The Roof of Ecuador

My bed

Vincuña.  Kind of like a little llama

BOn January 12 Carlos, Francisco the guide and I climbed Chimborazo, the highest mountain in Ecuador (20,702 ft).  Also, because the Earth isn't a perfect sphere and bulges in the middle, it makes Chimborazo the farthest point from the center of the Earth, and the closest point to the sun.  I'm sure I can milk some other meaningless milestones out of this one.  I'm going to guess it's probably the closest point to the moon too.  Also, there is no other point in the Americas north of Chimborazo that is higher than it.  It's also my personal high point.  Okay. 

A couple of days after I climbed Antisana, Carlos my climbing partner wrote to me and asked if I wanted to climb Chimborazo before he had to return to Bolivia in late January.  All of the past climbs have been with an organized group named Zona Verde, but this time it would just be me, Carlos, and Francisco  my guide from Cotopaxi and Antisana.  Zona Verde has plans to go Chimborazo in late March, but I decided to go with Carlos instead because it was cheaper, the weather is usually clearer in January, and I knew Carlos and Francisco would have no trouble with the long climb up.  The weekend started with a semi-private van ride 3  hours south to the city Riobamba.  We were to meet Francisco at the bus station in Riobamba at 1:00 but we got there too early, so we ate some breakfast.  The restaurant we went to had my favorite, seco de chivo (goat stew) and Carlos got Encebollado, which is like a fish stew.  Francisco arrived and we got a ride from a local up to the refuge on the mountain. There are two refuges on Chimborazo.  One at 4,800 meters above sea level, and one at 5,000 meters. The refuge is in a state of repair at the moment so there were no beds, just the floor.  Our plan was to wake up at 10:00pm Saturday night, and start hiking at 11:00.  I went to bed at 6:00pm, but once again either the altitude or my excitement kept me from sleeping at all.

The first 30 minutes of the hike were really easy.  Just slightly uphill.  When we got past the second refuge, the terrain abruptly got much steeper and wouldn't level out until the top.  We hiked on sand and rock for the first few hours and finally we reached the glacier.  I was relieved to get to the ice because it's a little easier to walk on than sliding down in sand.  However, the glacier section felt like it was never ending.  It just kept going and getting steeper.  I'm glad we were hiking in the dark though.  It seemed to help mentally by not seeing just how much farther I had to go.  As we got higher, I could start to feel the effects of the altitude.  I felt a bit dizzy and our pace slowed down.  I sang 99 bottles of beer in my head to pass the time and to make sure I could still think straight. 

A  small looking 5,000m peak on the right

 At around 4:25 am we finally made it to the first summit.  The top of the mountain is long and broad and the highest summit is still another 45 minutes from where we were.  We took a long break and then slowly headed toward the highest point.  We got the top too early, and had to wait about an hour for the sun to rise.  Luckily, the weather was nice and not much wind, so we didn't get too cold. The wait was worth it.  Some mountains that look huge from the ground, looked like hills from up there.  We could also see some ash come out of the nearby volcano Sangay.  The view was stunning as the sun shone on the clouds below us.  We got as many picture as we could and then headed back.  We passed two other Ecuadorians and two Germans and their guide on our way down.  We made a toe-breaking downhill hike and eventually got back to the refuge by around 9:00.  For the near future, I don't see me doing many more climbs.  The program for Zona Verde isn't very appealing the next 3 months, and there's only a few more I'd really like to climb.  Amber will be happy with this.

In other news, Amber and I went to get our visas renewed last Tuesday.  Our boss told us to get to the office by 7:30 so we could get in early.  41 people were ahead of us.  We spent a total of 7 hours at the office.  They tried to tell me I didn't have all my documents even though I did.  She then told me I could go downstairs and change one of the papers online and come back.  I left and had no idea what to change.  Finally Amber's boss came to see what the problem was, and the lady at the visa office said everything was fine and she was looking for me after I left.  We have to go back next Thursday for the second step of the process.  It makes the BMV seem like an efficient, speedy bureaucratic machine.

Interesting Fact:  Soccer is by far the most popular sport in Ecuador, but the second most popular is Volleyball.  Actually, it's called Ecovolly, because they play it a bit differently.  The net is set up much higher than regular volleyball which means no spiking the ball.  They use a soccer ball instead of a volleyball and it is just played 3 vs. 3.  It's really common to see pretty competitive impromptu matches along the road or sometimes in the road.