The Bus to Quito

It is supposed to be a 12 hour journey by road from Salinas to Quito. Our bus driver, who I believe must be related to Schumacher, made the trip in just under 9 hours, if you don't count the stop for security check and the stop for a bathroom break. It was a good thing it was night time, or I'm sure I would have had heart failure. Anyhow, we rolled into Quito at five AM on Monday morning, took a taxi to the hostel we had booked and dropped into bed for a few hours.

We had a welcome phone call from a Tetra Pak colleague who is now based in Ecuador and arranged to meet him for lunch. It was so nice to see Philippe again and catch up on old times and what he has been doing since he left Morocco. Since he has lived in Ecuador for just over a year norm ha was able to give us some really useful information, giving us the lay of the land and the key places to visit. With his help, together with a Lonely Planet book and the folks at the hostel, we have started to plan out our next two weeks.

Quito is at an altitude of 2,800 meters (9,300 feet) and when going to such an altitude it is wise to take it easy for the first day or so. Which we did. We had an early dinner and an early night.

Today, however, we both had itchy feet and needed to do something. So we took the gondola up to the volcano and went for a six hour hike. The gondola takes you up to 4,000 meters and you then hike the remaining 650 meters or about 5 kilometers there and back. Which is no small feat at that altitude. Some parts were so steep that it was all you could manage to take 20 steps before stopping to catch your breath and let your heart rate calm down a little. At least it was like that for this almost 55 year old slightly overweight and out of shape gal. The last big exercise that Jens and I had done was a canoe trip in Algonquin Park last summer.

It was a really spectacular day. The scenery was breathtaking. Even though it was physically challenging, it was a fantastic experience. We stopped on the way back for a nice cup of coffee before taking the gondola back down. There is something so rewarding about feeling completely exhausted, don't you agree?

So, now we have kicked off our Ecuadorian exploration. More to come! We will visit Cotopaxi, the cloud forest, and we are looking at a trip into the Amazon. Time now for a little shut eye, and let my legs and my lungs recuperate from today.

 

 

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