Day 3 - So I heard that Beverly and Peter were planning to go to the Teleferiqo as was i the next day so I arranged to catch a lift there, bearing in mind i thought the cable car ride was it. I was informed there was a trek up to the volcano so I thought..why not! Little did I know!...So the base station is at 3050m. On the way up an airplane passed over Quito, it was amazing to see we were on a level with it and going up! Onto the trek... "Oh that looks ok" I thought as I looked up the hill my eyes following the clearly marked out path up to the not too steep hill. About 2 and 1/2 hours in and this never ending path starts to get a little tricky...getting steeper and eventually ending where a rocky incline to the rim of the volcano leads...Not sure i signed up for this!.. At this point we could only take a few steps and have to stop to catch some oxygen. Unfortunately we had to leave Beverly as we were having to use our arms to climb the rocks and she was getting pins and needles in hers and could no longer use them. About 150m to the top and this took about 40min, my body was screaming to stop but i needed to get to the top even though the clouds had moved in and any chance of me and a scenic mountain picture at 4627m had gone. p.s I later found out that Mont Blanc is 4800m, so not bad for me then!Despite my body's massive attempts at getting me to stop, i did it! Quick chat with 3 guys from the us who we had been chasing up there, couple of photos, an Oreo biscuit and back down. The fun part was running down the sand dunes feeling like Mr. Soft (chewy mint man from an tv advert of years gone by). I noticed my hands had swelled a little and my nails had gone blue, I sought reassurance from Peter that I was not going to die...not to worry just a sign of lack of Oxygen. I also started to develop a stonking headache, maybe the start of altitude sickness? it did only take 1 and 1/2 to come back down...too fast? I really should know more about this stuff next time.A paracetamol, pack of Pringles, full fat coke and a lie down later and i was heading into Marical with Elaine and Christina for a wicked Mexican dinner and a well deserved Corona and Lime. Heaven! X