Ruca Pichincha

I probably should be studying and not making another blog entry after the most recent one this past Saturday. However I can't help not telling the everyone about an incredible experience I had yesterday. Several students from the spanish school I have been studying at, and I, decided to hike up to one of the peaks of volcanos that surround Quito. The combined peaks are known as the Pichincha range, and the one we chose to hike up is known as Rucu Pichincha. The young English guy in our group assured us it was an easy ascent and I, not having a guide book or any other source of information, agreed to come along. We actually were greatly helped in our ascent by a new cable car that the Ecuadorian government has built called the teleferico. This brand new cable car took us from the floor of the city of Quito which is about 9,500 feet, up to 12,800 feet (according to the altimeter on my watch).


We began our trek along some gently sloping hills, gradually easing along with no idea of the trip we were about to undertake. Slowly but surely the nicely sloping hills turned into a steeper and steeper vertical challenge. This would not be thought of as particularly intense, but due to the altitude, the lack of oxygen made each step just a little more difficult.


Our grouped hiked along the ridge of a vast expanding sierra plain, with little more that the occasional bush to break the sea of tundra grass tufts. As we ascended higher, breaking 13,000 feet, the altitude began to really take its toll. The Ecuadorians don't believe in switchbacks, and so I would have to hike for 10 minutes only to rest for five. Remarkably once you stopped you quickly recovered as the the oxygen content of you blood climbed back up.


Two hours into the hike we reached the base of what could be described as the main peak; this is where it went from very steep to veritably vertical. By this time we were all somewhat fatigued, but persevered on.



The path wrapped around the back side of the mountain and timidly hugged the side of a 50 degree slope that at times dropped at least 1-2000 feet to your right before flattening out.



Now I was limited to 100 meter jaunts before I was completely out of breath. The pounding in the back of my head grew louder, and I could hear every beat of my heart as it resonated across my skull.


After about 45 minutes of this we reached the final pitch. Now about at 14, 600 feet, we were approaching the highest altitude in the whole lower 48, and we still had a little under 1,000 feet left to go. Now almost 3 hours into a very strenuous hike, I was more than a little fatigued. As I stared up at the last pitch I was a little disheartened; squinting against the sun I saw a 600 foot 45 degree slope of pure sand, banked by even steeper semi vertical boulders. After you got past the sand, it was all sharp rocks that led to a final scramble for the summit.


Digging foot steps into the sand, I tried not to think about the fact that if I slipped or fell, it would be a nice 1000 foot slide until it bottomed enough to stop myself (although by that time I would probably be unconscious and close to death). I could only go about 10 meters at a time before I had to stop for air, and by now the altitude made me feel like I had had about 4 or 5 beers, stumbling trying to put my foot in the right place. If you didn't stop to get air and get your oxygen levels back up, your vision would start to faintly dim and stars came out. I am sure there are those out there that have been much higher, but this is also the same altitude at which oxygen is mandatory for the cabin and crew of all unpressurized aircraft.


45 minutes later and 400 hundred feet higher we were at 15,000 feet and I was definitely having coordination issues. This is not a reassuring fact when I still had 400 feet left on the most exposed ridge on the mountain with a 1500 drop on one side and 2000 on the other. Clumsily I passed several people too illequipped to go further and scrambled up a pitch that was not actual rock climbing, but more that made up for this in the danger provided by the loose rocks and debris comprising foot and hand holds. And I was still having trouble coordinating my movements as my head now felt like one giant bubble about to burst.


And then rather suddenly it just flattend out. I was there! I had reached the top and felt dizzy just standing up staring out across the plains I had just conquered. 15,416 feet, the highest I had ever been, and higher that anywhere in the lower 48.




After a moment more I regained my composure and slowly made my way back down the crumbling rocks until I was back on the trail again 30 minutes later. While my coordination improved the lower I got, I now had a really killer headache that throbbed all the down, bad enough to throw up once or twice. I was assured that this was normal, and would go away by tomorrow!

Intrigued by the experience, I am going to look into other opportunities for some real mountaineering here in Ecuador!

