So long long ago, way before I went to Intag for the first time, long before I even arrived in Ecuador, I was doing some online background research in my dad´s office in Windhoek. And an intriguing link came up -- I found myself on a website for the Andean Bear Project ( http://www.andeanbear.org/ , check it out, it´s cool ) which was asking for volunteer bear trackers. Six months later, I am back in the cloud forests of northern Ecuador, and this time I get to play with radio equipment.
The Andean Spectacled Bear, the smallest bear in the world, is an endangered species found only in the Andes Mountains. Currently, it is badly threatened by loss of habitat due to deforestation. The project aims to save these animals from extinction through rehabilitation and release of captive bears, and by researching bear behavior using radio tracking equipment. Bears are caught using special cages designed by project director Armando, sedated and fitted with a radio collar. Volunteers spend their time hiking and using radios to listen for signals emitted by the collars. The signal allows us to determine whether the bears are active or not, and in which direction they are from set points along the hikes. By a process called triangulation, use of three of these points can then show where the bear is located. Sounds simple, not as easy in practice. Signals are easily distorted by reflection off of mountains, the equipment is old and falling apart anyway, and actually getting a triangle on the map is rare. Unfortunately the bears are threatened directly by the farmers also because they like to eat corn. A few months ago, a bear was caught in a cage, sedated, collared and released. A week later it was found dead with bullet holes in it, but the community in the area in which it was found apparently blamed the death on the Andean Bear Project, claiming that Armando had oversedated it.
I hike every day of the week, 4-8 hours a day, and have the weekends and all other time off. So far I have occupied my free time by reading a lot (yay I have time to read books that aren´t assigned by classes), baking bread and making jam, watching dvds on a friend´s laptop, talking, napping and taking care of Pig.
Pig? Who the heck is pig? Well, it all started on day 1, when my fellow rookie volunteer, Joe and I saw a very cute pig next to a schoolyard. This, combined with our friend Val´s recent purchase of a horse (cost him U$200), gave us the idea that we too, could get a cool pet. Why did we want to get a pig? I dont know. What are we going to do with it? I dont know, feed it, make sure it doesnt hurt itself.... But pigs are so much work, why didnt we get a dog? We have plenty of time to take care of one, we are two people, it´ll eat all our compost and the dog living at the volunteer house before our arrival managed to wake everbody up regularly by barking at night and it also racked up $40 in mauled-chicken costs. Plus, Armando said it was ok. So now Joe and I are in possession of our very own Saddleback Pig (they get real big but this one is small, 4 months old), it is orange and white, and in order to take it home I had to carry it across a very very rickety bridge. That was fun, I thought I would fall most of the time but luckily pig was speechless for once. Petrified I suppose. Pig generally makes a lot of noise. Grunting normally, but when Pig is annoyed, she squeals so much that ten babies together would be put to shame. I am not joking, it is so loud and high-pitched, you want to do anything to make it stop bleating like that. Pig is pretty smart too. So far she has escaped her rope-harness 3 times. Which is kind of good because at first she would wind the rope around a tree until she got stuck and at that point start squealing (this always happened at 6 in the morning.) The first time she got loose it provoked a pig-hunt through the bushes that degenerated to Joe, Kim (another volunteer) and I chasing it across a field for a while.
Other exciting things of note:
-- getting a lift uphilll to the start of a hike and getting stuck in the remaints of a mudslide. We end up with a (to give him the benefit of the doubt) confused truck driver, who kept driving the truck into parts of the road with the most mud, getting the truck more stuck, while we pushed and pulled and dug out wheels the whole time. The driver kept giving Alberto (employee of Andean Bear Project) and me the shovel instead of helping out himself, and then he still charged us for the ride.
