On Sunday I went to the English church again, and the park, again. Later on I went back to the church to go to youth group. I don't think I would ever have found my way to where we met without the help of Zoe and Gabi, who are also in my exchange program and have been going to the church for a while. Youth group was different, bu fun. We played some ridiculous games to begin with, much like at UCC, but then we went upstairs and things got serious. It wasn't bible study but more of a lecture, I'm not saying that in a bad way, it was interesting, just not what I was expecting.
The talk finished early so we had half an hour to hang out. I met a bunch of the kids there, though I can't say that I remember all their names. They are all nice, but the group seems to be divided into smaller groups of friends. I found out that many of them go to a Christian private school in the city called Alliance Academy, and most are the sons and daughters of missionaries. They call themselves MKs, missionary kids haha. I look forward to going next Sunday.
My class didn't have school on Monday or yesterday, I don't know why, but I'm not going to argue.
This Saturday my friend and I are going to an all-day Reggae / Ska concert. We were talking about it last week and he said that its in a slightly dangerous part of the city, so we agreed on 2 guidelines for the day. 1. If anyone asks, I AM NOT AMERICAN, this is true so its not like I'm lying or anything but most people here asume I am from the States. 2. If anyone asks, I BELIEVE CAPITALISM IS BAD AND SOCIALISM IS THE WAY OF THE FUTURE. So, we figured the best way to show our socialist pride is to go and buy some t-shirts with Che Guevara's face printed as large as possible on the front.
We started our hunt for the shirts on Monday, but the only ones we found were extra extra large, just a wee bit big for me. So we abandoned the search and decided that pizza was much easier to find. We will continue later this week.
Tuesday was the real adventure for this week. The original plan was for Alex and I to go up the telelferico, which I wrote about wayyy back, and then form there hike about 3 hours up to the crater, which I didn't do when I went in September. We got up early, and loaded our bags with lots of extra clothes and enough fruit to keep scurvy at bay for years. We caught a taxi and were on our way, but then things came to a grinding halt. We arrived at the entrance of the teleferico and the guard told us that it is closed on Tuesdays. Closed. The one day we want to go, it just happens to be closed. I felt strange sitting there with all my stuff, knowing that we were'nt going to be able to go. But we could not waste a day off school, especially seeing as we were all set for a day of adventuring.
We returned to my house to make a new plan. Mama suggested that we go to a volcano crater about an hour outside of Quito. Before he came Alex had been told by a friend that this pace was a must see, we now had a plan. So we caught the bus in the direction of el Mitad del Mundo, which means the middle of the world, where the monument for the equator and all that is. Alex had visited the equator with his family in his first week so he knew a lot more about it that I did. The thing that surprised me the most was the fact that the line and a the monument aren't even on the actual equator. The real line is about 240 meters away, there is a really old, much smaller monument that the indigenous people built long ago, in the right place. After learning this I couldn't take the place seriously at all. The though of all the tourists who jump or straddle the line, oblivious to the fact that it has no more significance than the rocks its made of, makes me laugh.
We passed the equator and got off on the last stop. The driver told us that we just had to walk 15 minutes up the road and we would be at the crater. We passed a strange building made of stone with a spiraling ramp up the side. Obviously we had to check it out. It really dark inside and no one seemed to be there. There were things on display on the walls and floor, and a circular room in the middle with a big hole in the ceiling directly above. Alex figured out that it was a museum / sun temple, (at mid-day the sun shine perfectly through the ceiling and magical things happen? I had Indiana Jones on my mind the whole time.) As I was taking photos we heard noises from above and a man hurried down the stairs to ask what we were doing, he told us that we had to pay to enter and he would explain all the stuff to us. Alex talked with him while I took as many photos as I could before leaving hehe.
We took a break on these huge steps outside the museum to eat some fruit and rest for a while. A dog sat 2 steps above us the whole time, eying our food hungrily.
