At night we arrived at an Israeli hostel in Banos. The hostel is great! It includes a good breakfast with 3 choices which were never provided before, a free internet, a bunch of good movies, a pool table, tv in the room and private bathrooms with hot water ! What more can we ask for? And because we have a card of minihostel network, we get 10% discount on top !
Banos is nice ! It's a little 12,000 people town situated between tall mountains and beside an active volcano. It's an extreme sports town, and so it's always boiling with tourists. There are not that many tourists now however because apparently the volcano is not considered to be safe. A few times we saw an eruption but through the clouds, and a few times at night I heard the windows shake. In 2008 the city won the best evacuation and safety award from all the cities in the world beside the volcanoes. They have 3 safety zones, warehouses with enough food for 4 days, 12 different alarm systems, different signs on the roads, some for traffic and some for evacuation routes. The people don't want to evacuate more though, because in 1999 there was a 3 month evacuation and the military was in town securing it, but instead of securing it, they started to rob all the houses. We heard some stories of people who were there. One guy went up on another mountain and lived there for 3 months in a tent. He has amazing pictures of the volcano erupting. He said he saw some 40 by 40 meter rock which flew vertically up, and then back into the crater splashing lava all around it. The volcanologists (or whatever they're called) said that the rocks flew up 5 kms up from the crater. There was not much lava though, just rocks, and the guy said that 4 months later they were still hot. He also said that there were some electric storms and the whole place was like one big discotheque :) And that the biggest danger is not the lava or rocks, it's some fumes that go down a 5000 meter mountain in 3.5 seconds that are 700 degree Celsius, and they just destroys everything they touch.
So after 5 hours in the bus, we were told that in 10 minutes there is a bus that goes to the view point from where we can see the volcano and it's eruptions! Of course we go ! Midway there, we start asking ourselves, why after spending the whole day in the bus we voluntarily agreed to get on the bus again?!? Anyway, got there, it's cold !!! It's dark, and can't see anything. I asked the guide where to look to, he pointed a direction, and there is nothing there. Everything is hidden in clouds, so we stood there for an hour, and saw 1 red dot go up and down!!! Got back to the hostel and asked the owner "what's up with that trip recommendation, and that we only saw 1 dot", and he said that it's more than most people see ! Great! what a rip off !!!
In the morning we went to hire a motorcycle for Rico and ATV for Eva and me. Going off to the waterfall road tour. There is a pictorial road on which we drive surrounded by mountains, forests and waterfalls. We drive on it, and on the way stop at 5 different places to watch or to hike to the waterfalls. We just started driving, and I couldn't feel my thumb (that's the way to press the accelerator). There were times where I turned my hand upside down and pressed it with the palm, or even stirred the ATV with the right hand and pushed the accelerator with the left :) So we're driving, and we get into the tunnel, we have lights, but lights or no lights, there is no difference, they don't help ! The tunnel is short and there is enough light to pass it. Arrive at the next tunnel, and I forgot that we're supposed to take a side road around it, and went into it. Um .... it's pitch black! I can't see at all where I'm driving. Sometimes I get a glimpse of the wall, and it feels good because I know that I'm not going in it. Driving super slow, trying to guess the direction in which I'm going. Oh, I see the light approaching, it's a truck. BEEEEPPPPPP !!!!! OOpppssss, I'm driving on the wrong side of the road! But there is light right now, so push the accelerator till maximum speed to get maximum distance with the light of the truck. It was fun ! Although later I heard from a crazy guy who does crazy stuff all the time, that I was crazy to get into the tunnel! :)) We just passed the tunnel and there was a bridge, with people jumping off the bridge !! Whoohooo a swing jump !!!! Rico and me right away got super excited and decided to jump. It's a 35 meter fall, and at the bottom there is a river with trees. I looked down and my heart just stopped, OMG !!!! Huge adrenaline rush ! Rico jumped first. When it was my turn, the guy hooks you up and I'm supposed to stand on the railing. I get up and my legs get numb. The guy says, don't think, just jump. I will count to 3 and jump, if you'll keep on waiting it will get scarier and scarier. I'm holding on to him breathing very deeply trying to relax. Trying to listen to him, let go, don't think. Ok, arms up. 1 ... 2 ... my legs are getting more numb, 3 !!! OMG !!! what am I thinking that I'm doing???? But bent the legs to push off and just did it ! WOOOWWWW !!!!! Laughing, smiling, swinging !!! Can I do it again? Can I, can I !!??!!!! :)))))) I couldn't stop smiling for an hour later :))) Eva didn't jump, she said that she had enough adrenaline just by watching us jump :))) haha :)) Continued driving. Stopped at the waterfall for which we had to take a cable car, then cross a hanging bridge and go through a beautiful garden/restaurant to the waterfall. Another waterfall was a hike down for 10 minutes, and then we crawl through a set of caves and holes to get to the big devil waterfall, and they even built a stand to stand behind it. It wasn't too warm, so we didn't stand there for a long time :)I really enjoyed that day. It was fun driving around, beautiful scenery, hikes, caves. A complete day !
