go to the hospital and so went back to Riobamba. We later found out that he went back to Quito and then home because he felt that he didn’t trust the accuracy of the malaria tests in the hospitals in Quito. He had been travelling in Ecuador prior to our trip and had been in places that had malaria and wasn’t taking any medication. We never heard anything about him so we assumed he ended up being alright. Despite that setback this morning we all had a good breakfast and then took a bus a mile or two to a lodge directly at the base of Chimborazo where we would start our hike. We ... read more

I´m a bit behind in writing about what I´ve been doing so I´ve attached lots of pictures of my trip to Quilotoa. I travelled from Quito to Latacunga, which was another exciting bus adventure. No movies this time! I arrived in Latacunga Tuesday afternoon. As I was sitting on the roof terrace of my hotel looking at Cotopaxi volcano I decided to take a trip the next day to Quilotoa crater. A group from the hotel were going and there was another place free and it seemed a better option than local buses, the back of pick up trucks and walking three hours on a dirt road. When we left Wednesday morning it was raining and I did not expect that the day was going to be all that good, but as we drove up higher ... read more

Hired a couple of dodgy mountain bikes and cycled down the valley of the waterfalls. First 7k wasn´t very enjoyable. We soon realised we´d be cycling most of the route on a major road. The gears were stiff on Amy´s bike and her chain kept jamming. Slight adjustment using my penknife helped the latter. We´d been told that there were several tunnels through the mountains, each having an alternative route for bikes. However, the first of these did not. It was dark, water poured from the ceiling and the road surface was wet and muddy. Luckily no vehicles passed us in the tunnel, we just got covered in water/mud. When we reached the first waterfall (pictured) our moods improved. It was quite spectacular, falling into the valley below. We paid a dollar each to be ferried ... read more

It was sad to leave the Secret Garden as we've had a great time and met loads of interesting people. However, we were both ready to move on. The taxi to the bus station in Quito dropped us at a nearby roundabout - thanks. We wandered around not knowing where to go until an Ecuadorian familily who were also heading to Banos showed us where to wait. We had been warned that the bus station was a hotbed of crime so kept our bags close. After about 40 minutes a bus arrived and we stored our rucksacs underneath and boarded. A man walked down the bus counting people. I was sat on the opposite side to Amy checking our rucksacs were safe. I was instructed to take my actual seat and the man confirmed our destination ... read more