-- 8 hour hike with Alberto to deactivate a cage. A radio collar is used on the cages which emits a signal when the door shuts (hopefully on a bear, though pumas also in the past.) Alberto not only walks extemely quickly, he doesn´t take breaks and we had to get to and then climb a very remote mountain to reach the cage. Basically, by the end of the day, I was tired from 2 steep climbs, covered in cuts from various vegetation material and running out of water forced me to drink from a mountain stream that Alberto showed me and then, after I drank, he told me it could make my stomach sick. If he hadn´t had to bushwack so much on the unkept trails, I wouldn´t have been able to keep up. But I did get a machete lesson and practice. (1. cut with sharp side and at the end of the blade; 2. cut at an angle) Good life skill.
-- Full day Minga (work with community members on given project) harvesting corn for Alberto. We spent 6 hours in a cornfield. I got lots of sun and bug bites. But it was cool to see where corn comes from.
-- Just came back from summiting the nearby mountain of Imbabura (4600m). 3 friends and I left Intag for the weekend, hiked all yesterday afternoon, camped in the paramo (grassland occuring at high altitudes) and got up very early this morning to finish the climb. It was a great view before the mist obscured it at the very top. We had some fun rock scrambles involving all 4 of our limbs and we faced cold temperatures, falling snow and strong wind at the top. Definitely worth it.
Friday, June 16, 2006
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Peru, Bolivia: Machu Picchu, Lake Titikaka
During my last week of ISP, I managed to figure out that google chat works, and got in touch with my friend Matt from Swarthmore, currently studying abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina. On impulse we agreed to buy plane tickets to Cuzco, Peru and from there, to travel to Machu Picchu and Lake Titikaka together, within the 9 days he had class vacation and before I had to head back to Ecuador, scheduled the 2nd week after my ecology program ended.
In spite of a temporary setback caused by my miscommunication with my homestay family, in which I almost missed my flight due to my inability to access my passport (locked in their house) and made it to the airport 50 minutes before departure only because of the divine intervention of my guardian angel in the form of a 6 year old girl who helped me break in, I did in fact make it to Lima, the coastal capital of Peru, in one piece. Albeit accompanied only by my small backpack full of the previous few days worth of beach clothing.
But leaving that aside, I was thrilled to see Matt when I finally caught up with him at the hostel he had chosen as our meeting/storage place. Lima is big. Very big, and really different from Quito. It´s much more polluted, with wider streets, highways to get from one part to another, many many modern buildings, and I was also more impressed with the beautiful central antiguo part of the city than with it´s Quiteñan counterpart. We seemed to have picked into the ritzy touristish part of town, and that night we soon found ourselves wandering through a maze of restaurants, bars and clubs. Luckily we were starved. The Peruvian currency, the "Sol" definitely kept us on our math feet as we kept trying to translate back into currencies with which we were familiar.
Early the next morning we flew onwards to Cuzco, the ancient capital of the Incan Empire. Before we get there however, it is of vital mention that Matt and I made friends with an american couple we met in the airport. Matt convinced Shelby (guy´s name actually) and Katlin to come with us to our hostel since they didn´t have a place to stay at that point and at least check it out with us.
So the four of us go to the hostel that Matt found online. We are met by Vicky, a Peruvian lady who offers us tea while we wait for our rooms to be ready. The hostel was big and nicely decorated, with a little open breakfast room providing a nice view of the inner courtyard. We manage to bargain down the price of our accomodations by agreeing to stay, all four of us, in a single large room, with three beds. That sorted out, we all took a nap. Bored of napping immediately, I snuck out, checked my email and met some other people at the hostel. Matt, Shelby, Katlin and I explore central Cuzco – the beautiful Plaza de Armas where we are surrounded by churches and mountains, the narrow streets where we hug the walls to avoid getting run over, and we see the remnants of beautiful Inca architecture while wandering down an alley, the classic perfectly cut bricks so as to fit together exactly (couldn’t fit a knife in the space between bricks.) This was after all, the capital of the Incan Empire. And they chose a very beautiful headquarters, we decide, as we watch the sun settle behind the hills, red and orange meeting dusty brown. That night we decide to take the cheap tour of Cuzco – agreeing on 5 soles (U$1.50), we pay a taxi driver to drive us (all 4 of us) up to the big Jesus statue at the peak of an overlooking hill and get a great view of the city – all glittering lights in the valley, spread out below us. On the drive, we ask the driver if there is a red-light district in Cuzco. A few minutes later we’re driving through a very different Cuzco, it’s dirtier, generally more run down than the touristy side, and right after the taxi driver announces that this is the dangerous area, we get a flat tire. We spend the next twenty minutes trying to change it without a jack (lots of lifting power necessary) and hailing other taxis to see if they have one.
The next day we spend at the Artesenal Market where we find all manner of products Alpaca, find a very cheap gigantic lunch at a little hole in the wall restaurant (I find myself presented with half a chicken plus rice and veggies as the second course), and check out the Inca Museum. With Vicky’s help, we organize a trip to the Macchu Picchu ruins. The next morning we take a train ride to Aguas Calientes, passing through some great Andean scenery, both pastoral and highland-stream-enclosed-within-towering-mountains, to arrive at Aguas Calientes, the town closest to the ruins (where all the tourists stay.) We drop off our bags and continue to MP where Matt and I take a tour of the ruins in Spanish. They are truly spectacular, situated in the midst of gorgeous green mountains, overlooking everything, with houses, ingenius water fountain/gutter system, temples, courtyards, arches, altars etc. We learn that this was once the seat of the Incan elite; the priests, the royalty, the wealthy, and we also find out from Shelby and Katlin that the English tour said the opposite (wrong.) Oh well. We watch the sun set and then we go back to Aguas Calientes, where, after dinner, we check out the reason behind its name – we bathe in the hot springs (which was fun, though I woudn’t call it amazing.) The next day, while Katlin does some artwork, Matt, Shelby and I hike up the Putukusi Mountain nearby (we found the path following some other tourists’ advice and the train tracks) from where we can see once again, Macchu Picchu on the next mountain over. Good view, I highly recommend the hike if you have the time. It is Wednesday already and there is still so much to see. The four of us, ever a match made in heaven, have decided to explore Lake Titikaka next (yes, that is the name of the world’s “largest highest” lake.) So to save money and time, as Shelby puts it, “we board a bus, don’t pay a hostel for the overnight and in the morning we magically arrive” at Puno, a city on the southern edge of Peru. That afternoon, we take a short trip of the bay area commissioning a (fisherman’s?) very beat-up motor boat (he let’s us try driving, which is fun.) The lake is pretty, but the algal build-up all over the waterfront is not. We are not highly impressed with Puno as a whole, but we do enjoy wandering through the main street in the evening, where many people are outside walking around, hanging out and crowding. We see shops, butcheries and little plazas, then we pick a restaurant where we get to watch live traditional music, performers employing the use of panpipe flutes, drums and chorongos (sort of like mini-guitars.)
We decide to add another stamp to our passports – crossing the border into Bolivia on another bus, we arrive at Copacabana, a small town on the lake nestled amongst the hills. We wander the streets and eat lunch, then take a boat to nearby island Isla de Sol, recommended by other tourists we had bumped into beforehand. We sit on the breezy roof of the boat looking out at the lake, big enough to seem an ocean from our viewpoint, follow the coastline to the Island, where we have decided to spend the night. This turns out to be an excellent choice. It is hard for me to describe how unbelievably beautiful it was. From the dock we climb upwards, passing llamas, agricultural terraces and Bolivians offering us their hostels, to finally look out upon the blue lake, the tanned coast and finally to the stunning snow capped mountain range in the distance, the Cordillera Real. Shelby and I negotiate a game of soccer with some children. The mountains still a part of the surreal background, we play an exhausting game on a school basketball court that we ultimately lose (it’s the altitude really) and thus earn the right to buy the kids a coke. After that we all climb up to the topmost part of the island for an even better view of the lake now that we can see both sides of the island. We spend the evening playing cards with people we meet at our hostel, and the next day we slowly make our way back to Puno, Matt and I head to Cuzco and on Sunday we fly out to respective residences. The journey is uneventful except for our bus breaking down on the way to Cuzco, something about a “broken electric circuit”, but we make it back with time to spare before our flight.