Three weeks in, 9 more to go

Bird Study #1

Bird Study #2

One of the Main Squares on Old Quito

So because we won the pub quiz last week, we got a discounted meal at this local Vietnamese restaurant run by an Ecuadorian who lived in Louisiana for 10 years. Appetizers: 4 dollars, Entree: 8 dollars, 3 Drinks: 4 dollars, Total cost: 16 dollars, Living in a less developed county: a little cheaper

Bird Study #3

One Saturday later I am here with a status update. Still in Quito, and I have done nothing extremely exciting since last week, but who am I kidding; everyday here is exciting in its own way. I finished my third week of Spanish classes this past Thursday, and now I can carry on basic conversations with people to get the things I need. My basic routine was this: get up about 6:00, take a shower, eat breakfast with the rest of the family and Stewart, and then study till about 8:30 where I would walk down and grab the morning bus in from old town to the area where my classes are (about a 15 minute bus ride, 40 minute walk). Spanish classes would last from about 9:00 to 1:00 and then after 1:00 I would walk down to La Mariscal and catch a cheap lunch or almuerzo for about 1.50 somewhere at one of the countless lunchtime ¨restaurants¨ that that offer this service. I say the word restaurant hesitantly because most of these places are more akin to someone’s garage than what we would think of as a restaurant in the states. There will be a table, some plastic chairs around this table, and if you are lucky a plastic table cloth. There is no menu, but often a choice for beef or chicken for the main course(pollo o carne for the less knowledgable). The one dollar meal will consist of a thin soup (often with recognizable chicken body parts see earlier blog), followed by a main dish of meat, rice, and some kind of green. Juice and a desert accompany this setup. I say all of this only to reinforce that this will be pretty much exactly the same everywhere you go in Quito for one of your meals. If you want to eat other fare for lunch or dinner, there are plenty of options, but expect to pay 3 to 4 times more (4-5 dollars) for a nice meal, and 10-11 for a really, really nice (i.e. Bottega) meal.

After lunch I´d find a cafe somewhere and work on the computer for an hour or two, study for 2 or so, and go home for dinner (which I have with my family and Stewart every night).

So Stewart and I got booted from the Marine mansion last week in the middle of the Florida game, because apparently the guy who we were a guest of wasn’t allowed to have guests (got busted with his girlfriend last month). They just got a new sonofabitch CO that lives in the house and likes to enforce rules. But before I go on I have to tell you a little bit about this house. The house was built in the 1970s, BUT somewhere along the lines one of the Marines requisitioned 50 grand a year to pay for ¨house expenses¨ in addition to their own salaries, and a cook, maid, and Ecuadorian security guard (for 6 people). So they have a huge green backyard, the first one I’ve seen since I’ve been here, barbeque pit, and gym. They have a huge movie theater room, with stadium seating and plush red leather sofas as seats, and through the armed services they get new movies on DVD within two weeks of coming out in movie theaters in the states. They have a giant pool room, fully stocked-aged oak bar, dance floor, library/reading room, and industrial kitchen. I guarantee you they will never be stationed somewhere so nice for the rest of their lives.

Now that I’ve got that off my chest, I want to talk about shopping here. In Alabama I am used to having to go to a store just for what I need; if I need office supplies I go to the office supply store, if I need clothes i go to the one big clothes store, etc... Here there a very few chains and no large stores; there are not even areas just for shopping (bad zoning) just lots, tons, of tiny shops selling everything from motorcycles and washing machines, to just socks and beer. So finding exactly what you need can be kind of a hassle. You have to plan what you need probably a week in advance and keep this in the back of your mind the whole week while you walk past shops on you way to work, and then hope that you find what you need eventually. It is definitely a different way to doing business than I am used to.