The next day we went rock climbing ! There are 4 routes to climb, so an hour for each one. I started climbing first. The first step was already to put one foot above the hip line. That route was supposed to be very easy. But there were a few times where I was shaking, standing on tiptoes trying to pull myself up, with no good rocks to hold on to, and 20 meters below of free fall ... Well with safety it's not really a fall, but still it's scary. A few times I was shouting to the guide to ask where to put my arms or my legs. 35 meters later, my arms and hands are too tired to do anything else. Good, now Eva and Rico are climbing so I have some time to relax... 2nd route is supposed to be a little bit more difficult, not too difficult. Alrighty then, I climb 2 meters up, and there is a completely smooth rock about 1 meter tall, 2 meters wide, with 1 cm of space to put the toe in, and almost a vertical wall on one side to put the other foot on, and push up, meanwhile have almost nothing to hold on to with the arms ... 10 minutes later, and I'm still struggling to get over it. Arms are not working anymore, I'm swinging side to side, everything slips, barely have any energy to push. Thinking just a little bit more and a bit higher, and I fall down :((( again and again and again, and each time it takes more energy because I have to grab to the rocks and pull myself closer to the wall... 10 minutes later, I asked the guide to take me down, very very disappointed :(((
Eva goes next, same thing. Just a bit more, just a bit more, swinging, trying, and nothing, she comes down :( Rico goes next, he got over it very easily ... I'm saying because he's taller he had more choices of rocks to grab :) But ! He got stuck just a few meters higher, struggling and struggling, and I remembered that our guide Paulo jumped at that place up and pulled himself up by the arms. Rico came down :( I'm next, I tried the same wall one more time unsuccessfully :( Then had a rest and decided to do the first wall again. But the problem with that, that there are 2 safeties connected to the wall. One on the left (for the 1st wall), and one higher more to the right (for the 2nd wall), and because I decided to do the 1st wall again, the left safety was already removed and only the one on the right securing me, that means that if I slip, I'm gonna fly very very far to the right. So Paulo warned me to be very careful, and if I fall then to be very alert and push with both arms and legs against the wall which I'll be flying at. So I'm too tired trying and trying to climb and bam I slip at the 2nd meter and flyyyy woooppyyyyy ... nothing happened, and it was fun ! :) Now I'm really upset. I just did 1 wall, 2nd not even, and don't have enough energy to do the most basic one :( And that's the last time ... soooo ... the rope stopped me right in front of the 2nd wall (because of the safety), and I asked Paulo to take me down. He asked "are you sure?" And NO, I'm not sure !!! I want to get over that wall !!! So assembling my last energy, I try again and again, slip and fall, again and again, and then I move my foot even more to the left (practically on a shpagat), and there are a few more rough rocks in there, but enough to give me good friction, and I pull myself up almost with a growl and getting over the damn rock !!!! YEEEAHHHH !!!!!!!!!!! Now, I saw Rico getting stuck in the middle, so I didn't even wanted to try that, I went to the left to finish the 1st wall. Paulo said that now it's more dangerous because of the safety, and climbed up to be beside me and help me with my moves. He said that he was so scared looking at me from above because he could see me shaking, and sometimes not holding the most stable or best rocks, and he thought that any minute I would fall and do that huge swing again ... but nope, no fall, made it all the way to the top !!! He said that I have a very strong head because I couldn't do the easy wall due to tiredness, and I overcame the second one ! That's the 2nd time I hear it (first time on the volcano), so I was very happy about that :) After the rock climbing it was again a problem to tie the shoes, in the office Eva wanted to write something, and the hands can't hold the pen :)) So in the evening we decided to go to the hot springs to calm our muscles. It was cool. 3 pools with cold, warm and very hot water, right beside a waterfall.