In spite of a temporary setback caused by my miscommunication with my homestay family, in which I almost missed my flight due to my inability to access my passport (locked in their house) and made it to the airport 50 minutes before departure only because of the divine intervention of my guardian angel in the form of a 6 year old girl who helped me break in, I did in fact make it to Lima, the coastal capital of Peru, in one piece. Albeit accompanied only by my small backpack full of the previous few days worth of beach clothing.
But leaving that aside, I was thrilled to see Matt when I finally caught up with him at the hostel he had chosen as our meeting/storage place. Lima is big. Very big, and really different from Quito. It´s much more polluted, with wider streets, highways to get from one part to another, many many modern buildings, and I was also more impressed with the beautiful central antiguo part of the city than with it´s Quiteñan counterpart. We seemed to have picked into the ritzy touristish part of town, and that night we soon found ourselves wandering through a maze of restaurants, bars and clubs. Luckily we were starved. The Peruvian currency, the "Sol" definitely kept us on our math feet as we kept trying to translate back into currencies with which we were familiar.
Early the next morning we flew onwards to Cuzco, the ancient capital of the Incan Empire. Before we get there however, it is of vital mention that Matt and I made friends with an american couple we met in the airport. Matt convinced Shelby (guy´s name actually) and Katlin to come with us to our hostel since they didn´t have a place to stay at that point and at least check it out with us.
So the four of us go to the hostel that Matt found online. We are met by Vicky, a Peruvian lady who offers us tea while we wait for our rooms to be ready. The hostel was big and nicely decorated, with a little open breakfast room providing a nice view of the inner courtyard. We manage to bargain down the price of our accomodations by agreeing to stay, all four of us, in a single large room, with three beds. That sorted out, we all took a nap. Bored of napping immediately, I snuck out, checked my email and met some other people at the hostel. Matt, Shelby, Katlin and I explore central Cuzco – the beautiful Plaza de Armas where we are surrounded by churches and mountains, the narrow streets where we hug the walls to avoid getting run over, and we see the remnants of beautiful Inca architecture while wandering down an alley, the classic perfectly cut bricks so as to fit together exactly (couldn’t fit a knife in the space between bricks.) This was after all, the capital of the Incan Empire. And they chose a very beautiful headquarters, we decide, as we watch the sun settle behind the hills, red and orange meeting dusty brown. That night we decide to take the cheap tour of Cuzco – agreeing on 5 soles (U$1.50), we pay a taxi driver to drive us (all 4 of us) up to the big Jesus statue at the peak of an overlooking hill and get a great view of the city – all glittering lights in the valley, spread out below us. On the drive, we ask the driver if there is a red-light district in Cuzco. A few minutes later we’re driving through a very different Cuzco, it’s dirtier, generally more run down than the touristy side, and right after the taxi driver announces that this is the dangerous area, we get a flat tire. We spend the next twenty minutes trying to change it without a jack (lots of lifting power necessary) and hailing other taxis to see if they have one.
