Quito 17-21.9

Top left-right:

Rucu Pichinca (4800 meters), Cartrouble on the way to Vulcan Cotopaxi, Mmm, cuy (Guinea-Pig).

The first day in Quito I walked from the new town to the old town. The old town is a UNESCO world heritage site with lots of building from the colonial times. I stayed at a hostel called L`Auberge Inn witch is situated between the new and the old town. Quito is about 3000 meters above sea level, so I tried to take it easy the first days, not too much activities. But the third day, I couldn`t wait any longer to get into the mounteins. I signed up for this mountainbike-tour at Cotopaxi. Cotopaxi is the second highest mountain (and an sleeping vulcano) in Ecuador, at ca. 5800 m. The guide took us to the up to the rifugio/hut at 4800 meters. We had to stop for catching up our breath all of the time. From the hut we were going further to check out a glacier. But some lightening/thunder and hagel made us turn around. Anyway, the bikeride down the mountain was great fun and the views were spectacular, even with almost abscence of breaks. The next day I went hiking on another mountain near Quito. There is a cabel transport (Teleferiqo) up to 4100 meters and from there you can walk up to Rucu Pichincha, witch is at 4700 meters. This second day of hiking I felt that my body could manage the altitude better. It was alot of clouds on the top, so I couldn´t enjoy the great view that this mountain might have.

It´s really important to get up early in Quito, because early in the afternoon the clouds start rolling in. This often result in thunder up in the mountains. 3 guys were killed by lightening on this top (Rucu P.) earlier this year.

Down in Quito I felt the headache coming, witch is natural when you´re not used to the altitude. It also started pouring down and lightening was striking all over Quito, so I guess I made it beck from the mountain just in time. I only felt sorry for all the guys I met going up when I was going down.

On sunday I decided to take it more easy since I was sick of this headache. I had a late breakfast in the old town and later had a coffee and a great view of the city from cafe mosaico. I was going to check out Quitofest (a large festival with local music) in a parc nearby, but the ques were milelong and I was a littlebit afraid of getting robbed.