Next day we didn't want to do anything, so we went and all 3 of us got a massage :) In the evening we went with Paulo to a club. Every day he invited us to go see the volcano, but everyday it was cloudy :((
Next day it was raining, and we just went to the zoo. Walking in the rain, it wasn't too much fun, and most of the animals were hidden, but the coolest thing were some birds that were so colorful it was amazing ! I was never excited about seeing birds, and I never saw them, not on TV, not in movies, not on internet anywhere ! Also there was a cage with 2 big snakes, and we look at it, and there is a mouse running around ... oh oh ... dinner is served ! We stood beside that cage for like half an hour. It was so funny and scary at the same time. That mouse is so active, never stops running, and pushing the snake around. Then in climbed on top of it disturbing it, and the snake moved up annoyed, and all 3 of us started screaming !!! :)))) but nope, he didn't eat the mouse. Those are the laziest snakes I've ever seen. The mouse was practically at their mouths, and nothing :)
The next day Rico left :(( And Paulo invited us to go to some river. We went there on the bus, and a bus stopped by the waterfall with the beautiful garden. No garden and half the bridge is missing! :(( There is military all around, and people taking pictures. Apparently it rained so hard that the water lever rose and washed some of the houses on the top of the waterfall, and destroyed the whole bottom of it as well, 4 people have died :(((On the way, one of the tunnels was getting repaired so the bus took a side road. Holy it was scary, it can barely fit a whole bus, and there is no railing, and a 200 meter drop down. I looked down and I couldn't see the road :S
Oh, BANG !!! Sounds like thunder but it's not raining, oh ... it's the volcano erupting!
The restaurant was cool. From above you could see like 10 pools, and there is trout swimming there of different sizes. We were given a stick with a line and a hook and went to catch our own fish :) I didn't catch any :( Anyway, while the fish was cooking, we went to the river with small waterfalls. While there, such a strong rain started, it was so strong that all we could see is white and when we got to the restaurant, could barely hear each other from all the sound it made.In the evening we met Paulo in a bar which apparently his family owns. So drinks are free !! :)) We were constantly occupied with different games and different relatives :) That night we were invited to go canyoning, and possible bridge jump! Free of course ! :))
The next day we barely had anything to do in Banos, so we went to a town 1.5 hours away to watch some monkeys. We got there, and right away got attacked by monkeys. They jump on the head, stealing glasses, and trying to get the camera, chock you with their tails ! :))) So much activity, jumping from all the places :) There are 65 monkeys in there, they're so interactive, and so cute, so smart :) And then it started to rain, we sat down, and like 7 monkeys came to us, and hugged us, and crawled on our legs and arms and head and went to sleep. We were sitting there with smiles not coming out of our faces :) So we asked about volunteering opportunities, and they have them! So on Monday for 1 week we're gonna live with 65 monkeys in 1 house (since they're not allowed outside after 5), and the only place they're not allowed to be in are the bedrooms :)
In the evening, bar and free drinks again :)
The next day we went to a higher 100 meter tall bridge. Paulo asked me if I want to jump. Is that a question??? Of course I want to jump !!! :))) This time is was 3 times as high, but less scary, now I know that I just need to jump and not think :) Half an hour later a big group of tourists came ... YANNAAA !!! Go show them how to jump ! Oh again ?? I'm there !!! :))) When a big group comes, either one of the guides or somebody else jumps to show that it's safe :) They said that when they just built it, one of the guides was supposed to jump for other people, and he just stood there and stood there for like 10 minutes, oh shit, nope, can't do it ... again and again, and no, he didn't jump ! :)) After the bridge, Paulo took us canyoning. It was fun ! We got wetsuits, and jackets and shoes, and went down 5 waterfalls. In some of them we went beside them, and in some, right in them :) There was one where we were supposed to slide, and 1 where we just hang by the rope which is attached in the back, and Paulo takes us down a 85 degree hill :))At night we went to see the volcano again, but didn't see or hear anything :( There was some geeky guy there, who said that he did bungee jumping, and it was lovely ! "lovely" is that how you describe the most awesome, scary, adrenaline pumping feeling???? Well ... figures ... he's a programmer ! :))))