The next day we spend at the Artesenal Market where we find all manner of products Alpaca, find a very cheap gigantic lunch at a little hole in the wall restaurant (I find myself presented with half a chicken plus rice and veggies as the second course), and check out the Inca Museum. With Vicky’s help, we organize a trip to the Macchu Picchu ruins. The next morning we take a train ride to Aguas Calientes, passing through some great Andean scenery, both pastoral and highland-stream-enclosed-within-towering-mountains, to arrive at Aguas Calientes, the town closest to the ruins (where all the tourists stay.) We drop off our bags and continue to MP where Matt and I take a tour of the ruins in Spanish. They are truly spectacular, situated in the midst of gorgeous green mountains, overlooking everything, with houses, ingenius water fountain/gutter system, temples, courtyards, arches, altars etc. We learn that this was once the seat of the Incan elite; the priests, the royalty, the wealthy, and we also find out from Shelby and Katlin that the English tour said the opposite (wrong.) Oh well. We watch the sun set and then we go back to Aguas Calientes, where, after dinner, we check out the reason behind its name – we bathe in the hot springs (which was fun, though I woudn’t call it amazing.) The next day, while Katlin does some artwork, Matt, Shelby and I hike up the Putukusi Mountain nearby (we found the path following some other tourists’ advice and the train tracks) from where we can see once again, Macchu Picchu on the next mountain over. Good view, I highly recommend the hike if you have the time. It is Wednesday already and there is still so much to see. The four of us, ever a match made in heaven, have decided to explore Lake Titikaka next (yes, that is the name of the world’s “largest highest” lake.) So to save money and time, as Shelby puts it, “we board a bus, don’t pay a hostel for the overnight and in the morning we magically arrive” at Puno, a city on the southern edge of Peru. That afternoon, we take a short trip of the bay area commissioning a (fisherman’s?) very beat-up motor boat (he let’s us try driving, which is fun.) The lake is pretty, but the algal build-up all over the waterfront is not. We are not highly impressed with Puno as a whole, but we do enjoy wandering through the main street in the evening, where many people are outside walking around, hanging out and crowding. We see shops, butcheries and little plazas, then we pick a restaurant where we get to watch live traditional music, performers employing the use of panpipe flutes, drums and chorongos (sort of like mini-guitars.)
We decide to add another stamp to our passports – crossing the border into Bolivia on another bus, we arrive at Copacabana, a small town on the lake nestled amongst the hills. We wander the streets and eat lunch, then take a boat to nearby island Isla de Sol, recommended by other tourists we had bumped into beforehand. We sit on the breezy roof of the boat looking out at the lake, big enough to seem an ocean from our viewpoint, follow the coastline to the Island, where we have decided to spend the night. This turns out to be an excellent choice. It is hard for me to describe how unbelievably beautiful it was. From the dock we climb upwards, passing llamas, agricultural terraces and Bolivians offering us their hostels, to finally look out upon the blue lake, the tanned coast and finally to the stunning snow capped mountain range in the distance, the Cordillera Real. Shelby and I negotiate a game of soccer with some children. The mountains still a part of the surreal background, we play an exhausting game on a school basketball court that we ultimately lose (it’s the altitude really) and thus earn the right to buy the kids a coke. After that we all climb up to the topmost part of the island for an even better view of the lake now that we can see both sides of the island. We spend the evening playing cards with people we meet at our hostel, and the next day we slowly make our way back to Puno, Matt and I head to Cuzco and on Sunday we fly out to respective residences. The journey is uneventful except for our bus breaking down on the way to Cuzco, something about a “broken electric circuit”, but we make it back with time to spare before our flight.
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Cotopaxi
So Comparative Ecology and Conservation Spring 2006 ended on May 20th. I spent the so called ¨evaluation¨ week leading up to that date at a farm called La Hesperia and also in Quito. Our group filled out forms, listened to each other´s presentations of our Independent Study Projects and basically spent a lot of time together. I took our final spanish oral exam (I´m pleased to say my spanish improved) and also got my ¨salida¨, permission to leave the country. In many ways the week was stressing just knowing that study abroad was about to end and so many good friends were about to leave, but at the same time I also like to think that I would be able to see many of them again, and think on the many more adventures coming up for me still staying on in South America. It was especially hard to say goodbye to our wonderful academic directors, Xavier and Sylvia as well as Aldemar. On the Friday, we all went out for lunch at the same pizza place we went to our first night in Ecuador (it´s special like that) and afterwards the ADs headed out. But not before they were hugged thoroughly by all of us and I gave Xavier a piggy-back ride.
