The next few posts will be coming through in small updates until I have caught up. Here's the first.
Saturday 29th October – Halloween Party
After waking up far
too early and getting an early breakfast I go to venture down to my room
again. At the top of the stairs
something starts to happen. I’m
wobbling. I’m not that hungover am
I? Then the fridge at the bottom of the
stairs starts rattling and moving followed by then lots of stuff in the
kitchen. Earthquake! It only lasts about two or three seconds, but
I have finally felt my first earthquake.
It was pretty cool.
Tibo, Valentine and
Julie, who I met last night, are wandering over to the park and the markets so
I join them. All the stalls are selling
traditional indigenous goods: alpaca jumpers, fleeces, hats and scarfs,
armbands, leather wallets. The colours are so vibrant and all the stall owners are dressed in tradition
outfits. Very relaxing. I buy myself a decoy wallet. Apparently Quito is well known for its street
muggings which are all too common and one tip I was given is to have a decoy wallet
with only a few dollars in it to hand over if the worst happens. After a really good coffee, surprisingly rare
in the this part of the world, we head back to the hostel for the Halloween
party.
As hard as I try, I
can’t pick myself up for the party. Everyone gets dressed up with some pretty
inventive costumes, and have drinks on the rooftop terrace before heading into
town to continue the festivities. But I
decide I need and early night, and rather boringly good to bed. Things are starting to catch up with me.
Sunday 30th October - Dry Sundays
Quito, and it seems
the whole of Ecuador, comes to a standstill on a Sunday. Nothing is open. No drinks after 4 p.m. The only marginally
interest thing I do is take a walk to a square where a panpipe band is playing
some traditional music. But in the
evening I manage to find a few people who are going to get the TeleferiQo to
climb Volcán Pichincha. The TeleferiQo
will takes up to an altitude of 4100m, after which it will be a three hour hike
to the summit at height of 4698m.
Another bonus to
staying in The Secret Garden is good music, finally. After weeks of torture, the music playing
here is fantastic: Caribou, Four Tet, Jane’s Addiction, Band of Horses, Nine
Inch Nails.
Monday 31st October – Pichincha - A Breathless Halloween Climb
It’s Halloween and no better way to spend it than climbing my first
volcano for a few weeks - Pichincha. Myself, Pete and Vlad get a taxi to the
TeleferiQo, a cable car system which takes 20 minutes to get to the starting
point of the trek. These types of cable
cars would normally terrify me due to my fear of heights, but I am now really
starting to feel that my fear has gone (almost). After reaching the end of the TeleferiQo, we
start out on the trek. After only a few
minutes the altitude already starts to affect my breathing. At this height, every 100m higher makes a big
difference. The start proves very
tough. There are a few hills we have to
get over in the first 20 minutes, each only about 20m high, but steep. I have to stop several times and I feel like
I’m not going to get my next breath. But
it is surprising how quick the body can adapt.
After the initial 30 minutes it starts to ease, but breathing is still
tough, and breaks are frequent. It’s not
long before Pete and I lose Vlad. He
powers on and soon disappears up the volcano.
As we walk along, behind us we can look down to see amazing views. We are surrounded by other peaks and through
the gaps see Quito spread out below. The
further up we go, the tougher the terrain gets, but it’s manageable. There are a few places where the path becomes
very narrow but nothing dangerous. After
about two hours we reach the steeper part of the climb. The ground beneath our feet is more like sand
and gravel making it tougher to make progress.
Then the final 20m is solid rock, but almost vertical. At this stage we are rock climbing more than
trekking. Every few metres we stop to catch our breath and prepare ourselves
for the next push. It’s very cold now
and even with gloves my hands are numb making it hard to grasp the rocks. The clouds start to slowly roll up the hill,
like ghostly figures racing against us to the top. Very apt for Halloween. Finally after two hours and 40 minutes we
clamber onto the summit. It’s a great
feeling. Having just beat the clouds,
standing on the small plateau at the top we can see into to the other side of
the peak and the valley below. It was
worth every minute to get here. A small
bird lands beside us. I’m surprised to
see such a small bird at this altitude.
This is soon followed by a very large bird of prey. This begins to circle us several times,
checking us out, before landing only metres away.
We take in the views for 20 minutes and get some much needed rest before
beginning our descent. As we leave the
summit, another climber passes us on her way up. While making our way down we meet her
again. She did the trek in one hour and
45 minutes. That’s staggeringly
quick. The climb back down is much
easier. We tackle the sand and gravel
areas like snow, running in a zigzag motion.
This is not a good method. At one
stage I lose all control of my speed and direction and crash my shin straight
into a rock. It could have been much
worse. Time to take it easy. After only one hour and 30 minutes we reach
the TeleferiQo again at which point I am dragging my legs, barely able to lift
them. Next time I do something like this
I know to bring food. Rookie mistake.
Part of today’s adventure was a test to see how I handled the altitude
and whether I’d be fit enough to tackle Cotopaxi. Although I made it today, Cotopaxi is a whole
different story. I’ve decided that it
would just be a little too tough for me at this stage. I’ll try something like that later in my
trip, maybe in Peru.
After getting back
to the hostel and getting back to better oxygen levels, I get talking to
Elisha, from Perth Australia.. She’s
planning a trip to the Galapagos Islands and has convinced me to go. The Galapagos is somewhere I have wanted to
go all my life, but it is very expensive.
It’ll blow out my budget completely.
But then again, when I will ever be so close? When will I ever have this chance again? Some big decisions to make.
The hostel put on a
special Halloween dinner tonight: green soup, black witches hair spaghetti and
a Bloody Mary. When chatting to Elisha a
bit more over dinner she tells me the best hot chocolate she has ever tasted
was in Mello Café in Bundoran, Donegal.
Mello Café is owned by my cousin Caoilfhionn. Another small world incident.
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