After eating we set off again to the edge of the crater. I saw the wooden fence from about 15 meters away and figured it would be much more breathtaking if I didn't look until I got right to the edge. So I studied my shoes and walked forward carefully, so as not to barrel through the thing and roll a looong way down. It was definitly worth it, when I got to the fence and looked up it was nothing short of incredible. Before me was a huge valley, surrounded by mountains. Although it is actually a crater, it looks much more like a normal valley because there are fields and several houses inside. It is one of two inhabited craters int he world! The clouds were spilling over the far edge of the crater at an incredibly speed, then seemed to disperse upward.
A local guide came over to us and talked with us for about half an hour about the volcano and lots of statistics. It was all interesting stuff, but time was precious seeing as we had got such a late start, therefore we sort of had to leave before he was finished sharing his wealth of knowledge. The trail was a really steep, rocky track that switch-backed down into the crater. It took about 20 minutes to get down to the bottom, with a few stops for photos.
At the bottom everything was really different. There was no wind, it was much warmer and all the plants were different. The majority of the land in the crater was planted fields, the ash in the soil makes it really fertile. There was one main road that ran roughly through the center of the crater, it was about the width of a car, and had grass in the middle like any other dirt road, but there didn't seem to be any cars in the crater. We walked for a while, our destination was one of the peaks on the other side, the guide had said it was about an hour and a half to climb it, as opposed to the 6 hour climb for the larger peak.
There was a runined house on the side of the road that the guide had told us was the first house built inside the crater. We explored it a bit, it was literally falling apart, and covered in graffiti. Th guide hadn't exactly been clear about where the trail was to climb the peak, so we just sort of kept walking until we knew we had gone too far, we were practically standing at the bottom of the mountain with a wall of thick shrubs in front of us. So Alex went and asked a man who was working in the fields while I fiddled with my camera and took photos. It turned out we had passed the trail about 100 meters back. By this point were were running short on time and we had to make the decision whether or not to climb the mountain and risk missing the bus back to Quito. I think you can probably guess what we decided. To hell with it, lets climb that mountain!
The climb was really tough. The path was nothing more than a strip of dirt about a foot wide covered by overgrown bushes and thorny things. At times it was pretty much rock climbing, but nothing was going to prevent us from getting to the top. Eventually we made it, and again the view was breathtaking. The clouds flew by so fast it seemed unnatural. WE put down our stuff, took out our food and proceeded to feast. After we ate I got up and looked around, the clouds had moved in and we could literaly see nothing but white in every direction. We sat there on the rounded top of the mountain looking out into what looked like an ocean of clouds. After a long moment deep in though we both said at the same time, "It feels like we are on the abck of a giant turtle, flying through the sky." It was kind of crazy that we had the exact same though at the exact same time, but literally I think thats the best way to describe that moment.
We climbed down, very carefully, yet still managing to get scratched by every thorn on the mountain. Back into the crater we went, along the road, past the ruined house, and up the other side where we started. (writing that reminded me of a book I used to read when I was little, We're Going On A Bear Hunt, if anyone has read the book they will know what I am talking about. Great memories.) The climb back up was a real pain, but we seemed to do it in record time, 30 minutes I think.
One thing I fogot to mention earlier was the feeling I got inside the crater. It was really weird, there were houses and people but it felt very alien, like I was looking through a display case at a way of life apart from the rest of the world. I almost felt like I was intruding, despite the fact that it is a tourist destination with a hostel and everything. The people smiled and said hello, but I couldnt help but feel like they wanted us out as soon as possible. I don't really know how to explain it, I guess you have to be there.
We caught the bus and everything in time and got back to Quito very tired, but satisfied wiht our adventure.
I took two videos from the peak of the mountain, one before the clouds moved in and one when all was white. They are pieced together here on youtube. In the bottom right hand corner there is a button for "watch in high quality" click that for better quality (duh!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-1Bcj9FFPk
Pictures are uploading right now so they should be up soon.
This is the route we took inside the crater. The smaller peak we climbed is on the left. The big one is for another day.
The fertile soil in the crater makes for lots of cool plants.
More Plants
Inside the abandoned house.
This is the road that goes through the crater.
1 comment:
ha, you posted in the longboarding video
Post a Comment