Inca & Amazon 76 - Volcano Climb
Posted
by
Seth
on 09 Mar 2010
The following entry is from Esmee Pappot:
Hola amigos,
Here is the second update from Quito.
We just finished our first week of Spanish class and it´s going really well.
So in the morning everybody is busy studying but in the afternoon we have time for our own, witch we use wisely, playing ultimate takedown in the park, bowling or laser quest.
We missed one day of school to prepare ourselves for the big climb. The volcano of Cotopaxi. We left on Friday and did a “little” hike to get used to the altitude. We walked 4 hours up to find ourselves in the middle of a cloud at the top. We arrived at our sleeping place in the dark and warmed ourselves up around the fire. Next we went to Cotopaxi, and tried all our equipment on and went for a little walk on the glacier. After that we just had to acclimatize and we went to bed really early! Around midnight, after a horrible night of sleep for the most of us, it was finally time to climb Cotopaxi.
Our first mission was to climb to the glacier, which everyone achieved. There we put on our crampons got our icepacks and started the big climb. We started with 14 people and 8 of us made it to top. A big achievement especially for inexperienced people like us. The other six went back halfway. The views we got were amazing, but walking to the top was cold, hard and the altitude made it al even worse. But everyone had a great time and got a great experience out of it.
Now we are back in Quito again. Learning Spanish and having fun. Preparing already for the book-bus project next view weeks. Witch everybody is really exited about!
That´s it for now. Ciao!