pix at http://picasaweb.google.com/ed4330/EcuadorBanos#
Monday, February 8, 2010
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Ecuador - Quito
Took a bus from Cali to the border in Equador. The bus went for 9 hours overnight, and I barely slept, because it was moving through the mountains, and everybody flew left to right. All of my things that I took on the bus also flew accross all the floor, and the little time I got to sleep, somebody managed to steal my book :( It's not like it matters so much, it's that I got so into it, and I was almost at the end, and I was sad that I wouldn't know the ending. Also, now I don't have a book for a book exchange. At the town near the border, I bordered a taxi with 2 more backpackers. The guy travels around the world as his job for 10 years. He wrote the only guide book in English about travelling through Ukraine !! And he knows Russian very well ! It was very cool to meet him. Now he travels from Washington to Antartica in 3 months only on buses, and he updates online website every 5 minutes with where he's at, who he met and what he does. I have no idea how he does it, he passed through Colombia only in 6 days, stoping in 2 cities, Cartagena and Bogota for 3 days, that means that he made a trip of 35 hours in buses in 3 days. But he said that buses have a life of their own, and he actually doesn't mind it at all. He's been to any place I mentioned, and he actually said that the beaches in Bermuda are the most beautiful beaches in the world ! :) The girl was kinda boring. She just travels to all the towns that have churches, and after a few minutes, I realized that I don't have much in common with her. From the border we took a mini bus to the main town, and from there another 5 hour bus to Quito. At Quito, 2 more buses and a taxi to get to the hostel. I arrived there at 4pm completely exhausted. Quito is a very nice, organized, beautiful green and modern city. It's at elevation 2800 meters, warm during the day, and cold during the night. All I've seen from it so far, just what I've seen from the bus window. Ecuador is cheaper and more modern than Colombia. The biggest difference is with bus prices. The bus from the border to Quito which took 5 hours only cost $4. In Colombia it would be around $15. Public buses in Colombia are 75 cents, and in Ecuador are from 5 to 25 cents.
When I arrived at the hostel, the receptionist told me that Eva is not there, she took some 2 day trip and will be back tomorrow evening. That's excatly what I needed. Misarable from the long trip, and now alone in the hostel, with nobody there. So I took some book, and read the most boring 300 pages in 5 hours non stop, just to stop thinking of everything that's going on. But on the bright side I found my book which was stolen from me on the internet, and downloaded it for free :) The next day, didn't want to do much either, so went to the big store, bought food, continued reading, and was waiting for the evening to come. Evening came, people started showing up in the hostel, everybody arrived but there is no Eva, I was waiting and waiting. Finally went to introduce myself to the other group of people. And one of the girls said, "oh, hi! My name is Eva" !!!!! $%&$#@%%$# !!!! Ahhhhhaaaaaa !!!!! Ok then, where is MY Eva??? I talked to them telling that I'm waiting for another Eva, and they said that apparantly there are 2 hostels in town with the same name. I sent Eva an email with the phone number of my hostel, but by that time she figured it out on her own, and came to visit me. She wrote in the email the "wrong" address of the hostel, because on the hostel card there are 2 phone numbers of the 2 hostels, but only 1 address, which is where I went to. All the people in my hostel only study spanish and then do Spanish homework. Some girl doesn't even go anywhere on the weekend, she said to get places it too far ... what???? we go places every day, no even talking about 2.5 days! oh well ... her decision.
