Rucu Pichincha

You guys are going to be amazed! Well you´d better be anyway! We went up the Teleferiqo on Sunday, it´s like a cable car type thing which takes you up the closest active volcano in Quito, Volcán Pichincha. Quito is already at 2500m above sea level (I´ve heard 2200m and 2800m, so I´m taking the middle point), the cable car takes you up the side of the volcano, and arrives at 4100m! It was so awesome! The view was amazing! Here we are on top.

And here´s the view without the people. This is the view to the south, and below is the view to the north. Quito is a very long city built alongside the Andes. Everything north of the Virgin is considered north, and vice versa.So I had the bright idea of hiking to Rucu Pichincha, where you can peer into the volcano´s crater. The summit of Ruch Pichincha is 4680m, so it´s a 580m hike to the top. Sound ok right? Well, no. Take into account it was a 580m ascent, the low oxygen levels at higher altitudes, and the fact that I had a blocked nose, it was not a good combination. I was generally unfit anyway, which did not help. It was 10 times harder than the walk in Baños! The walk alternated from very steep to steep to uphill slope. I had to take rest stops every few metres, but at least I could appreciate the view while I waited for my breathe to catch up. The other 2 ended up being about 15 minutes ahead of me. Luckily I eventually caught up (they stopped to rest), because after that point it was even harder. We had to boulder across some rocks (almost a cliff face), after which we hit sand. The sand was as thick as that on the beach, except softer, so our feet kept sinking. Plus it was an uphill climb. I gave up walking at that stage. I was almost on all fours trying to scramble up the slope. We got up in the end, and we reached a point where we could see most of the view. The path ahead was all sand (the same scrambling type, which would continue for another hour or so, according to an american guy we walked past), so I suggested we stop there and walk back. Thankfully, the others agreed. I think we got to the base of the summit, if that makes sense. In other words, we got to the base of the crater.

I managed to take my hands out of my pockets to take some photos in order to commemorate the hike. It was absolutely FREEZING up there! I can´t believe the other 2 had considered wearing shorts! I told them it was going to be cold at 4500m (from the Tasmanian experience, which wasn´t that high, I think, but was alpine nonetheless!!).

We were above the clouds! It was amazing!

Obviously, you had to be there. A camera will never do the vistas any justice. But it can try...below is the path. It´s rather rugged. And you can see how far we walked. Actually you can´t. You can´t even see where we started from, it´s too far, and hidden by the mountain. Take my word for it, it was far. It took us 3 hours to hike up, and 2 hours to slide down.

You can see the path slightly better in the photo below. And a bit of the sandy bit we had to scramble up. This photo was taken where we eventually stopped.

Here´s Rucu Pichincha from the Teleferiqo station (at 4100m). I can´t believe we walked so far. Needless to say, when we got back to the Teleferiqo, we were completely exhausted, and my feet were killing me! They were getting blistered because as we were running downhill (it was too steep to walk), my toes were being pushed to the ends of my shoes, and were rubbing against it. In the end, it got painful to walk. No wonder, because when I took my boots off, I found that the skin had been rubbed off my toe! Ugh! Here´s the photo. I had to commemorate that too! Thank you Stacy for the med kit. I needed the band aid and alcohol swab!
Oh, before I go, I have to say, on our hike up, we met an old couple, (74 and 80 years old), and they hike up everyday! I don´t know how far they go (probably not to the sandy, scrambling part), but that is seriously impressive! It´s quite humbling. I was all puffed out, and they seemed like they were totally fine! Granted they were walking slowly, but at that age, it´s pretty cool to still be walking without assistance, let alone hiking up a friggin volcano above 4100m!