After Stewart and I got kicked out of the Marine’s mansion last week we were stuck trying to find a spot to watch the Auburn game that came on later that night. (In hindsight I wish I had not spent so much time trying to watch a game that killed our chances of SEC championship) So we went to the fastest connection in town, this coffee shop in la mariscal, hooked up Stewart’s computer, and watched the game off of a technology known as sling box. One of Stewart’s friend’s has a machine hooked up to his cable television at home, and through a special program over the internet we were able to watch his cable television on a laptop computer in a small coffee shop with wireless internet in the middle of Quito, Ecuador. For three and a half hours we stared at the small screen, trying hard not to cheer too loudly in what I would describe as the worst atmosphere to watch the game. (Small quiet sophisticated chic coffee shop). In a strange series of events, the coffee shop was actually owned by a graduate of Ole Miss.

1.) The 25 cent bus that I take everyday gets absolutely packed, as do all the busses here during rush hour. The north to south layout of the city affords for some fantastic bottlenecking with traffic in a city that doesn’t quite have an integrated traffic net system. So yesterday afternoon I finally find a lamp that I need for my room (see point above on stores). And buy it only to realize as I walked out of the store that it was 4:00 pm on a Friday afternoon, and I had no way to get home sans bus. Nonetheless I persevered and rammed myself into the sea of people already on the bus as the doors opened. The trick is that you have to do this right before the doors close so that as the doors close behind you, they push you into the crowd without effort and there is nothing the people can do to stop you. Sitting there on the bus I am trying to make out the broken Spanish over the intercom as it calls out the stops. I manage to catch that my stop is out of order and the bus is going to go on past it (which would have been a 20 minute walk). I realize all this as the better previous stop is closing. I rush out through the doors as they close, but do not make it in time. As the doors come to a complete close, I have one foot, one arm, and a lamp outside the bus while the rest of my body remains inside the bus. The bus drivers starts out of the station while I try to hold onto my lamp that is hitting the street signs along the way outside of the bus. Eventually with the help of the people around me yelling puerta (door in spanish), I get the guy to stop and hop out unharmed except for a scratched lamp.

Till next week...

Merrill

Cold, High, and not a ski bum in Colorado

Yes, that is a goat tied up in the playground.

La Basilica de Quito

La Basilica otra vez

Mi Ciudad

This blog might or might not have any pictures depending on whether this Internet cafe allows it or not. Things are rolling along as usual here in Quito finishing my second week of Spanish classes. I'm trying to crank up the work load so that I will be conversable within three to four weeks time. We are now firmly entrenched in the rainy season here in Quito, what they call the ¨winter.¨ Every morning it is bright and sunny at about 68 degrees, which gradually increases to about 73 by mid-day. By 2 or 3 o´clock the sky has gone from a bright blue to a dark gray and a semi monsoonal rain drenches the city for about 3 hours, bringing it down to a chilly 50 degrees by night time, perfect for bundling up and crawling into bed.

I am not sure if it´s the pollution here or the home cooking, but the entire city seems to faintly smell like a campfire 24/7, which actually helps to bring back the fond memories of campfires as a kid on boyscout campouts.

The weather took its toll on me this past week and I came down with a massive sore throat followed by a cold which is still clinging through its last throes this weekend. I joined a group of ex-pats here in Quito called the ¨South American Explorers,¨ and they have a ¨club house¨ here, which is actually this very nice 100 year old 5,000 square foot house with a library, porches, free coffee, tea, and Internet, all for 50 bucks for the year. So one afternoon when I was feeling particularly bad from this cold I went over there, sat by a warm fire while the cold rain fell outside, drank tea, and watched a movie.

Despite the infirmity, Stewart and I managed to make it out Pub Quiz twice this week after work. Pub quiz is a two hour long event that several of the English style pubs here hold to cater to gringos (me and probably you reading this). Small groups from 3 to 5 people vie for the prize of a free pitcher of beer through several grueling rounds of trivia. We won the first night when one of the categories was serendipitously ¨anatomy¨ The question of the night was ¨how many bones are in the human hand?¨ Stewart quickly countered with ¨29¨ only to be shot down by the judge saying that there were 27. Stewart pointed out that the judge failed to include two commonly forgotten bones that are not entirely separated from the other bones but technically separate bones, and then offered to name each bone. The judge would have none of this back-talk and failed us on the question...

