Subimos una montaña, ahora somos andinistos

This weekend a referendum took place in Ecuador on whether the constitution should be changed to try to reduce corruption. Interestingly, voting is compulsory, and no alcohol could be sold or consumed all weekend.

With the political instability of Ecuador, anything could happen. So it seemed a good weekend to get out of Quito. With a couple of German gringos (K and A) I headed 50 km south to climb Volcan Illiza. At 5118m, this would be the highest mountain I had ever climbed (pt. Lenana on Mount Kenya is 4985m). Given this, I was worried that my atitude to this trip might have been too relaxed. I needn't have been. As it turned out, I was the most prepared of anyone to climb the mountain.

On Friday (Viernes) night we were the only people in the hostel in the small town of Chaupi at 3800m . On Saturday (Sabado) we climbed to the refuge at 4600m. "A" then decided to climb the rest of the mountain that day with a big Ecuadorian party who were at the hut. He was pretty intent on it, despite our advice on acclimatisation and the daily weather patterns (clearer in the morning, wet in the afternoon) . Myself and K climbed a little higher then waited out the rest of the day at the hut.

Just after dark, the Ecuadorians and "A" returned, wet and cold, and about three hours late. A tricky scramble with a big inexperienced group does not make for a quick outing. The Ecuadorians wanted to descend to the town that evening. They set out down the path but soon returned, having decided that they had got wet and cold enough for one day. They were completely unprepared for a night in the hut, so we shared our clothes and food with them. Unsurprisingly "A" had a horrible headache and got no sleep.

The next day, myself and K ascended in the dry of the morning to the summit of Iliniza Norte. We had some great views, although the summit was cloudy. Ilinaza Norte sits hidden behind Illinza Sud which takes the brunt of the prevailing weather. Much of the time the southern sister has its own lenticular cloud and the associated extra snow makes it a technically difficult climb.

The route was not dissimilar to a Skye scramble with a small snow patches - except at 5 times the altitude. An enjoyable scramble, but not beyond our abilities. We were back at the hut in 4 hours - it had taken the other group 7. I was pleased that the altitude had not been a major problem. This bodes well for the later higher Peruvian peaks I plan to climb. Being in Quito at 2800m was definitely a good start, and the acclimatisation process above was just about sufficiently slow.

Overall it was great to get out of Quito and away from western malls and the such like - these are not what I came to south America for. In the rural areas, travelling on the chaos of the local buses it suddenly became much clearer that Ecuador is very much a developing nation. The cost of the weekend was incredible: Buses $4. Hostel $10. Hut (El Refugio) $8. Food $8. Return "taxi" up some of the mountain $8. Park fees $5. Total $43. In the Alps, the same would have cost $150+.

My Spanish is progressing, but not as fast as I would like. Some days progress is exciting and I come in after 6 hours of Spanish wanting to do more. Others days, lack of progress is frustrating, particularly when locals don't understand me. One of our teachers in particular is a real personality and enjoys telling us dirty jokes in Spanish! This week I will take some private lessons with the intention of speaking more than we get to in the group lessons. Soon I want to get to the stage where I can speak without thinking first - I need to start thinking in Spanish.

Andinisto is one of my favorite words so far - it means one who climbs in the Andes.

Hasta la proxima vez,

FC