In the morning I packed all my stuff and moved to the hostel where Eva is staying. Wow, what a difference. That hostel is in the middle of everything. So many shops, restaurants, night clubs, AND it's cheaper ! I got into the room, and it's like all their bags have exploded, stuff were almost hanging from the lamp :)
That day we went to a place where we could go for a hike. It's a little village 7 kms from the main road. We started walking, and midway got tired and hitch-hicked. It was so easy now, just walk and put up an arm. I remember the first time we tried to hitch-hike, I was so scared ... not anymore ! :) The first car stopped, and we happily got to the village. On the way to the hike, we saw ads for ziplines, so we changed our minds and bought the tickets. Although to the ziplines it was a 3km walk, so I guess we hiked anyway :) It was so weird that there were so many signs on the road leading to ziplines, and every sign had a different length, going from around 2800 meter to 3500 meters. The zip lines themselves weren't that exciting. Not like in Costa Rica. But again the ziplines in Costa Rica are considered to be the best in the world. Even here it said that the technology is from Costa Rica. What was cool though is that we were only 5 people, us and another couple who filmed every second of it, but we got to do many different things. There was one zip line where they bounced us up and down, another with super man pose where we lie down with legs wrapped around the guide, it's like flying, and the other one is butterfly where you're upside down with guide holding the legs on both sides of the wire. It was super cool !! :)) After that we went to some waterfalls with the couple, cause they had a car :) They were so quite, we tried talking to them, but only answers we got were yes or no. They didn't even talk to each other. The waterfalls were alright, I was so upset though because there was a 12 meter jump point, but it started raining, and I had a winter coat. I think I would've jumped anyway, but we didn't have a towel :( On the way back Eva asked if there are buses to Quito from the village, but the last bus has already left, and she got pointed to some guy who goes up. He gave us a ride in his truck all the way to some town from where the buses leave.
The next day we shopped around for the tour to the volcano climb - Cotopaxi, which is the highest active volcano in the world at 5900 meters. And that's it. Just some shopping for gloves and hats. Other than that took it easy.
The next day we were picked up at 9am from the hostel. Got to the national park, and just in there rode for 40 minutes until the volcano. The park had one of the most beautiful views I've ever seen. None of us could stop taking pictures :) Oh, now with clouds, now without clouds, from this angle and that angle :) The car stopped and we got out. We were supposed to go 1 hour to the refuge. We look and the house is right here, how can it be an hour??!?? Ok, lets go ! 1 step, 2 step, 3 step, 4 step, 5 step ... ahhh ahhh ahhh ... ook stop we need a break !!!! :) The elevation of that place is at 4800 meters. And what do you know, it did take us an hour to get up! My god it's cold in there! Right away we got served mini lunch of tea, bread, jam, popcorn. Everybody was breathing so heavily at the table. Got ready to go to the training. Half an hour later, we got to some ice, put on the spikes on the boots and were told to go up a 80 degree hill ... huhhh?? are you serious ??? but the spikes do keep you up. Rico even tip toed up with just the front spikes, without shoes even touching the ice. So we walked for 2 minutes and went back. When we got back we were served a huge lunch. Oh come on, We just ate ! Trust me, you need ALOT of energy, EAT ! ok, shoved it into us and went to sleep. It was 6pm, and wake up time is 11:30 pm. The hike is during the night because ice is not melting. We lied down, it's freezing, we can barely breath. With the head out of the sleeping bag is too cold (around -5), and with the head in the sleeping bag, not enough air ... grrrr ... Time to time you hear somebody gasping for air. During the lunch we were told to drink lots and lots of water to lessen the effect of altitude sickness, soooo we had to go to the washroom ALL THE TIME! And it's cooooold!!! We also had to take the coat off, because we had overalls. So coat off, and naked butt ... brrrrrrrrrrr !!!!! Anyway, during the night, nobody could sleep at all, I think it was because of the altitude. 6 hours later we were "woken up", given half an hour to get ready and eat. I couldn't put anything in my mouth, I started feeling sick right away. Rico and Eva were given 1 guide and I was with another guide by myself because I had a slower pace. We got out, and it's an hour until the glaciar. The view is beautiful !!!! It's pitch black outside, with a full moon, so the cap of the volcano and the clouds were almost like glowing bright white with everything around black! The pictures didn't turn out :( Soo ... I started walking, and I realized that I couldn't walk. Every 10 - 20 meters I had to stop and catch the air. I couldn't talk, and was just gasping for air. The guide told me and I have respiration problems, and the further we went, the more apparant it became. It was pretty much up all the way, but straight up. So when there was a stone or something, the size of a step, I stepped over it, and it took all the energy and all the breath out of me, and I had to wait for a minute to recuporate. The pace was pretty much like that, step (a small one about 10 cm), full deep breath, another step, another deep breath, and like that all the time. An hour