Climbing Rucu Pichincha

Hola!

Today we climbed our first Andean mountain!

We met up with two girls from Germany who go to our school and took a taxi to the "TeleferiQo", which is a gondola that takes you up the side of the Pichincha Volcano along the west part of Quito (you can see it in the pics above). Quito is at 2850 m and the teleferiQo takes to you 4100 m in about 5 min (2.5 km). Quite a steep climb!

The view at the top in amazing. You can see how you're literally surrounded by mountains and how the city of Quito fills the valley floor (a bit of a silly place for 1.5 million people to live).

From the top of the gondola you can hike up to the top of the mountain Rucu Pichincha (4680 m). This summit really doesn't look that far away; however at elevation it takes HOURS. you have to walk at about half a granny's pace and still your heart is pounding in your chest and you can barely breathe. it's crazy! luckily we've had almost a week in Quito to somewhat acclimatize. You wouldn't want to do this on your first day!

There are no trees, so you get a full view for the whole hike.. except near the peak, we were in the clouds! As you can see in the pics, it was cold up there and we were bundled with toques and scarfs. Needless to say, we were exhausted when we got back but it was well worth it!

The telefeciQo and Quito

Us at the top of the TeleferiQo

View partway up: a mountain chain splitting Quito to the left, farms to the right, and volcanoes in the distance

The peak of Rucu Pichincha in the clouds

xoxo

M&S