Chimborazo, Ecuador

The last time we wrote we were wrapping up our activities in Cuenca, saying goodbye to friends and trying to take advantage of every last minute there. Which included an over night trip in the National Park close to the city. This was, well, an interesting experience. One full of rain and cold, and not many birds (which is why we went), but the experience was a good reminder of not trying to do everything and now we laugh every time one of us mentions the word Cajas. I am sure it is nice there, sometimes….I think.
That being said we have really had a crazy week. We moved out of our lovely apartment Thursday morning and landed in a new town by 7 that night. Riobamba was the place we were hoping to meet up with Wiliber, a Just Us!/Jambi Kiwa friends when I worked there a couple summers ago, but because of carnival (which needs to be a whole other blog post) and schedules we ended up on our own on Friday. So we decided to take a chance and see if we could stand at 5000 metres on Ecuador’s largest mountain (the top also being the furthest point from the centre of the Earth), Chimborazo. We decided not to go the usually tourist route, which is a $35 taxi ride to the first refugee camp. So we hopped on a very busy public bus for $4 and headed to the hill. We were dropped off at the entrence of the park, although it felt more like another planet, as clouds brushed the barren ground. We eventually found the path to the park and meet the park wardens in their car, probably wondering what we were doing on our own. Anyway, to make a long story short, these two fellows decided to drive us up to the first refugee camp, pick us up an an houre and a half later and then drive us back to Riobamba, since that would be the time there shift was over. Needless to say we took them out for dinner and were completely thankful for their generosity. Wonderful people.
So a day of unknown turned into a wonderful day of snow (which we both loved, and really appreciated, I guess we are four season folks deep down), new friends and once again another adventure!