I'm a little moutain goat

On Tuesday morning we ate breakfast and got into our MASSIVE merceds benz van that you could play table tennis in. It was a 16 seat van for 5 people and a driver. So very roomy lol. Tyson was feeling somewhat better and we were driving most of the day anyways. We started on the Pan-american highway also called the "Volcano highway" because it is said on a clear day in Quito (I would like to see that ever happen!.. its always cloudy!) you can see 50 volcanoes (I say 10, Tyson says 50 i think he is making it up!) Anyways it was cloudy so we could only see a couple not the very big ones.

We drove through Latacunga and started up the south side of the Quilotoa loop and got out a places that we wanted to take photos and along the way there was this little village boy who asked us if we wanted to see his house and family. We knew he wanted money but we were interested anyways. So we got out and went to see his family and home. His family consisted of 3 younger sisters, an older brother and sister, and his mom and dad and his grandma who kept picking up the noisy rooster and petting it and telling it to shhhh.. like it was a family pet. There was a big sow (pig) at the back of the house and a dog who looked like Benji the dog all white and matted. There where also chickens kicking around. The house was made out of dirt cut into the side of the hill with a thatched roof. It was very small inside, Tyson says it was bigger than a Yurt but i disagree. Inside they cooked on a open fire and a propane stove. They slept on the floor with blankets and hay and there was some stuffed animals for the kids. They had a bunch of random stuff. But it looked like it would be a hard life to be a farmer as it gets cold in the Andes and no heat except a fire and there is no trees for firewood so there would not be a lot of fire happening.

After many photos we said we were only going to give them 3 dollars total, but we ended up giving them 3 dollars each as there hands were all over us. The children especially.
Once we left we could see they were sorting out who got what portion of the money most of it went to the dad. We continued driving all the way up until we got to this place that our Guide Carlos who was also our driver and the owner of our hostel in Quito said Tourists have said that this spot looks like Maccu Picchu (sp?). It will be neat to compare photos of Miriams travels to Peru to see how similar Ecuadors landscape is.

After driving for an hour or so more we stopped at Laguna Quilotoa where we had a sketchy lunch of cold rice and semi warm quina soup. All i could think about was stupid food safety class when they said you shouldnt eat cold rice. I had 2 bites just so i woulnt be starving when we started to hike. After lunch we decended down to the Laguna. It was cloudy as usual and it was a big active volcano crater with a lake at the bottom. It hasnt erupted anytime recently but it did have sulphour dioxide bubbling through the lake. There was also a man playing the trumpet and we could hear him as we were walking down which was cool. The walk down was easy peasy... but you know when you go down you gotta go back up! Leann tried the mans trumpet as he offered it to her... she was decent since she hasn't played the troumbone in 7 years or so. You could buy a donkey to ride back up but since we are a family of mountain goats and cheap we hiked the grueling way up to the top.

It was a hard hike up. Very steep and Tyson had no energy and he struggled, and Marilyn was so fast that I was determined to keep up to her! We both finished first (not that its a competition! ) but i had massive cold sweats after from being all sweaty and not getting a shower after, and i was shaky from not eating very much lunch. There were stalls selling village alpaca and wool toques, sweaters, and scraves and we walked around a bit before picking up a couple things.

We stopped at a smalls store that had very little to offer for snacks but we found crackers and cookies, and animal cookies that tasted better than we thought they would! We drove on a very bumpy dirt road that would have been better if we had a 4wheel drive vehicale and some of the drop offs were scary... shh mom were fine! We drove for about an hour and bit to a small town called Chugchilan where the town was a size of a pea. There was a main square that had 2 volleyball courts and a church. There were 3 hostals. We stayed at Cloud Forest I was freezing and so we chose a room with a fireplace in it. An old wooden stove one and it kept us toasty warm but the beds were gross and our light in our bathroom didnt work all that well, and we couldnt figure out how to get hot water. After resting for awhile we went back to watch some volleyball in the main square before dinner. While there we saw a bunch of girls getting all dressed up in what looked like costumes. We thought they were going to be rehearsing somewhere for a Easter dance/show. We joked about following them. The volleyball is played three on three with a soccer ball, and I think nets that are higher than normal. None of the players are tall enough to spike, and since they use such a heavy hard ball, they carry a lot. But they are amazing at one handed digs (as diving was a no-no on the cement court) and one handed sets.

We returned to our hotel at 7pm, and decided to wait in the common area before dinner at 7:30. Good for us, becuase that is where the little girls showed up to, and they put on a dance show. There was lots of problems with the CD boombox, but eventually they got going. They did three dances, the first just dancing around, the second with a pole which had fabric tied onto the top. They danced around and weaved the fabric around the pole in different ways as they danced around. What was more amazing was that after they had weaved all the fabic into a patten, they switched directions and undid the entire process. The third dance was an audiance participation. We all got up and danced along and were very tired by the end, as the CD kept stopping, so we'd start at the beginning again. We were all ready for dinner after the jumping dance.

Dinner was salty. Soup first as usual, I am getting sick of eating soup at every meal. Then the main course of cold rice, a sasauge type thing, and a plantane type thing. I don't know, I (tyson) still didn't have much of an appiete. The dessert was good, a chocolate filled pastry.

The next day the original plan was to walk all the way around the Laguna Quilotoa crater, but nobody was interested in walking around something we just walked down and back up. So we arranged for a local guide to take us to the cloud forest from Chugchilan. So we headed up from the village up the old Inca trail that was used to get to the coast. The guide would stop every once and a while to show some local medicinal plants or herbs. One was for stomach, the other for the back, the other for the nevous system, one for colds, and so on. To me (tyson) they either smelt like beans or mint. The others said they had distinct smells, but I don't know. We hiked up and up. It is crazy that as we reached 4000 meters above sea level there was still farms growing corn, beans, wheat, potatoes (not doing so well this year) and lot of onions. Nothing grows at that elevation in Canada. I guess that is the benefit of having no winter. The fields are not terraced at all, and sit at about at a 45 degree angle, and the soil is quite sandy. Not easy farming by any means, as most of it is worked by hand. We got to the top of the hill where it is said you can see the Pacific Ocean and the Coast but it was as usual cloudy! So we saw blue far ahead and the guide said the Ocean was only 100km away but we had our doubts. We pretended that the blue was the ocean. From the hill we descended into the Cloud Forest. Marilyn was itching to get into the National Park , I (Sara) was itching to be done the hike.

Cloud Forest has some pine trees, lichen, moss, a very moist place. Reminded Tyson of the West Coast forest but not so tall of trees. We only walked in the Park for like 10 minutes max and then we came back out. It was getting late and it was too late to go to the Cheese Factory and our guide Banardo had brought us some very stall buns to eat that he wanted to give to us at the cheese factory so we could have cheese on it. Oh well we just ate plain buns. We decided to make our way back so we wouldnt have to drive in the dark... which we ended up doing anyways.. more about that in a minute. We walked back, most of it down hill until we got to the road and then we had to climb the gravel road back up to the town. We were all tired and hungry and sweaty. We said thank you to Bernado as this is the third guide we have had on this journey that has been so knowledgable and kind. To me it just seems that people here are more connected to thier natural sourroundings then in Canada but maybe we just lucked out on really great guides. We gave him more tip than he asked for because he was so good. We had lunch of french fries and chicken and those tasty little pastry filled chocolate things. Lunch was actually pretty good, we had soup of course to begin with. For the record for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and the room and drinks, it came to 32 US dollars for 2 people.

After lunch we loaded up the benz and went back the same way we came our original plan was to stay the night in Latacunga but Carlos was worried where he would park his benz as I guess it would not have been safe there and he wanted to get us to Cotopaxi Volcano early in the morning hoping the views would be better. So we drove longer in the dark, we were all getting tired of driving we played many driving games. Such as, lets name all 50 states, lets name all European countries, "I am going on a camping trip and i am going to bring...." No you cant come! "My aunt Sally" and Tysons own version called "my aunt frank... " we were getting fed up with eachother when we couldnt figure out the pattern of the games we made up. At around 7:30 we got to this place that was 15 minutes from Latacunga called La Posada de Rey it was quite fancy we were all worried about how much the place would cost as Tysona and I ran out of money and had to borrow from mini bank Leann! The rooms were really nice with fireplaces (nicer than the Cloud Forest Hotel) and the comfiest beds in all of Ecuador and a hot shower (well we did, no one else did?) We all had pasta for dinner and it was massive and we had french fries too but didnt need them. Tyson and I also watched the ending of Americas next top model in Spanish while waiting for dinner. Tyra banks still sounds the same in Spanish.. just as annoying. We even knew which girl she was going to kick off by her facial expressions you dont even need to know what she is saying. Anyways!

Leann and us had our fire places lit and then we all went to bed as we had one more day of hiking left. The next morning we had a very thin breakfast of toast.. i was super excited for TOAST! But that was all we got... i was starving. I had to eat the crackers we bought the day before to supplement the lack of food. We then drove to a gas station where we switched our benz for a Mistibushi 4wheel SUV. It was sweet. I wanted it. There was two seats in the trunk and it had all sorts of gadgets and it would be a fun vehical to have. Tyson says if i was going off roading i could get it.. but i said it was style i was looking for. The guide we had for the park was Carlos as well we called him Carlos duex. We drove for like an hour and a half to the lagoon which was kind of boring.. not like the lagoons in Galapagos its not as fun when you cant be 2feet away from the wildlife. After walking for like 10 minutes we hopped back on the red SUV and continued our way up and up, and up to 4500meters and the parking lot. We got out and got ready for our climb first up to the Refuge and then up to the Glacier. The climb us was strenuous with the altitude and the steepness. It took us 30 minutes where as it usually takes people 45 minutes Carlos one said we were very strong fast hikers. There was snow on the ground and when we got to the Refuge at 4800meters I made a small snowman. We took a 10 minute break before we ascended up to the glacier. We were the first ones up that day as there was no trail broken for us. It took us about 15 minutes to get to the top where the altitude was 5019meters above sea level. We all had a tiny bit of headaches, Peter had the worse as he gets really bad migranes. We stayed at the top and cracked open a bag of Ripples Sour creme and onion chips. They tasted so good as we were all a little shaky. We took our photos and Tyson wanted to of course keep going up but we would need Crampons, ice axes, and ropes so it wasn't possible that day. (That is right Sara, we'll have to climb it someday, it is only 5 hours from there to the summit at 5897 meters the second highest volcano in Ecuador.

We descended down and it tooks us very little time. We wanted to hang out in the Refuge place for a bit but it was overtaken by a group of highschool kids who were loud and obnoxious as highschool students are. So we decided to keep going down after a 5 minute water and snack break. It took us no time to get down as it was soft sandy dirt so you could almost run down. We saw a fox on the way down.

After we were in the vehical I had a massive headache. It went away once we started going down though and once i drank more water. Peter however got worse. He wasnt feeling well the whole night. We were all quiet the ride back to Quito was about 2 hours or less. We asked Carlos to drop us off at a mall where this store called Marathon sports was located so we could find soccer jerseys. The mall was big and nice like any fancy mall. The prices were the same too as in Cananda, except the soccer jerseys were good prices. I couldnt find any small jerseys that were nicer fitting, so Tyson got one that he said i could borrow sometimes. We were all tired, and we couldnt get any money out of the banks as it seems only one bank in Quito will give us money. So we borrowed from mini bank Leann again. We had a small snack at the food court, Marilyn, Leann and I had cinnamon buns from Cinabon which tasted nothing like cinnamon more like chocolate bun, it was still good. Tyson had what he thought was a cheese bun but it turned out to be sweet in the middle with 2 raisons but cheese like on the outside.. wierd. He then had icecream. Carlos picked us up and we went back to the hostel to shower and check internet and get ready for dinner.

Peter didnt come to dinner as his head was that bad, so we went back to El Maples hoping for a good meal again. We were kind of disappointed as the spaghetti didnt taste as good as the last time, they were out of 3 things we tried to order. But the samosas were good and the avacado was good too. We tried to explain to the waiter we wanted nachos with no salsa just cheese and gucamole, but he didnt get it... the nachos turned to be soggy again. We then came back and went to bed.

Today we slept in a bit and got ready for the Good Friday Procession in Old Town Quito. We left the hostel at 9:30 and took the packed trolly down to the square. We arrived at about 10:15 and the procession started at 11. The parade route was already starting to fill up. At 11am the procession began. We got some spots on the sidewalk but our bums throught the procession got really sore and Marilyn is claustrophobic in large crowds so she wasnt enjoying it all that much. The procession was a little scary, men carrying huge wooden crosses like Jesus did, and dragging them through the street some men had big metal chains around thier ankles, and some even had barbwire wrapped around thier chest area, and others where whipping themselves with branches you could see the red marks on thier backs. There was alot of people dressed up in purple robes with pointy hoods that covered thier face and two holes for eyes it looked like the Kuklux Clan but it wasnt meant to be in that way we are sure, I think it was back to the Gothic age of Catholicism. But that was the whole parade, people dressed in purple robes, tons of men carrying crosses, people whipping themselves, marching bands, and 3 floats that had a virgin mary, 2 Jesus' at the end. The whole procession took 2 hours and the sun came out and it became hot.

Once it was over we decided to go out of the way to put some sunscreen on and then make our way to a lunch spot we had eaten the first day we were in Quito. However a terrible thing happened as we crossed the parade route through the MASSIVE crowd (probably about half a million people where there to watch) Leann was pickpocketed. She didnt realize it until we got out of the crowd and i could hear her swearing. We got some open space and she looked in all her pockets and backpack.. but nope her wallet was gone. It had her debit card, her visa and 100 bucks. My backpocket zipper was also open but i had nothing in my pants at all but I still felt violated that someone could have stolen something out of there. Leann was pretty shooken up as one would be. She was just happy that they didnt take anything out of her backpack which contained her camera, ipod and passport. I now have her passport in with mine in my money pouch which i wear on me under my clothes at all times. We decided after lunch that we would come back to the hostel so she could cancel all her cards to make sure no one could charge to them. But it was still shitty. At lunch we didnt get the soup we wanted as they said they were out so we got empanadas and a different soup which wasnt that good. Then as we were walking out I spotted some tourists eating the soup I wanted and I asked hey what kind of soup is that? To which they replied the first one on the board which is the one we wanted pototo and avacado i was so mad because they must have just made a new fresh batch and we didnt get any :(. NO SOUP FOR YOU! Sienfield...

On the way back to the hostel we found a bakery and we all got a little treat after going around in a circle twice on the trolly... we were confused but so where a lot of other people. Its been a relaxing day for the most part and tomorrow morning we are getting up early to take the bus to Otavalo for the morning/afternoon and then taking it back to Quito. We just want to go to the big Saturday Market that is supposed to be good for souviners, so hopefully it is because we dont really have anything for anyone or ourselves yet.

Well there you go all caught up.. we will spend Sunday in Quito around old town.
Monday night we leave Quito for Atlanta and arrive back in Edmonton on Tuesday afternoon.

Adios Amigos
Sara and Tyson