The last two days Bjarne and me have worked the neighbourhood as good as possible for thin air. The town itself is located around 2800 meter above sea level and just being here is good acclimatisation. But a good thing with Quito as a pre-climbing destination is that there is a gondola in town taking you up to 4100 meters. From this viewpoint you can get an additional 700 meters by a easy 2h hike to the summit of Cumbre Rucu Pichincha. We have now done this hike two days in a row and have been hanging out on the summit for a few hours working on our Spanish, listening to music, talking about life and just freezing in general.
But Quito is of course not only mountains; it’s a really cool city with very friendly people. In between our workouts we have been strolling the town, eating some good food an trying to get info about further transports south.
Tomorrow is a rest and travel day south to the higher mountains. It’s going to be exciting to see the big Ecuadorian lumps of snow, rock and ice but the weather doesn’t look very good. However I have found a window in the next few days, so if we are lucky we will get into what we came here for.
I’m very tired after the long journey and the last two days. Bjarne flew in one day before me and had time to sleep in, but I really feel the lack of sleep even though the body have been feeling incredibly well on altitude. Coming from sea level to 4800 meters can feel like a shock, but so far I haven’t even got any bad signs.
Now we are of for our last night in Quito. Bjarne is keen on samba; lets see where this is going!
First dinner in Equador
Bjarne in the gondola
"No bandidos aqui ahora" said the guard at the lift station while imitating being stabbed in the belly...
The first view of Cotopaxi and the real mountains in Ecuador
Gloria at www.hostalrabida.com giving us some well needed help
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