On the way from Baños to Quito, I didn't get bored. A little boy found it incredibly funny to annoy me.
On the way, we saw the mighty volcano 'Cotopaxi' for the first time. It is 5980 meters above sea level. I would have loved to climb it, but the timing didn't work out.We arrived in Quito and were overwhelmed by the huge bus station. We took a bus to our hostel for 25 cents, and the ride took 50 minutes. They have a great public transportation system in Quito. Their own street for public transport. Our hostel was located in the old town with many cute restaurants (unfortunately not very good ones).We stayed in this hostel because we had arranged to meet with my sister's colleague there. She eventually offered for us to stay at her place for free. We had already paid for two nights at the hostel, but we decided to spend the next two days at her place. So we spent the first two days doing everything that was easier to do from the city center, as her house is outside the center. We explored the city and took a free walking tour.We also had lunch there.The free walking tour was one of the best ones we have taken so far. We learned a lot of interesting things about Ecuador's history and saw some beautiful buildings.From the roof of the government building.Beautiful churches from the insideAnd from the outside.We also went to a market and tried the special fruit juice from Ecuador called 'Naranjilla'. It is a mixture of lemon and orange and somehow a bit of kiwi. I'm sure my dad would roll his eyes because it was quite sour. As a conclusion, we visited a chocolate factory. The owner was Swiss and his wife was from Ecuador. Since about 80% of the cocoa for Swiss chocolate comes from Ecuador (we didn't know that), it's a great combination.They explained the whole process of making chocolate and we got to try everything.And then we treated ourselves to some pralines with passion fruit.On one day, we took a bus to the 'middle' of the Earth. The equator. However, it wasn't my first experience with the equator. When I was 6 years old, we visited my godfather in Uganda. We also went on a trip to the equator back then. Of course, I didn't know what the 'equator' was and I asked my dad. He said, 'The equator is the middle of the Earth.' I looked at him with big eyes and, of course, didn't believe him. He replied, 'It's where the world is cut in the middle, across the world.' I looked at him with even bigger eyes and refused to get out of the car. I thought there was a big cut through the world and I could fall in there. It was probably quite a struggle to get me out of the car. This time I was much more relaxed because I knew that there was no cut. Maybe my dad didn't explain it very well. This was photographed from the statues.After the two nights at the hostel, we checked out and went to Cristian's place. We had an address, but it wasn't very accurate. 'It's a big white house with a blue door and a red roof.' We actually found it and went through the blue door. No one was home and it was dark. There were 6 apartments, but we didn't know which one belonged to their family. So we started trying the keys. After 5 minutes, a nice man came and asked us what we were doing. We told him that we wanted to stay with this family, and he showed us the right door. Shortly after that, Cristian's brothers arrived and greeted us. He showed us the apartment where we were going to stay.This was the view during the day from the house. It was small and cozy. Eventually, Cristian also came home, and we had dinner together. We agreed to go on a two-day hike with her, as she is a mountain guide. Unfortunately, Muriel wasn't feeling well, so we had to tell her the next day that it didn't make much sense. So we spent the day buying our ticket to Colombia at the bus station. In the evening, her parents also came, and we cooked Rösti together.They were very impressed and all wanted our recipe. Then we decided to go hiking the next day. In the morning, their mother packed us some snacks, so we could survive for a week. We took a cable car from 2800 to almost 3300 meters above sea level. From there, we started hiking. Everything went well at the beginning. Our goal was at 4700 meters above sea level. The path up there was simply beautiful.
However, Muriel had some trouble with breathing at the beginning because she was still a bit sick. But after warming up a bit, it went well.
Then, at 4300 meters, we took a little break. When we stood up again, I suddenly felt sick and had a headache. I thought it would go away. But after 10 minutes, I had to stop and say that it wasn't possible. It was going too fast for my body. So we waited for 20 minutes and enjoyed the amazing view.
Eventually, we had to turn back. I simply couldn't handle the altitude. We had gone from 0 to 1800 to 2800 meters above sea level in just 8 days. The most important thing is actually to give your body time to adjust to the altitude, which we didn't do. This was the first mountain I didn't reach the top of. It was quite disappointing, and we reluctantly turned around and went back down.
This picture still works despite missing a small part (Chrisi is on the left).An amazing view.
We said goodbye to the family, exchanged addresses, and they gave us some gifts.
Especially Robin, the dog, made it difficult for us to say goodbye. :-P.
Adventure from Ecuador to Colombia. You can read about that in the next blog.
