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Way up high!
Like I´m going to run!!Well, I had to wait for my last day in Quito, but the weather was finally clear enough for me to consider gong up Quito´s teleferico (cable-car) to see what the view had to offer. From tip to toe, the mountain overlooking Quito is taller than Snowdon is above sea level. The big difference is that this little thing starts at 2800 odd metres, the height of Ecuador´s capital! As a result, the top is at around the 4100m mark. And yet there´s no snow. In fact, it´s not even that cold. It is noticeably cooler than it is in the city below, but it´s a lot warmer than I´ve ever known it to be at the top of Snowdon!! As a result, there´s a lot of grass growing and it´s all quite green. I guess you can blame being 20-odd kms from the equator for that!!
As for the air, I definitely noticed a difference, and felt a little light headed by the time I headed back down. But it wasn´t TOO bad. I guess a month acclimatising at near 3000m helped. I bumped into a Swiss girl from school, Jenny (incidentally, there´s so many Swiss in South America,
Quite a view
as usual, better in reality and it´s only a small country, so I do wonder if there´s actually any Swiss in Switzerland?!), who´d only arrived a week ago, and she was feeling it much more (and being Swiss, you have to feel that she must have at least some altitude experience?!). Anyway, there was a 15 minute walk to a fairly uninspiring viewpoint, and I didn´t feel too bad walking it at a reasonable pace, all of which bodes well for Macchu Picchu-style treks later on my journeys. I also finally had some nights out, as a German guy arrived in the school doing a similar 3 country course as I. As a result, the BsAs party vibe had rubbed off a little on Jens too!
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