climbing a mountain
on friday the weather was sunny so we got up early, checked out of our other hostal and moved to this one which has a kitchen and is cheaper :) we were albe to get up to the teleferiqo by 10am which is a cable car up the side of the volcan pichincha which is right near Quito. at the top of is cruz loma which is a place for beautiful views and it said that there was a 3 hour hike from there up through the mountain. we started and it was a bit cold but we were good and took some wonderful photos and enjoyed the views of the city. then we continued going and about the 2nd hour it was so cold but we were nearing the summit and so we continued. by the end it was so difficult, freezing, climbing on hands and knees and we were not properly dressed for this (Al was in shorts and I in capris) but we kept going until we finally reached the top. we spent all of 2 minutes on the summit before we went down by sliding on our bottoms through the dirt and stones until we got to the part that was more of a hike. it was strenuous and we were very ill prepared but we had an excellent day. and it was our 2 year anniversary and that was a wonderful way to spend it together. today we took it much easier because we are both very sore from the climb yesterday. we are getting used to the new hostal and bought food and i tried my hand at cooking both sopa de papas y yuci which is a vegetable soup and also tortilla de queso which is a cheese omlette. tonight i will make us a milk, sugar and rice dessert of whose name i have forgotten. nice people here in the hostal with us although they speak english…that is the only drawback. we are here at casa bambu for the next few weeks until we came move into another hostal even cheaper near here. we are on the border between the old and new towns of quito, very near nice little tiendas (stores) in which al was very happy that we bought potatoes, yucci, lemon, bananas for a total of 55 cents. i ate seco de chivo which is goat, and also guatita which is tripe stew. i am pretty sure that tripe is cow´s stomach but it was good. tomorrow we will go to the basilica for Mass. we made contact with CENIT on thursday and we will start on monday both doing rescate de calle-street outreach in the markets of south quito until the middle of september when the full staff returns and we will specailze further from there, i will probably do medical work and al some tutoring, but we´ll wait to see for sure.
Tags: Quito
annieandal
Happy Two Year Anniversary! It seems so much longer than that, but at the same time it seems like almost yesterday when annie was kicking my butt on the track in Fredonia. =D
Glad to hear you two had such a good day!
*hugs*
miss you lots and lots…
Annie please use the handrails next time on those mountains. You are making your parents very nervous………………..We want you home in one piece and preferably not all scraped up. Nice scenery, I hope you realize that coming down is harder than going up! I bet your legs felt it the next day. Sounds like fun!
Love Mom and Dad M.
Annie and Al,
Love reading about your expiditions and adventures. Sounds like you are enjoying the time so far and are just beginning your service there. Go for it all!!! What a great way to see parts of the world, meet new people and serve the needs of others.
God bless you both and all who come in contact with you.
Thanks for the updates…this is a great blog.
S.Sheila