Quito the best and worst

So.....

We have not blogged in a few days however we have done lots, and lots has gone on!

After our huge journey across the continent of South America we found ourselves in the capital of Ecuador Quito! Quito sits at 2900 meters which is higher than most European ski resorts. Due its location on the Equator however there is little snow until much higher, and Ecuador goes much higher, but more about that later!

So as we would spend the next 5 months in Spanish speaking countries we decided we would brush up our Spanish language skills, which are to be honest very limited. We would take 5 days of classes from 8.30 am until 12.30 pm, for anyone who has learnt a language; 4 hours is a long time straight to do this and very tiring.

This left us our afternoons in Qutio to do the tourist stuff.

On our first night in Qutio we were caught in one of the evening rain storms, and when it rains it rains. The water on the streets and pavement was over the tops of our trainers!
So we packed ourselves in to a bus and a little dazed by the rain I had my first experience of being pick pocketed... So some woman tried to get my wallet out of a zipped pocket in my trousers. I caught her, and as I was checking my wallet was in my pocket she had her hand in my other pocket!!! I shouted obscenities at her in English to which she said she had done nothing!!! No harm done this time.

Our first day trip was to visit the old part of Quito which dates back several hundred years, there are lots of small hills to walk and with the altitude this made it quite hard work.

Another afternoon we decided to travel to the Equatorial line to have that memorable picture with a foot on each side of the equator! The journey is 22 km, so about 15 miles "mas o menos" and that journey cost us 50 pence each, a bargin!

Sarah's lunch

Today we managed to meet up with a friend we made in Argentina called Lorri from NYC, unfortunately when we met her she was just being dropped to the hostal by the police after she had been robbed at knife point!!! She was ok, but very upset and shaken and had $800 of stuff stolen, not a great advert for Quito as a tourist destination.

Sarah and I have been planning to attempt to climb the volcano Cotopaxi, this is the tallest volcano in Ecuador and the second highest active volcano in the world. The top in only a few meters short of 6000 meters that's 19000 ft.

Cotopaxi, not my photo we have not been there yet

In order to have any chance of completing that challenge we have to undertake a series of acclimatization hikes. Today (20th July 11) was the first, and we found it pretty easy :-)

First you take the teleferique from the city (gondola to the skiers) up to 4100 meters, there are signs at this point advertising the dangers that this altitude poses.

The walk goes from 4100 meters up to 4800 meters 15000ft, unfortunately the mornings in Qutio are much better than the afternoons, and with Spanish class in the mornings we were restricted to walking in the afternoon only.

The views from the top across sprawling Quito were beautiful.

30 minutes in to the walk the clouds had begun to gather and the summit started to look unreachable.

As we got closer to the mountain the clouds did begin to clear slightly and a glimmer of hope began to shine.

On our march up the mountain (taking no prisoners) we did feel the effects of the altitude. Our breathing was harder (BPM was 120 when we had stopped walking) and we had slight dizziness, however we felt strong and were doing far better than we feared, we walked faster than most on the mountain and took less breaks. Get in!!

We were however beaten by sunlight and weather to reach the summit, we reached about 4600 meters and decided the safest thing was to turn back rather than risk an accident. But all in all this was a real good step towards our dream of scaling the giant Cotopaxi...

Can you spot Sarah?

We head for Latacunga tomorrow to complete a 4 day acclimatization hike around the Quilotoa loop. It sits at around 4000 meters- prolonged exposure at this altitude is of importance.

Next update will be before/during or after the loop. Watch this space....