VOLCANO COTOPAXI 18. September 2010

Saturday, I join a tour to Cotopaxi that was organized by the language school. A small, yellow school bus picked us up at 8 am. On the way to the Cotopaxi National Park we had a good view over Quito and passed through some some villages. The bus had to work hard to drive up to he mountain. We stopped a few times in between for good views of the snow-caped Cotopaxi and to buy gloves made of Alpaca wool.

When we got out out of the bus at 4,500 m (15,000 ft) it was cold and very windy. We got ourselves ready to walk up to the refugio (refuge) at 4,810 m (15,900 ft). We wind was very strong and it was quite difficult to walk against the wind. Forget about the altitude. Breathing was ok, but my heart was working hard. We all walk very slow but still had to stop every few steps. We really didn't walk that far but it took around an hour. It was an interesting experience and the view from the refuge was worth it. Once I got out of the freezing wind I noticed how cold I was. Somehow, walking uphill in the wind I didn't feel the cold too much. After lunch with a sandwich and hot chocolate at the refuge we made our way back down. It started snowing lightly but going down was very easy and fast. And much more fun than going uphill. On the way back we drove through some smaller streets in Quito's south. I'm sure it wasn't the fastest way but it was interesting to look at all the little stores, houses and people.

Views of Cotopaxi

 

Hiking up the steep trail to the refuge 

 

 

View over the valley

I made it to the refuge (not to the summit though, that's another 1000 m higher)

Random street scenes
     

More Pictures

Plaza Santo Domingo


Plaza Santo Domingo at night


Quito Balconies


Street in Quito's Old Town


View over some of Quito's churches


Night view


La Ronda at night


Quito street scene


View from the top of the TeleferiQo


Close to the sky

 View over Quito

EXPLORING QUITO - 10. September - 25. September 2010

Saturday morning it was time to check out Quito. I walked to the centro historico (Old Town). The first thing I noticed, was how many people were on the streets and the parks. It seemed like everyone in Quito took there family and went to the parks or just strolled through the streets. Quito's Old Town has a lot of beautiful old buildings, plazas and churches. Traffic in the narrow, steep streets was crazy. Most streets are so narrow that they are one-way streets. Around noon it was quite hot and I'm still getting to used to being at an elevation of 2800m. So I walked from one nice old church to the next, taking a rest while marveling at the interior of the church. Around 5 pm it started raining heavy and I took the bus back to the house. The bus system in Quito is pretty good. There are three express buses which have there own lanes and stop only at specific stations. Kind of a cheap version of a subway. In addition to that there are a lot of other buses going almost anywhere. It definitely is easy to get around in Quito. I was also surprised how many taxis there are in Quito. And they are yellow, too. Most surprisingly - they are metered and you luckily don't have to bargain with the taxista and he can't rip you off.

Sunday I did pretty much the same as Saturday – just walking around town. The difference on Sunday was that the streets in the Old Town and on the main street in the New Town (Mariscal, aka Gringolandia) were closed for cars. Only bikes and pedestrians allowed – very enjoyable. And there were even more people in the city than the day before. I also had my first encounter with a pickpocket. Fortunately, he wasn't good enough to steal anything. Since I wanted to take my camera with me, I decide to take the small backpack instead of the shoulder bag. That wasn't very clever. I walked on a busy street and noticed that a guy was very close behind me. I slowed down and let him pass. I didn't pay much attention to him and suddenly someone walked close behind me again. I turned around and the same guy was there. I noticed that the front pocket of my backpack was open. Luckily I'm smart enough to not put any valuables in the front pocket.
Lessons learned 1: don't walk around with a backpack in busy places. Definitely should have known that before.

Monday morning I took Quito's tram, the TeleferiQo, up to one of the mountains around the city. The city is located in a valley surrounded by high mountains. Quito is the second highest capital in the world at elevation 2800 m, only slightly lower than the Zugspitze, Germany's highest mountain. The TeleferiQo took me up to over 4000 m. From there the view over the city was amazing. Unfortunately Volcano Cotopaxi (Ecuador's most famous volcano) was covered by clouds and I only had a quick glance at it. Walking around at that altitude was quite exhausting. I walked around for a while, enjoyed the view and took tons of pictures. On the way back I shared an unofficial taxi (definitely not recommended by lonely planet or any other guide book) back to the city with two other Germans and made my way to the language school.

Most of the rest of the week I spent the mornings in cafes with free wifi and organizing a trip to the Galapagos and the afternoons learning Spanish. Four hours of lessons are quite tiring. Especially if you are the only student. My teacher is very nice and I understand most of what she is saying. But normally it doesn't happen often that I'm talking to someone for four hours straight. Not even with good friends.

Thursday night the guest family took me for a night tour through Quito's old town. It was very nice. There were concerts at some squares and some streets were busy with people hanging out, meeting their friends and drinking Canelazo, Quito's local Cocktail. Although this is South America, Quito's local cocktail is Canelazo, a hot drink. But a hot drink does make sense – nights get pretty cold (10 deg C)

View over Quito from our terrace

Views from the terrace at night

Basilica del Voto Nacional, Quito's tallest church

View from Basilica del Voto Nacional

For more pictures check the link to Picasa

First day in Quito - 10. September 2010

After a good nights sleep I woke up and it didn't take too long before Blanqui, the mother of the family, came to my room and told me that desayuno (breakfast) is ready. Of course the first thing I ate in Ecuador was a banana. The family I stay with lives in a nice three-story building. The family lives in the first floor and the second floor is rented out to students or travelers like me. We get breakfast and dinner served at the family table but don't eat at the same time as the family. After breakfast Blanca showed me the way to the language school – an easy 30 minute walk. After that I had to kill a few hours before my class would start at 2pm. I walked around the Mariscal neighborhood which has a lot of cafes, bars, hostels and stores.
Although it doesn't get that hot in Quito (22 deg C), the sun is very strong. So walking around in the midday sun wasn't the smartest idea. For a few minutes I enjoyed the cold of an old church. A lot of people used their lunch break to go to the church and pray, leaving when their blackberries rang.
I headed back to the language school and got introduced to my teacher Adriana. Since I never studied Spanish, we started with the Alphabet. I felt like a little school girl, saying A, Be, Ce,... I learned some basic grammar and vocabulary and started to get tired after three hours. You can learn a lot in four hours if you are the only student in class. After class I walked back to the house. It's not recommended to walk around when it's dark (especially not, if you are a single white woman) and I just made it back to the house before it got dark. Since Quito is very close to the equator, days are equally long all year and it gets dark before 7pm. When I got rice and beans for dinner, I knew I arrived in South America. I'm quite sure that I'll eat more rice and beans in the next few weeks than I had in my life so far. I talked to my German roommate for a while about Ecuador and volcanoes before going to bed early.
Amazingly enough I managed to not take a single picture on my first day in Ecuador.

Arrival in Quito, Ecuador - 09. September 2010

After four great weeks with my family in Germany and a short, one day stop in New York it was finally time to start "The big trip".  The first hurtle was the check-in. Since I don't have a return ticket, the Delta representative at the check-in counter wasn't sure if I was allowed on board. To enter a country with a tourist visa a return ticket is usually required. Luckily her computer told her that it's not necessary for Germans and let me check-in. The next step was getting the visa at immigration at the airport and clearing customs. Fortunately that was not problem. Since I prearranged the Spanish school and accommodation with a family, someone was supposed to pick me up. I thought that was great since it made it much easier to arrive at 10 pm in a country where I don't speak the language and don't know anyone and don't have to worry about taxi, hotel and so on. When I didn't see anyone with a sign showing my name at the arrival I wasn't so sure that it's a great idea anymore. After waiting for a while I asked someone from the transportation info. They called the guys for the language school and I was driven to the family's place. On the way there I just hoped that the driver wouldn't just drop my of at the address in the middle of the night and leave. We got there and noone answered the door or the phone. The driver was very nice and tried to call all the people that were on my list from the language school. After quite a while a car arrived. It was the family that drove to the airport to pick me up but were late. Guess, I should have waited a little longer... I was very happy that after a little confusion everything worked out (as it usually does). The Aguirre family that I will stay with for the next two weeks has a nice house, a German shepherd and seems to be very friendly. There is also another German staying with the family and it felt good to talk to someone who understands me. This afternoon I will have my first Spanish lesson and I'm looking forward to being able to communicate with the people here. But I guess that will take a while.

The Big Trip

In this blog I will document my travels through South America, Africa and - if money and time allows - Asia. I am an engineer so don't expect great writing. I will do my best to write as often as possible about my travels and experiences. And hopefully I will be able to take and upload some good pictures.  Since I don't have a "round-the-world" airline ticket, I'm fairly flexible. Of course I have a plan and know where I want to go and how long I want to stay there. But that plan is quite rough and can and will  change. So far the plan is to stay in Quit for two weeks and learn Spanish. I will have one-on-one classes four hours a day, five days a week. Hopefully after those two weeks I'll be able to get my way around and understand what people are trying to tell me. I will than travel in Ecuador until the beginning of October when I will meet my friend and travel companion Michael. The countries on the travel list for South America so far are Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and Brazil.  So, if you have been to any of these countries and have some tips of where to go, what to do or where to stay or any other advises - please let me know. I also will be very happy about any comments you leave on this blog so that I know that someone is reading it.