On Saturday the group flight left around 4 in the afternoon, and sad goodbyes were made all around. The crowning moment was when Pritha tried to enter the passenger
check-in by walking out the airport exit. Oh well, we were all a little spaced out. About half the group was left behind -- all of us deciding to stay for a week to 2 months longer in South America to travel, show parents/significant others around and/or volunteer for longer. I spent the rest of the evening with some of my friends, and we went to watch the Da Vinci Code at 9:40pm before returning to the hostel. It creeped me out but I liked it overall.
The next day a whole group of us went up the Teleferico gondala and made the hike up Pichincha (mountain overlooking Quito). I had done this already but I like the hike a lot. The real reason behind the hike though, was acclimatization for Phase 2: Cotopaxi.
Cotopaxi is a gorgeous snowy mountain located about 2 hours south of Quito. At 5897m (19,347 ft) tall (that´s 2m higher than Kilimanjaro), I and a couple of friends couldn´t resist the challenge. Together, Dylan, Zack, Susan, Sarah and I planned to take the 2 day trip to summit the volcano with Rainforest Tours, accompanied by Sarah´s mom, who would stay at the Refugio (refuge) about 100m above the parking lot. By parking lot I mean flat patch of rocks overlooking amazing view of plains, little lake and surrounding rising mountains Ruminahui and Ilinizas, among others. In short, totally sweet, though somewhat chilly. We arrived at the Refugio in time to eat late lunch and then scamper about on the lava rocks, entranced by the sunset. We sawa a lobo de paramo (kind of like a big fox) too which was fun. We struggled to sleep as much as possible before we all awakened at 11:30pm to don woolly pants, wind pants, various undershirts and overshirts, fleece, wind breaker, beanie, gloves, other gloves, big mittens and clunky hiking boots, all provided by the company (except the various shirts.) After some hot tea, we started the climb. Dylan, Zack and I were attached to one guide, Sarah and Susan to another. When I say "attached" I mean we were all connected by a rope as soon as we hit the icy snow... or was it snowy ice? Whatever it was, I found myself struggling to control my heavy, booted and now crampon-attached feet as we climbed steadily upwards. It was steep. I was in pain. That is generally all I remember, but for the rhythm of "ice pick, step 1, step 2" keeping me focused repetitively onwards. I was exhausted, and from Dylan pulling the rope behind me I could tell the guys werent doing much better, it was all I could do keep up with the guide, Fausto. We climbed and climbed but the breaks were getting longer and closer between. When we stopped I wanted to keep going because I got extremely cold, extremely fast, but when we kept moving I wanted to stop because I got extremely tired, extremely fast. At some point we paused and momentarily Dylan started vomiting. Things weren´t looking too good. Susan and Sarah caught up with us around then and after the intra-hiker-guide conversation, I found myself linked to the girls´rope stumbling forward yet again as Fausto tried to reach a decision about whether the boys can keep going or not.
As we leave them behind, the new slower pace helps me out along with the fact that my headlamp slips down over my eyes so I can barely see, meaning I don´t have to look at how ridiculously steep the mountainface actually is. "Cinco minutos, cinco minutos" our guide keeps saying. I concentrate on putting one foot in front of another guided by the rope I can barely see in front of me. It´s more like 30 minutes, not 5, before we make a break, but at that point we have broken clear to a slightly more flattened part - and is it not absolutely beautiful, nestled amongst ice boulders, the sun rising at our side, far above the plains, the lava rock, Quito in the distance. Zack appears after a few minutes, trailing an unfamiliar guide and we all cheer. Fausto had to take Dylan down, but luckily Zack was able to make it this far. Slowly we start again. Susan and Sarah are pretty tired, but we beast onwards. The going soon gets tougher again and Sarah occasionally makes comments about feeling lightheaded. I am feeling fine, but the combination of altitude and exhaustion is catching up to my companions. Whenever we stop Sarah falls asleep and Susan claims that she feels not only dizzy but as if the wind might blow her off the side of the iceface we are climbing. Then at some point she collapses as we are trekking along. We wait, she recuperates, we go on, we get tired, we recuperate, my crampons keep coming undone, the summit is in sight but still high above us. Around the time that our guide realises that we can´t make it all the way up, Zack returns from in front of us saying that he can´t keep going up the steep final ascent and still expect to have energy left for the return. I´m the only one who isn´t feeling thoroughly beaten (though kind of roughed up), but with only one guide the only thing we can do is give up. For safety´s sake, he argues to me, he can´t let me go the rest of the 300m up even though I can tell exactly where I would have to go. It´s getting late and we need to start heading back soon anyway. We are glad we made it this far for sure, and to me, the vistas make up for the disappointment. We stumble the whole way down, drifting into sleep the moment we stop and sit for a moment. I keep tripping over my boots and sliding partway down on my back. When we reach the refugio, everyone else joins Dylan on the beds and passes out. I pack my stuff since the exhaustion apparently hasn´t hit yet, then go in search of food.
