Quito was quite nice (for a city). Seemingly much nicer than hot and dirty Lima, although I loved Lima. Quito is at 2850 meters, so expect to feel the altitude at first. I spent about a week here trying to get acclimatized for the big climb up the 19,000 Cotopaxi Volcan.

Cotopaxi was a trip in itself. After slogging up to the refuge at 14,000 feet, we practiced roped glacier techniques, cooked up some hot dinner (mostly tea de coca for the altitude fatigue) then tried to sleep for a few hours,,,,  a couple hours later, at midnight, we started the long pre dawn climb towards the summit. At around 8 am, we were only 250 meters from the summit, but, weather and altitude sickness told us to wait for a better day. Sure enough, two days later I was down at sea level in the Galapagos Islands!  Cotopaxi was not to be. (I fell in a crevasse on the way down, but luckily the rope techniques paid off as they always do!)

Otavalo was kinda cool. Everyone goes to the market there on Saturday. I met Yfat, a very sweet Israeli girl there, and we traveled together, off and on, for several weeks, to the Galapagos, Columbia, etc.

Banos was real nice. Lots of great hotsprings.  I had a real good time, especially because of the small group of great folks I met there. They had a small bus, and they invited me to join them for a week or so.  We eventually made our way to Alausi, and the famous "Nariz de Diablo". This old train drops several thousand feet from the highlands down to the tropical lowlands via a series of crazy and rackety switch backs. Hundreds of peasants load all their goods aboard for the whiteknuckle ride. All the crazy foreigners ride up on top of the roof, even though there is really nothing to hold on to. This was one heck of a scary joyride!

After returning from the Galapagos, Yfat, Eric and I decided to take our chances and head into Columbia. We bought an airpass that gave us three flights, anywhere in the country, for $99.
Ecuador is a great place to visit for anyone who dares!

My other pages: