Been a while since I´ve updated this! Had a very busy last couple of weeks here. Today is my last day in Ecuador, can´t quite believe it. These four months have flown by! After finishing my project in Intag, I came back to Quito in time to enjoy a little bit of the Quito fiestas, a celebration of Quito´s independence that culminates on the 6th of December. Wasn´t in Quito for the 6th but there was a lot going on that weekend before. Concerts, chivas (wooden party buses), bull fights (pretty expensive to go to, I didn´t), and lots of other events. Went to another fútbol game. On the 5th, our whole group reunited and went to a reserve called La Hesperia to do our project presentations. Very fun to see what everyone had been up to for the past month! Got back to Quito, wrapped up a few things, and then Saturday and Sunday a few friends and I tried to climb Cotopaxi, one of the highest active volcanoes in the world! We got up to the basecamp Saturday afternoon, greeted by lightning, thunder, and a snow storm! We ate and tried to sleep for a few hours before waking up at midnight to start hiking, and luckily the weather had cleared up by that time. Basecamp is at about 4800m (15,750 ft), and the summit is 5900m (19,350 ft). Quito is about 3100m, and just at basecamp you can feel the altitude effects - headache, lightheadedness, little nausea. Once we got hiking though I started to feel better. I had snowshoe-hiked once, but never used crampons and an ice axe! It was interesting. I had to breath really deep every step because there is much less oxygen up there. It was a really strange feeling. We were really optimistic and had been planning this trip since the beginning of the semester, but unfortunately we ended up having to turn back around 5400m (17,700 ft) due to dangerous snow conditions since it had snowed so much the night before. At that point a lot of the hikers had collected, and everyone was feeling pretty disappointed. We were definitely bummed, especially since we hadn´t gotten to see much of the mountain, just the range of the headlamp, since we were hiking at night. But I am glad that we didn´t have to turn back on account of our inability to handle the hiking! It was still an awesome experience. Highest altitude I´ve ever been by far! We returned to the basecamp, drank some tea, and waited til sunrise which was absolutely amazing. I am not on my laptop right now so I can´t post photos, but I will try to get some up here soon. It was unreal. Very clear morning, you could see a lot of other mountains as well as Quito in the distance. Would have been a perfect morning to summit and see the crater, but I am trying not to be too bummed about it!
After returning to Quito and napping a bit, we set off for the coast, since it is the one major part of Ecuador that we hadn´t visited yet. Got to a small surf town called Canoa. I tried surfing for the first time! It wasn´t pretty, but still fun. Got some bruises, and came close to standing up haha. Definitely not a natural. We were able to meet up with some other friends there which was nice! Stayed there a couple days then headed to Montañita, a bigger surfing town where they hold international surf competitions. Had to spend a night in Puerto Lopez, a fishing town, and in the morning we went to the beach to see the fish market and the boats coming in with their catches. Got to Montañita later that day and spent a few days relaxing on the beach. The ocean there is a little bit colder than at Canoa, but it is a really nice beach. Pretty touristy but still relaxing. Cloudy and a little rainy the first couple days, but yesterday, our last day there, was beautiful. Perfect day to end our trip!
Flying out tomorrow, crossing my fingers that the weather cooperates! Can´t quite wrap my head around leaving Ecuador, but I am very excited to come home! Probably will feel some reverse culture shock, and I have gotten so used to speaking Spanish that I´m sure I´ll be a little confused for a while!
I´ll try to get some more photos up soon