Quotes from the ride down:
Susan: That was the most exhausting thing I have ever had to do, mentally, physically, emotionally; I have so much more respect for mountain climbers now. The whole time I was wishing I was on a kayak.
Zach: I hate that F-ing Mountain!
Dylan: Climbing Cotopaxi was like getting drunk - I spent a lot of money, I threw up, I don´t remember what happened, and now I feel hungover.
Elsita: ..... (passed out on Fausto´s shoulder)
But no worries, that night, Susan, Zack and I take an overnight bus to Guayaquil and from there to Montañita, a little tourist town on the coast. We meet up with Katie and Katie and spend the next day sleeping on the sandy beach, getting sunburnt, swimming in the ocean and burying a dog in the sand. Though the town is a blatant tourist trap and probably half of the people staying there do drugs, I enjoy the chance to relax in the sun and get free surf lessons from the owner of our hostel (read, we had to pay to rent the boards), as well as eat huge breakfasts. As Zack put it, "that´s really how amazing Ecuador is, one day your on top of Cotopaxi, 5000m up and barely breathing, and the next day you´re sunning at the beach".
On Saturday the group flight left around 4 in the afternoon, and sad goodbyes were made all around. The crowning moment was when Pritha tried to enter the passenger
check-in by walking out the airport exit. Oh well, we were all a little spaced out. About half the group was left behind -- all of us deciding to stay for a week to 2 months longer in South America to travel, show parents/significant others around and/or volunteer for longer. I spent the rest of the evening with some of my friends, and we went to watch the Da Vinci Code at 9:40pm before returning to the hostel. It creeped me out but I liked it overall.
The next day a whole group of us went up the Teleferico gondala and made the hike up Pichincha (mountain overlooking Quito). I had done this already but I like the hike a lot. The real reason behind the hike though, was acclimatization for Phase 2: Cotopaxi.
Cotopaxi is a gorgeous snowy mountain located about 2 hours south of Quito. At 5897m (19,347 ft) tall (that´s 2m higher than Kilimanjaro), I and a couple of friends couldn´t resist the challenge. Together, Dylan, Zack, Susan, Sarah and I planned to take the 2 day trip to summit the volcano with Rainforest Tours, accompanied by Sarah´s mom, who would stay at the Refugio (refuge) about 100m above the parking lot. By parking lot I mean flat patch of rocks overlooking amazing view of plains, little lake and surrounding rising mountains Ruminahui and Ilinizas, among others. In short, totally sweet, though somewhat chilly. We arrived at the Refugio in time to eat late lunch and then scamper about on the lava rocks, entranced by the sunset. We sawa a lobo de paramo (kind of like a big fox) too which was fun. We struggled to sleep as much as possible before we all awakened at 11:30pm to don woolly pants, wind pants, various undershirts and overshirts, fleece, wind breaker, beanie, gloves, other gloves, big mittens and clunky hiking boots, all provided by the company (except the various shirts.) After some hot tea, we started the climb. Dylan, Zack and I were attached to one guide, Sarah and Susan to another. When I say "attached" I mean we were all connected by a rope as soon as we hit the icy snow... or was it snowy ice? Whatever it was, I found myself struggling to control my heavy, booted and now crampon-attached feet as we climbed steadily upwards. It was steep. I was in pain. That is generally all I remember, but for the rhythm of "ice pick, step 1, step 2" keeping me focused repetitively onwards. I was exhausted, and from Dylan pulling the rope behind me I could tell the guys werent doing much better, it was all I could do keep up with the guide, Fausto. We climbed and climbed but the breaks were getting longer and closer between. When we stopped I wanted to keep going because I got extremely cold, extremely fast, but when we kept moving I wanted to stop because I got extremely tired, extremely fast. At some point we paused and momentarily Dylan started vomiting. Things weren´t looking too good. Susan and Sarah caught up with us around then and after the intra-hiker-guide conversation, I found myself linked to the girls´rope stumbling forward yet again as Fausto tried to reach a decision about whether the boys can keep going or not.
