Quito - Arrival in Ecuador

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So we arrived in Quito on the 14th of November. Quito is the capital of Ecuador and is at an altitude of 2800 meters. My main plan for Ecuador is to climb a mountain (Volcano) called Cotopaxi which is a couple of hours south of Quito. We figured that the altitude training would help.
On arrival in Quito we made friends with a spanish couple (Martin and Layla) and we decided to stay in a hostel called the Secret Garden. I did not realise how touristy this Hostel would be but it proved to be great fun. The hostel itself has a 5th floor terrace overlooking Quito city and also the mountain called Pichincha. The first day we just took it easy and just tried to get used to the altitude. The following day we spent looking for an agency which I could book the climb to Cotopaxi. We must of searched close to 10 agencies and I could still not make a decision which one to use. By going around every agency we also got a good tour of the new city. Quito itself is a lovely city except for all the polution. Every bus just gives out a huge amount of black smoke which just sits in the sky above the city. For a mountain city you would think it would be nice and fresh! That evening I met a girl from CLonskeagh in Dublin who went to school with one of my friends and was in the year below me in College!!
On the third day we made our way up the Teliferiqo which is a cable car that goes up to 4100 meters. Once at the top there is a trek to 4700 meters which is Pichincha. It is a relatively easy climb except for the fact that we got caught in an Electrical storm on the way down. We literally saw lightening hit the Electric cables above our heads about 10meters away. Was quite a day. BY the time we got back to the cable car we were soaked to the bone but it was quite an adventure to think that we were a few meters away from getting fried!!
That evening we had a few drinks on the terrace and met Richard (Manchester) and Thomas (Inverness) who mentioned they were going to do the same the next day. After they did the cable car mountain and they returned to the hostel we all decided to tackle Cotopaxi together on the weekend which also was my birthday.The next day we booked the climb and decided to take it easy for the night as we had a big weekedn to come.

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