Our second day in Quito and day at the volcano

Hey Everyone-

Justin and I are doing well. We are adjusting to different things, such as how much a taxi ride should cost and how to throw our bags under a moving bus. Our second day in Quito was nice. We took a gondola ride up a mountain next to the city and got a view of how expansive it is and of the mountains surrounding the city. The gondola took us up from Quito´s 10,000 feet to 13,000. We have not experienced any bad altitude sickness, just some light-headedness and shortness of breath. We also walked around the old city and had our last dinner at the hostel. It is a very European style hostel where everyone speaks English, but that night it was Ecudaorian night with classic Ecuadorian food and a band. For dinner we had a fried yuca (a potato) stuffed with cheese, and shrimp with coconut sauce and rice. The band came up to the hostel´s dining area which was on the roof of the hostel. The food was delicious and the band was good as well. They did not play for very long as they were probably booked at about 3 hotels that night.

The next morning we headed out to Cotopaxi national park, which is Ecuador´s 19,000 foot active volcano. At this point we got our first Ecuadorian bus experience. We asked the taxi to bring us to the bus terminal, which turned out to be a huge rotary with buses coming and going. As we got out of the bus a man ran up to us and asked us where we were going. We answered and he quickly ushered us to the bus closest to us which was driving away. He helped us with our bags and we ran onto the bus, all while the bus was moving. We were a bit nervous at first because we needed to let them know when to let us off, because if you aren´t getting off at a town then they will drop you off wherever you want on the side of the road. We had read that there is a place where you can get off and hire a truck to take you on the half hour trip to the campsite at the base of the volcano. Our spanish is passable right now, but not good enough to get us the local´s rate on taxis or to speak in complex sentences. So I tried to ask a woman next to us when the stop was for Cotopaxi, which is the name of the national park and the volcano. She looked very confused as I asked her this, and then the money guy for the bus (there is always a driver and a money guy on buses) came by as well and she told him what she thought I had said. They looked at each confusedly and laughed a bit. He asked me some questions I didn´t understand, and then he walked farther down the bus. Justin and I discussed what had happened and decided that they thought we were asking if the bus went all the way to the volcano. Turns out he eventually did understand what we wanted, and the bus stopped on the side of a major highway (and by stopped I mean it kept going but slowly enough for us to jump off). We hired a truck and drove up to the campsite we had researched. Turns out this place, Tambopaxi, was not the hut we had imagined, but a pretty nice lodge where older Europeans came and stayed before attempting to climb Cotopaxi. Camping was cheap enough but the meals were expensive, so we ended up cutting our stay there a night short. But while we were there we went for some walks. We were still feeling the altitude effects so we did not hike very far. I also wanted to go horse back riding, but when we asked they told us they needed 24 hours notice to find the horses which were out in the hills somewhere. Most people come to the volcano to pay a guide $200 to take them to the top, but this was not within our budget and we did not have the time to spend a few nights acclimatizing. Overall the area was gorgeous but a bit too expensive for us.

So tonight we are in the small city Latacunga and we will spend the next two days taking buses to get to our volunteering spot.

Check out Pictures 1 for the most recent pictures. If you are leaving a comment we added the word verification feature because we have gotten a couple spam hits.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Jess