Latacunga... eventually

We boarded a bus from Baños bound for Quito that would drop us off in Latacunga, the gateway to a great hiking loop we have been really excited about doing. The plan was to spend 3 days hiking the loop and then to head back to Quito to pick up Keegan´s debit card, which we found out had just been delivered to our hostel there. 2 hours into the 3 hour journey Keegan looked at my still very swollen foot and asks if it wouldn´t be better to go to Quito first to pick up the card and give my foot an extra day to heal. Seems logical to me. We stay pay the bus driver an extra dollar fifty each and in 3 more hours we arrive in Quito. Talk about spontaneity.

After checking back into our hostel we are told, to our dismay, that the debit card has not arrived. Shit. We retreat to our room to investigate. When we log into the wifi we immediately receive emails that our passports are ready, over a week early! Great news! (Unfortunately we had them shipped to Guayaquil in the south, so we have to go chase them down there later.) Even better, 15 minutes later Keegan´s debit card arrives. Hurray! So, feeling very happy, we settle into our room for a chill night because we have big plans for the morning: riding the TeleferiQo (a gondola that leaves from Quito), climbing Volcan Pichincha (at 15,696 feet), and then getting an afternoon bus to Latacunga. We met our roommates that night, an American guy and a friend he´d picked up whose name we never learned because he was introduced to us as The Italian Rambo. The description fit, the dude was massive and seriously a character. He carried his backpack on his shoulder, he always had a massive leatherman knife strapped to his waist, and he showed us where he stored his money: in a flap sewed into the back of his underwear. Italian Rambo heard of our plans to climb Pichincha the next day and invited himself (and later his Swiss friend, Sara, who was staying at a hostel just down from ours.) We couldn´t really say no because he is Italian Rambo.

The next morning we hop out of bed early and head for the TeleferiQo. Italian Rambo, as it turns out, is afraid of heights. So that was an interesting and hilarious character development. The TeleferiQo drops you off at 13,400ft and that is where we began to hike. Unbeknownst to us, we IMMEDIATELY took the wrong trail (labeling trails doesn´t really seem to be a priority in Ecuador.) After about 30-40 minutes of hiking we can see the trail we should be on and we can also see that we are not really on any trail at all. At this point Italian Rambo is really struggling with the altitude. Muscle mass doesn´t matter when you are from Sicily and you don´t pack enough water or snacks. It is also at this point that Sara tells us she has had knee surgery and might not be able to make it to the top.. double face palm. Because we still want to make it to Latacunga at a reasonable hour, we kindly leave our friends behind and highly encourage them to turn back, which they eventually did. Heading off solo we make way better time and start getting into some serious hiking. As will happen when you are over 14000ft, the weather turned sour quickly. Another group of hikers told us we were only 15 minutes from the top, so we pushed on at the point where we were about to throw in the towel. 10 minutes later the rain gets heavier and fog starts to move in so thick that we can´t see the trail for more than 15 feet. That was our cue. We were probably only 5 minutes from the top but we didn´t know the way, it was´t well marked, we certainly couldn´t see it, and we still had to hike down. We called it quits (there are always other days and other peaks) and high-tailed it out of there. What took us 4 hours to get up, only took about an hour to get down. 

Early in the hike we got charged by a damn llama! I didn´t even know llamas did that. The only reason this is significant is because I turn around as the llama is coming at us and Italian Rambo already has his knife out somehow. I actually had to say "Do not stab that llama" and he actually replied "why?" Italian Rambo was an amazing creature. (No llamas or people were hurt luckily.)

You´ll notice me off in the middle of no where. This was us getting back on the right trail and also the point where we left our friends behind.

The fog moved around a lot. One minute was clear, the next was super foggy again.

Somewhere in there was our destination

Blue skies kept making us hopefully, but they were just trickery!

We think just over that ledge was the top, but we couldn´t see anything and we couldn´t be sure. Not worth the risk.

Luckily we packed a lot of snacks, water and warm clothes so we could keep smiling despite the weather.

We jetted back to the hostel to get our bags and then piled onto a very crowded public transport down to the bus terminal where we hopped on a bus bound for Latacunga. This time we would definitely make it to Latacunga, the place we were most excited for in Ecuador, without any more delays!!!!

This is all we´ve got between the two of us. Makes packing up pretty easy!