later, and now every minute I'm thinking of going back. The guide was very understanding. He saw my condition, that I could barely stand while I was trying to breath and reminded me that life is more important, and it's ok if we'll go back, but if I can lets continue climbing. He said that he never saw anybody reacting that way, but that he's really proud of me and said that I have a very strong character ... and I actually never thought about it before, but then it hit me, I could never run, in the hikes I'm always behind, when I run up the stairs just 1 flight, I breath very heavily, and I went to the natural doctor in Cali, and she said that I have some problems with the lungs :((( On the way there, one guy went back because he started vomiting from altitude sickness. At one time I could barely stand, could bearly breath, there were stars in my eyes, and I felt my head getting light and blank. But every time had to go over that and push myself forward. We were walking so slow and stoping so much that the guide said he was never that cold in his life. I was freezing too, and at times couldn't feel my legs, or hands or lips. So my mission was to make it to the glaciar. 4 hours later and we're there. But I couldn't turn back just yet, I really really wanted to go on the ice. So we put on the spikes and started climbing. Everybody had to wear harnesses, and the guide attached a rope from him to the harness. When I just got on the snow, it was so scary, looking down, it was like a 45 degree hill with nothing holding me back but the rope !!! FREAKY !!! Ok, going up. In half an hour, the moon went down and the wind really picked up. I was freezing already all the time, but now it was unbearable. It was also more difficult to breath in such strong wind. Now we made even more frequent stops. But again, I didn't want to turn back, because I wanted to see the snow in the light. So 1.5 more hours! Going up and up, it is the most difficult, exhausting, challenging thing I did in my life. My nose was running, and every time I had to sniff, I missed a breath, and had to take more quicker breaths to catch up. There were times when I got so excited about finishing a piece of the mountain that I would take faster bigger steps, but 5 steps later, and now I need a 5 minute break. The guide would get worried and ask if I was ok, but I couldn't answer, couldn't nod, couldn't make any movement to indicate I was "ok". It's something like from movies when someone is drowning and then gets his head out of water, and breathing so fast and heavy and loud. During the walk, another guy went down because he was way too tired and said that he couldn't make 1 more step. At 5:30 I couldn't go up anymore, it was just way too cold. But I really wanted to see the mountain at light. So the guide said there is a cave nearby which will protect us from the wind, somehow I crawled there, with an axe supporting one side, and another arm on the snow. I had to stop 2 meters from the cave again for long time because I couldn't move further. We waited there until the sun came up. The cave was sooo beautiful. It was full of different ice structures and icicles, all in different shapes and sizes ... again, the pictures didn't turn out well. I was sooo shivering, the guide hugged me, and was rubbing me, my arms and my legs. Finally the sun came up. It was amazing outside, I could see the top and the crater very close, everything around below us was covered in clouds, and I could see picks of other volcanoes. Getting down was much much faster. And in an hour I was back in the refuge, in 2 hours Eva and Rico came back! That was one of the most amazing experiences of lifetime. Soo cool, so different and exciting, so challenging and rewarding. Right now 2 days later we all sit and think how did we even do it!?! Eva said she was almost crying, it was so physically and mentally challenging. Regardless of all the difficulties, this is definitely something that I would do again, no questions asked!
pix at http://picasaweb.google.com/ed4330/EcuadorQuito#
When I arrived at the hostel, the receptionist told me that Eva is not there, she took some 2 day trip and will be back tomorrow evening. That's excatly what I needed. Misarable from the long trip, and now alone in the hostel, with nobody there. So I took some book, and read the most boring 300 pages in 5 hours non stop, just to stop thinking of everything that's going on. But on the bright side I found my book which was stolen from me on the internet, and downloaded it for free :) The next day, didn't want to do much either, so went to the big store, bought food, continued reading, and was waiting for the evening to come. Evening came, people started showing up in the hostel, everybody arrived but there is no Eva, I was waiting and waiting. Finally went to introduce myself to the other group of people. And one of the girls said, "oh, hi! My name is Eva" !!!!! $%&$#@%%$# !!!! Ahhhhhaaaaaa !!!!! Ok then, where is MY Eva??? I talked to them telling that I'm waiting for another Eva, and they said that apparantly there are 2 hostels in town with the same name. I sent Eva an email with the phone number of my hostel, but by that time she figured it out on her own, and came to visit me. She wrote in the email the "wrong" address of the hostel, because on the hostel card there are 2 phone numbers of the 2 hostels, but only 1 address, which is where I went to. All the people in my hostel only study spanish and then do Spanish homework. Some girl doesn't even go anywhere on the weekend, she said to get places it too far ... what???? we go places every day, no even talking about 2.5 days! oh well ... her decision.