This afternoon were are going to try and watch the Auburn game in the only place in Quito that gets US television over the countless damn soccer games, the personal residence of the US Marines that man the Embassy here. Yes, somehow many years ago the US government bought a piece of property right in the heart of what is now the business district. Thirty story tall high rise buildings encumber this house that more closely approximates the playboy mansion than a barracks. And we will be there all afternoon watching AMURICUN football!

Blog points:
1.) Many of the busy intersections here with blind entrances here do not have stop signs, so what to drivers do? Stop anyway and look because no one has right of way? NO, they simply continue on at the same speed and honk there horn very loudly in the hopes that the other person will heed. This is all very amusing unless your room is right next to an intersection...

2.)The other night I walked by a chic bar in the tourist district in the pouring rain. There were several covered areas outside these bars, but occasionally there would be a gap between the covers, so what did they do? They went out and bought like 20 umbrellas to hang between the gaps...

3.)My teacher was explaining the seasons to me, and as I tried to figure out what each one was (she speaks no English) it occurred to me that she had written them: Summer, Winter, Fall, Spring¨ I corrected the order and showed them back to her. She just gave me this puzzled look and shrugged. THEN it dawned on me that they don´t have real seasons here, just rainy (winter) and not rainy (summer). She had no idea what the seasons were, just learned them from school...

4.)Everyone, and I mean every single bloody person here in Quito, has a stellar car alarm for their not so stellar car. They are the kind that cycle through like 20 different sounds, and are so sensitive that I myself have personally set off two by just leaning on cars waiting for the road to clear. There is not 15 minutes that goes by without hearing one. This is also amusing unless you are trying to sleep and they go off on the hour....

If you gotten this far, my new phone number is (011(us only)) 593 08-5385667, feel free to call me whenever you want, it about 40 cents a minute for you, just to warn you. You have to dial the American exit code first 011 and then the rest of the number.

Take Care,
Merrill

More fotos

Banos (cont.)

After returning from Banos last night on a long and hot 4 hour bus ride, I am now in Quito. The title of this entry is Banos, because as I learned this morning in class, the Spanish don't put "el" in front of their cities. So the last entry more closely meant "the bathroom" than the city of Banos (which is named for its therapeutic baths nonetheless).

So on our last day, Domingo (Sunday), we ponyed up 30 dollars to take a 4 hour horse ride up the side of a Volcano. Banos, as a few of the pictures will illuminate, is under a very active volcano. There was actually a small eruption a little over a year ago that killed 5 people while burning 50 more. Ever the more eager to get closer to it, the three scottish/american girls I have been traveling with and myself jumped onto some very fit horses that took us straight, and I mean straight up the side of this volcano. There were no switchbacks, and you had to learn forward to give your horse better balance so it wouldn't fall backwards. The closer we got to the top, all the trees and grass turned a muddy gray color, obviously from the dust that perpetually emanates from the mouth of this volcano. Closer to the top, the grass and trees disappeared, leaving behind a desolate wasteland more akin to mars than Ecuador. When we finally stopped, we were about 200 meters underneath a cloud of dust, and our guide informed us that it was too dangerous to go any further due to the thick volcanic ash that would compact in your lungs until you simply lacked the ability to breathe.

The other pictures I am going to put up are from a 4 hour hike we took on Friday around Banos and a bike ride on Saturday to see some amazing waterfalls. To whoever is reading this I hope you enjoy, and I am trying to set up a Picasa account so that I can put up more images as they come along. I'm trying to set up ahttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.photo.gifn international cell phone that is cheaper than my AT&T account right now, and when that comes I'll let you know!

Take Care!
Merrill

The View from my room in EL Banos

The View From my room in Qutio

EL BANOS!

