Climbing Carihuairazo

From Medellin I got a 22hr bus ride to the border town Ipiales. I bought the last seat I think because I was sat right at the back by the toilet where you get no leg room and your seat doesn´t recline. Luckily I was sat next to a sweet girl called Joanna who was 23 and on her first bus journey solo. It was good to chat to her in Spanish and it was nice to sit next to someone I actually liked unlike Cartagena-Medellin journey. In fact I slept so well apparently I was sleep talking!

At the border sailed though Colombian immigration and walked into Ecuador to find a 3 hour long queue to get in the country - rubbish. I occupied myself translating Spanish Cosmo into English. Randomly, I bumped into Chris (who I´d been with on the coast) at the border but he was about an hour ahead of me in the queue so we met up later in Quito. I ended up travelling to Quito with 2 Aussie guys and a English guy - always nice to have some company.

Stayed at Casa Bambu again in Quito where I re met Greg from Bogota. The next day we went to Baños together and stopped off at a volunteering project that Greg had worked at previously in a place called Salasaca. We arranged to go back the next day and go climb Carihuairazo with two of the guys. Randomly that evening in Baños I found Rafael (from the lost city trek) in one of the restaurants. Had dinner and beers with him in Casa Hood which was really cool.

Next day we went back to the project but after much faffing we had left it too late to go mountain climbing so we ended up crashing in the volunteers house. The next morning Greg and I went to help at the school for the project which was fun. I played with nursery age kids for an hour, then taught fruits and vegetables in English to older children, then made Greg good bye cards with the children which was fun. It was a really nice school and a friendly community, I enjoyed being there. We actually did leave for the mountain afterwards, again slightly later than planned. The group was me, Greg, and two guys from the project, Josh and Phil. After 2 bus journeys we were dropped off at a turn off. We hiked up towards the mountain for about 3 hours past indigenous mountain communities and barren landscape. We had great views of Chimborarzo which is the biggest mountain in Ecuador and the nearest point to the sun in the world at the summit. It´s around 6200m I think. Carihuairazo is pretty little in comparison at 5000m!

Views of Carihuairazo from the volunteers house:

Some of the children playing after lessons:

The beginning of our hike, views of Chimborazo:

Views of Carihuairazo with Josh and Phil in front:

Greg, Josh and a random mountain woman! We tried to get her to take photos of us all but I just ended up with 7 of our feet unsurprisingly.

Lama all looking at us.

We camped in the middle of nowhere. Phil had a 2 man tent which Greg, Phil and I slept in. Josh on the other hand ruffed it outside in the pouring rain in a bivvy bag - crazy guy! We sat in the tent and ate Ritz biscuits and tuna for dinner...not the best planned operation! We were up at 4.30am to hike to the top before the snow started melting. When we started walking I was seriously worried and having second thoughts about the whole thing. I had to do some self disapline and just keep trudging on in the hope I would make it to the top. I don´t think I actually complained until we were about 30m from the summit by which point it was starting to snow. I wanted to stop and wait for the guys but they wouldn´t let me for obvious reasons so I trudged up to the top. I found it absolutely knackering...I´m not convinced mountainering is my thing although it was kind of satisfying.

Early morning views:

Views of Chimborazo in the early morning.

Glacial lake:

We ended up climbing the left peak which was just over 5000m I think, I was very glad not to be going for the higher peak because I suffered as it was from dead legs and no breath. This is the guys thourally debating the route:

Beautiful Chimborazo:

Nearly at the top:

I was actually crawling at this point. Greg and Josh were already up there running all over the peak, they were completely unaffected by the altitude, Phil wasn´t quite as lively but definitely better than me!

Nearly there!

The view over the otherside!

Me at the top, yey!

Greg clamboring all over!
Greg and me:

The decent was pretty rapid and involved us going knee deep in snow and getting completely soaked feet. I actually slid on my bum for a good 10m. It was snowing as well so we needed to get down pronto although it was only 8am!

Random mountain vegetation: The plants were very interesting but walking over this stuff was not easy. It was kind of a bog, very uneven and my three pairs of trousers were falling down.

End of the hike, back in civilization if you can call this that (?):

We then all headed home tired and hungry but I think all pretty pleased with ourselves! Greg and I headed back to Baños and managed to hitchhike with the owners of a hostel which we then stayed at - bonus. We then spent the afternoon in Casa Hood which is an great restaurant which shows movies in the afternoons. We watched Finding Forrester which was really good.

Today, Greg went back to Salasca to climb Chimborazo - crazy! I´ve had a relaxing day, went to the hot baths from the volcano then went back to Casa Hood to watch another film. This time saw Slumdog Millionaire which was brilliant and I definitely recommend (Daddy watch it!) Going to go rafting and canyoning tomorrow hopefully and then off to the jungle to volunteer for a project called Arutam for 2 weeks so no more blog for a while!