In the morning I packed all my stuff and moved to the hostel where Eva is staying. Wow, what a difference. That hostel is in the middle of everything. So many shops, restaurants, night clubs, AND it's cheaper ! I got into the room, and it's like all their bags have exploded, stuff were almost hanging from the lamp :)
That day we went to a place where we could go for a hike. It's a little village 7 kms from the main road. We started walking, and midway got tired and hitch-hicked. It was so easy now, just walk and put up an arm. I remember the first time we tried to hitch-hike, I was so scared ... not anymore ! :) The first car stopped, and we happily got to the village. On the way to the hike, we saw ads for ziplines, so we changed our minds and bought the tickets. Although to the ziplines it was a 3km walk, so I guess we hiked anyway :) It was so weird that there were so many signs on the road leading to ziplines, and every sign had a different length, going from around 2800 meter to 3500 meters. The zip lines themselves weren't that exciting. Not like in Costa Rica. But again the ziplines in Costa Rica are considered to be the best in the world. Even here it said that the technology is from Costa Rica. What was cool though is that we were only 5 people, us and another couple who filmed every second of it, but we got to do many different things. There was one zip line where they bounced us up and down, another with super man pose where we lie down with legs wrapped around the guide, it's like flying, and the other one is butterfly where you're upside down with guide holding the legs on both sides of the wire. It was super cool !! :)) After that we went to some waterfalls with the couple, cause they had a car :) They were so quite, we tried talking to them, but only answers we got were yes or no. They didn't even talk to each other. The waterfalls were alright, I was so upset though because there was a 12 meter jump point, but it started raining, and I had a winter coat. I think I would've jumped anyway, but we didn't have a towel :( On the way back Eva asked if there are buses to Quito from the village, but the last bus has already left, and she got pointed to some guy who goes up. He gave us a ride in his truck all the way to some town from where the buses leave.
The next day we shopped around for the tour to the volcano climb - Cotopaxi, which is the highest active volcano in the world at 5900 meters. And that's it. Just some shopping for gloves and hats. Other than that took it easy.
The next day we were picked up at 9am from the hostel. Got to the national park, and just in there rode for 40 minutes until the volcano. The park had one of the most beautiful views I've ever seen. None of us could stop taking pictures :) Oh, now with clouds, now without clouds, from this angle and that angle :) The car stopped and we got out. We were supposed to go 1 hour to the refuge. We look and the house is right here, how can it be an hour??!?? Ok, lets go ! 1 step, 2 step, 3 step, 4 step, 5 step ... ahhh ahhh ahhh ... ook stop we need a break !!!! :) The elevation of that place is at 4800 meters. And what do you know, it did take us an hour to get up! My god it's cold in there! Right away we got served mini lunch of tea, bread, jam, popcorn. Everybody was breathing so heavily at the table. Got ready to go to the training. Half an hour later, we got to some ice, put on the spikes on the boots and were told to go up a 80 degree hill ... huhhh?? are you serious ??? but the spikes do keep you up. Rico even tip toed up with just the front spikes, without shoes even touching the ice. So we walked for 2 minutes and went back. When we got back we were served a huge lunch. Oh come on, We just ate ! Trust me, you need ALOT of energy, EAT ! ok, shoved it into us and went to sleep. It was 6pm, and wake up time is 11:30 pm. The hike is during the night because ice is not melting. We lied down, it's freezing, we can barely breath. With the head out of the sleeping bag is too cold (around -5), and with the head in the sleeping bag, not enough air ... grrrr ... Time to time you hear somebody gasping for air. During the lunch we were told to drink lots and lots of water to lessen the effect of altitude sickness, soooo we had to go to the washroom ALL THE TIME! And it's cooooold!!! We also had to take the coat off, because we had overalls. So coat off, and naked butt ... brrrrrrrrrrr !!!!! Anyway, during the night, nobody could sleep at all, I think it was because of the altitude. 