So after a full week of Spanish classes in Quito, and seeing as Friday was a National holiday for I´m not sure quite what, we decided to go on a trip to a Town south of Quito about 2 hours by bus coach. El Banos is a vacation spot for many people in Quito and situated in the heart of the Andes. Its a couple thousand feet below Quito so its a good deal warmer. The town is located underneath a very active volcano that smokes all the time. El banos is known for its phenomenal hot springs and actually feels a lot like a ski town in Colorado, except with a lot, I mean a lot less money. We got in yesterday on a 4 hour coach bus to the tune of 3 dollars and are staying in a nice hostel for about 7 bucks a night. Last night we went to one of the local baths and its wasn´t exactly like a spa in the states (not that I have ever actually spent a good deal of time in spas). The public pools were a dark muddy brown and packed with people. I was assured that the color was from the minerals in the rocks where the water came out of, so we got in. Little did I know, but the water was so hot that after about 10 minutes in the bath I had what I would describe as a mild sunburn all over the lower half of my body. Today we rented bikes for 5 bucks and rode about 10 miles down the valley to check out the local waterfalls and swim in the pools. Tomorrow we are taking horses up the side of the volcano for 4 hours for 20 bucks and then back to get back to work in Quito, but it was a nice first weekend.

Points
1.) Stewart teaches me daily animal anatomy by the different parts of chickens we find in our soup for lunch. Today, and I am not kidding, we found a whole chicken foot, half of a head, and a heart (we actually counted the chambers).
2.) Seeing as it is a vacation weekend, most of the Quitoians that come down here don´t have cars to get around, so what do they do¿ ride bikes¿ no, walk¿ no, take cabs¿ no, they rent big four wheelers to ride down the streets all night, I mean it is literally a sea of these things, old people, young kids, everybody just cruisin.

Quito, Ecuador: The Top of the World

Well, Here I am In Quito, Ecuador! I finally arrived on Sunday night after a 6 hour flight. Quito, for those of you who don't know, is the capital city of the Ecuador with a population of about 2 million people. Situated high in the Andes at 9,500 feet this is perhaps the highest city I have ever been to. The town of about 2 million people is laid out lengthwise, similar to Manhattan, except that it is flanked by two massive mountains instead of water!

Just to give you an example of how high this place is, before I left my dad let me borrow a fancy watch that he has with an altimeter. As the pilot took off, he set the differential of the cabin pressure at about 6,000 feet while he cruised at 27,000 or so. Then when the plane began its descent into Quito, instead of lowering the pressure, he actually had to raise it further to local elevation!

Stewart Hill, my cousin, met me at the airport and gave me a ride to the apartment we're staying at, I could tell he was thrilled to see someone else from home, as he has been down in SA (South America for those in the know) for about 2 months. I stepped onto my plane in Birmingham, Alabama to a ¨nice¨ ambient temperature of about 80 degrees and 90% humidity. I arrived that night in Quito to a light drizzle and about 55 degrees. Thanks to the altitude, the city get downs to about 50 degrees every night, and then up to 75 degrees during the day. AND, because the city is right smack dab in the middle of the equator, there are absolutely no seasonal fluctuations in temperature. It does have a rainy season though, which began the day I arrived, and every afternoon it pours big heavy ecuadorian raindrops for about 2 hours.

The town is absolutely gorgeous! The population is predominantly descendant from the indigenous people that lived in mountains and down in the rain forest, as well as some Spaniard blood mixed in. Stewart and I live in a nice (or at least original) section of town called "old town," and most of the architecture dates back to colonial periods. This is actually the cheaper side of town with most of the development and business happening in "New Town" with a typical ugly (in my opinion) post-modern architecture.

I began Spanish classes yesterday, and enjoyed the look on my teacher's face when she asked how much Spanish I had, to which i replied "Nada." "NADA?" Ci, Nada. While regretting not taking Spanish in the states, to the tune of 80 dollars an hour in college, I am glad I am taking it here, where I get 4 uninterrupted hours of one on one instruction for about 16 dollars.

The city is a good degree cheaper than say traveling in Europe, although there is an area known as La Miscal, where all the gringos and ex-pats flock to spend outrageous prices of 10 dollars a meal.

Hopefully I´ll be able to get an international cell phone this weekend, which will make communications vastly cheaper back to the states. Cheers to all those back home and I hope to have some pics up as soon as I can find an Internet cafe that lets me plug in my camera!

Cheers,
Merrill