As we leave them behind, the new slower pace helps me out along with the fact that my headlamp slips down over my eyes so I can barely see, meaning I don´t have to look at how ridiculously steep the mountainface actually is. "Cinco minutos, cinco minutos" our guide keeps saying. I concentrate on putting one foot in front of another guided by the rope I can barely see in front of me. It´s more like 30 minutes, not 5, before we make a break, but at that point we have broken clear to a slightly more flattened part - and is it not absolutely beautiful, nestled amongst ice boulders, the sun rising at our side, far above the plains, the lava rock, Quito in the distance. Zack appears after a few minutes, trailing an unfamiliar guide and we all cheer. Fausto had to take Dylan down, but luckily Zack was able to make it this far. Slowly we start again. Susan and Sarah are pretty tired, but we beast onwards. The going soon gets tougher again and Sarah occasionally makes comments about feeling lightheaded. I am feeling fine, but the combination of altitude and exhaustion is catching up to my companions. Whenever we stop Sarah falls asleep and Susan claims that she feels not only dizzy but as if the wind might blow her off the side of the iceface we are climbing. Then at some point she collapses as we are trekking along. We wait, she recuperates, we go on, we get tired, we recuperate, my crampons keep coming undone, the summit is in sight but still high above us. Around the time that our guide realises that we can´t make it all the way up, Zack returns from in front of us saying that he can´t keep going up the steep final ascent and still expect to have energy left for the return. I´m the only one who isn´t feeling thoroughly beaten (though kind of roughed up), but with only one guide the only thing we can do is give up. For safety´s sake, he argues to me, he can´t let me go the rest of the 300m up even though I can tell exactly where I would have to go. It´s getting late and we need to start heading back soon anyway. We are glad we made it this far for sure, and to me, the vistas make up for the disappointment. We stumble the whole way down, drifting into sleep the moment we stop and sit for a moment. I keep tripping over my boots and sliding partway down on my back. When we reach the refugio, everyone else joins Dylan on the beds and passes out. I pack my stuff since the exhaustion apparently hasn´t hit yet, then go in search of food.
Quotes from the ride down:
Susan: That was the most exhausting thing I have ever had to do, mentally, physically, emotionally; I have so much more respect for mountain climbers now. The whole time I was wishing I was on a kayak.
Zach: I hate that F-ing Mountain!
Dylan: Climbing Cotopaxi was like getting drunk - I spent a lot of money, I threw up, I don´t remember what happened, and now I feel hungover.
Elsita: ..... (passed out on Fausto´s shoulder)
But no worries, that night, Susan, Zack and I take an overnight bus to Guayaquil and from there to Montañita, a little tourist town on the coast. We meet up with Katie and Katie and spend the next day sleeping on the sandy beach, getting sunburnt, swimming in the ocean and burying a dog in the sand. Though the town is a blatant tourist trap and probably half of the people staying there do drugs, I enjoy the chance to relax in the sun and get free surf lessons from the owner of our hostel (read, we had to pay to rent the boards), as well as eat huge breakfasts. As Zack put it, "that´s really how amazing Ecuador is, one day your on top of Cotopaxi, 5000m up and barely breathing, and the next day you´re sunning at the beach".
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