6 hours later we were "woken up", given half an hour to get ready and eat. I couldn't put anything in my mouth, I started feeling sick right away. Rico and Eva were given 1 guide and I was with another guide by myself because I had a slower pace. We got out, and it's an hour until the glaciar. The view is beautiful !!!! It's pitch black outside, with a full moon, so the cap of the volcano and the clouds were almost like glowing bright white with everything around black! The pictures didn't turn out :( Soo ... I started walking, and I realized that I couldn't walk. Every 10 - 20 meters I had to stop and catch the air. I couldn't talk, and was just gasping for air. The guide told me and I have respiration problems, and the further we went, the more apparant it became. It was pretty much up all the way, but straight up. So when there was a stone or something, the size of a step, I stepped over it, and it took all the energy and all the breath out of me, and I had to wait for a minute to recuporate. The pace was pretty much like that, step (a small one about 10 cm), full deep breath, another step, another deep breath, and like that all the time. An hour later, and now every minute I'm thinking of going back. The guide was very understanding. He saw my condition, that I could barely stand while I was trying to breath and reminded me that life is more important, and it's ok if we'll go back, but if I can lets continue climbing. He said that he never saw anybody reacting that way, but that he's really proud of me and said that I have a very strong character ... and I actually never thought about it before, but then it hit me, I could never run, in the hikes I'm always behind, when I run up the stairs just 1 flight, I breath very heavily, and I went to the natural doctor in Cali, and she said that I have some problems with the lungs :((( On the way there, one guy went back because he started vomiting from altitude sickness. At one time I could barely stand, could bearly breath, there were stars in my eyes, and I felt my head getting light and blank. But every time had to go over that and push myself forward. We were walking so slow and stoping so much that the guide said he was never that cold in his life. I was freezing too, and at times couldn't feel my legs, or hands or lips. So my mission was to make it to the glaciar. 4 hours later and we're there. But I couldn't turn back just yet, I really really wanted to go on the ice. So we put on the spikes and started climbing. Everybody had to wear harnesses, and the guide attached a rope from him to the harness. When I just got on the snow, it was so scary, looking down, it was like a 45 degree hill with nothing holding me back but the rope !!! FREAKY !!! Ok, going up. In half an hour, the moon went down and the wind really picked up. I was freezing already all the time, but now it was unbearable. It was also more difficult to breath in such strong wind. Now we made even more frequent stops. But again, I didn't want to turn back, because I wanted to see the snow in the light. So 1.5 more hours! Going up and up, it is the most difficult, exhausting, challenging thing I did in my life. My nose was running, and every time I had to sniff, I missed a breath, and had to take more quicker breaths to catch up. There were times when I got so excited about finishing a piece of the mountain that I would take faster bigger steps, but 5 steps later, and now I need a 5 minute break. The guide would get worried and ask if I was ok, but I couldn't answer, couldn't nod, couldn't make any movement to indicate I was "ok". It's something like from movies when someone is drowning and then gets his head out of water, and breathing so fast and heavy and loud. During the walk, another guy went down because he was way too tired and said that he couldn't make 1 more step. At 5:30 I couldn't go up anymore, it was just way too cold. But I really wanted to see the mountain at light. So the guide said there is a cave nearby which will protect us from the wind, somehow I crawled there, with an axe supporting one side, and another arm on the snow. I had to stop 2 meters from the cave again for long time because I couldn't move further. We waited there until the sun came up. The cave was sooo beautiful. It was full of different ice structures and icicles, all in different shapes and sizes ... again, the pictures didn't turn out well. I was sooo shivering, the guide hugged me, and was rubbing me, my arms and my legs. Finally the sun came up. It was amazing outside, I could see the top and the crater very close, everything around below us was covered in clouds, and I could see picks of other volcanoes. Getting down was much much faster. And in an hour I was back in the refuge, in 2 hours Eva and Rico came back! That was one of the most amazing experiences of lifetime. Soo cool, so different and exciting, so challenging and rewarding. Right now 2 days later we all sit and think how did we even do it!?! Eva said she was almost crying, it was so physically and mentally challenging. Regardless of all the difficulties, this is definitely something that I would do again, no questions asked!
pix at http://picasaweb.google.com/ed4330/EcuadorQuito#
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