Ecuador? Oh, you mean Erkwerder

This is Part I of Caitlin and Megan do Ecuador.

It has taken me WAY too long to get this post together, but luckily I have an amazing memory to be able to recount everything. Before leaving, I was so busy at work and with life stuff that I barely had time to pack. I more threw things in bags and didn’t even organize; I didn't even really know what I had packed. My living room a day before I left looked like an explosion of clothes and gear had gone off. With all my stuff packed up and life wrapped up for my vacation, my Joelybean reluctantly drove me to the airport for my red eye leg to Miami. I used to sleep so well on flights when I was younger. You know those kids that you see with what seems to be a gumby-like spine that allows them to sleep for hours in the weirdest position? That was me. But this trip, I barely slept a wink while traveling. I had some time in Miami before having to get to my international gate, so I went and spent some time in the lovely sun with packs in tow.

While checking in for my flight to Quito, I made sure that my bags were both in Miami and ready to board for Quito. I was told they were both there and ready. Fast forward to finally arriving in Quito, I get through Customs in their brand new airport and head to baggage claim. I wait. I got one bag, but of course it’s the unimportant one with nothing in it. And I wait some more. No bag. I was told to wait for the next flight coming from Miami, ‘maybe it’s on that one’ they said. So, I waited…

It’s a good thing I had goldfish and some candy to keep me company.

After what seemed like forever but was only a couple of hours, I headed to the lost baggage desk. They told me the bag never left Seattle on my American Airlines flight the night before. I was dismissed from the airport. Now, this would be a good time to let you know that all my clothes and climbing stuff was in the bag that never left. I was supposed to start climbing the following day. Trip landed.

Very disgruntled with pretty much everyone at that point, I left the airport for the hostel. During the hour long taxi trip, I calmed myself down. ‘I’ll have someone who speaks Spanish call back’ and ‘I’ll just delay the climbing trip’ and ‘I will never ever fly American Airlines again’ were thoughts going through my head. Faithful friend Caitlin stayed up at the hostel for my arrival and I was so happy I finally made it! We immediately changed plans, and after Caitlin had let me whine and calmed me down we planned to explore the city the next day since I didn’t have much of anything and was exhausted.

The next day, the two gringas left to see the sites of Quito after a lovely rooftop breakfast overlooking Quito. I have never been stared at that much in my life. I was the tallest person wherever we were. The buses were insane; people just jumping on and off. There wasn’t room to sit, and there definitely wasn’t space for a personal bubble. The entire trip people used me to steady themselves by grabbing my leg, head, shoulder, stomach, you name it. The bus rides on our first day weren’t any different. An elderly lady was trying to get off the bus and I attempted to steady her, and just then the bus slammed on the breaks and she went flying still clinging desperately to my hand.

 

The old Basilica. It was pretty amazing.

The streets in Old Town.

 

We made our way to Mitad del Mundo, or center of the world as Caitlin and I fondly referred to it as. It was as creepy as a deserted theme park – no one was there. We had ourselves a jolly time playing around the equator line, talked about how different life was at the center of the world, and even attempted to leave our mark on the center of the world in some wet paint.

 

Caitlin and I on different parts of the world.

We are here!

We really didn't have any idea who the bronze guy was, but we wanted a picture with him.

We headed back to the hostel to do some work on tracking down my bag and figuring out what we were going to do next. Bag was still nowhere to be seen. The airport said they would inform me when it came in and could drop it off to me. Since we had to stay around Quito for my bad, we decided the following day we would do a climb (more like a hike at elevation). Quito itself sits at around 9,200 ft. There is a volcano literally lining the city that you can hike to, with a cable car that gets you part way up. The next day, we took the cable car up and started to hike. Immediately both of us could feel the altitude. We started out at around 12,000 feet and eventually reached our highpoint somewhere above 15,000 ft.

The cable car ride up.

C&M

Obviously, a jumping picture.

 

At our high point somewhere around 15,600 ft.

 

It got a little stormy.

We made some friends while we were on the mountain.

No, really, it wasn't that bad.

 

 We wanted to get back down to check on my bag, and weather was starting to get a little nasty.
The hike itself up Pichincha was amazing. I was totally floored that such an amazing hike JUST outside of town was essentially empty of people. We passed maybe ten people the entire time. The landscape and the view were jaw dropping.

Can't beat the view.

 

On our way down, we met a nice business man from Europe who spoke flawless Spanish. A storm was coming in and hardly any taxi's were available. See, no one there liked rain. It rained and life essentially stopped. All three of us started walking down the hill after attempting to barter with a taxi driver, and we were picked up by a friendly family on vacation. They offered to take us wherever, but Caitlin and I parted ways with the family and the business man at the bottom of the hill. After a very rainy and thunderous cab ride, we returned to the hostel, had some beers and dinner and learned that my bag had arrived! Now that we had missed our climbing trip that we had paid for, all my stuff finally arrived. The airport said they were unable to deliver the bag, so we planned that the next day we would take the buses out to the airport to claim my bag. After having spent an entire day doing that, we decided it was finally time to leave Quito. We had been attempting to reschedule our climb, but communication with the guide service we had hired was essentially nonexistent. We made phone calls and wrote emails, and continued to do so for a couple of days, with absolutely no response.

So off to the beach we went.  

Stay tuned for another blog post to continue with the story of my trip!