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So myself and Anthony(the texan guy) got a taxi to the bus station and had the fright of our lifes. After paying the taxi driver we got out the cab to find the boot open and our bags gone. Panicking and shouting at the taxi driver we found out he had figured out where we were going and had called his mates over to put our bags on the right bus. So of we went running down the road after the bus and our bags, we got it stopped and found our luggage underneath. The journey took a few ours and as usual we made a friend on the bus, a local woman who was going to help us get of at the right place. Once in Latacunga the woman decided that she would take us to hers for some reason, we followed then decided that there was no real point and we didn't have the time. After Anthony(he speaks the Spanish) told her this she then walked us round and round the place then eventually we found a rubbish hotel. We thanked her and sent on her way. The town didn't really have much to offer other than a bunch of overpriced guided tours companies.
The next day Anthony wanted to goto a small town nearby as there was a market there that was meant to be very important to Ecuador. Firstly we changed hotels as the perspex box in the middle of our room for a cold shower didn't really go well with us. I still don't know the name of that town and i probably will never know. The market was just a market and sold all the usual stuff but was great for photos. I did but some stuff which later meant i had to buy another bag as my rucksack had ran out of room. I became better at haggling at the market, something i had never really done before.
The following day we set of for the Quilotoa crator. This involved getting a local but firstly to a small town. The driver was also a roller coaster operator in his spare time and liked to practice while driving the bus, it was fun. Once in the town we found some guy with a truck and paid him to drive us to the crator. It was a rough ride up there as road maintenance was not really existent here, or well anywhere in south America. He said he would be back the next day to pick us up. We found a "hostel" which looked ok untill we actually discovered it had no running water, little electricity and no heating. We didn't mind as it was only a night. We went to the crator to had a walk around but in the end decided to walk to the bottom. The walk was easy and was only 40 minutes down. The crator is filled with water which is 240m deep. At the bottom we hired a canoo and went out to the middle of the lake but the weather deteariated and the waves started appearing, our asses got wet so we headed back to shore. The walk back up the crator wall prooved alot harder then the walk down. I was dying but made it. I blame it on the altitude. That night was cold, very cold. I was fully dressed inside my sleeping bag with several cover over me.
In the morning the hostel guy appeared at the window of the room the proceeded to climb in it. He was looking after the hostel for a mate and didn't have keys, it was all very weird but it was fine as we had got a bed for the night. He said he would give us a lift back as he was going to the market in town. So Anthony and i as well about 14 other random people got in/on the truck and headed back to town. I was impressed by the amount of people that had fitted in/on but as we sped down the road passing other vehicles i was surprised to see that every vehicle had at least 20 people hanging on to it, all heading to market. The market was boring but the most interesting thing was the bit where the were selling sheep meat. There was 3 people each with a dead sheep hanging upside down being skinned, gutted act. Beside that was a flock of sheep with a mark on there back made by blood, they were all alive. The in front of these "what's going on" sheep was a bucket and a man with a big knife. He walks over to the sheep and grabs one and takes it over to the bucket. He then does some ninja moves and gets it in a position with the sheeps neck over the bucket. He then does something weird, firstly he cuts the neck open exposing it all then finds the arteries then cuts them. The sheep didn't make much noise but i don't think it was enjoying it as it kept twitching. The worst part was that this whole horror show had taken place right in front of the next sheep in line. Once the blood bath was finished we got on a bus with people and chickens, that were alive. Once back in Latacunga we got a bus in the general direction of the next hostel that we were staying in the night before going to Cotopaxi.
The hostel was empty but had perfect views of the mountain. That night Anthony had drilled it in my head to "CARBOLOAD". So lots of food i ate and full i felt. The best thing about the hostel was that it had hot showers. In the morning our guides arrived and the other person who was going to climb the mountain. A huge guy from the Brazilian army. We were giving out kit which included waterproofs, food, ice axe, crampons and other stuff like gloves. We had another massive meal then headed to the national park. The drive was long which was good as it meant less to hike. We eventually got to a car park that there was coaches at. I have no idea how the coaches got there, we were in a 4x4 and had struggled with the track. The car park was fairly far up the mountain but it wasn't really steep at this point. I had a rather interesting pee in the wind. I think i broke a record for distance!( with the winds aid) but the onlooking tourists were probably mortified. We put our gear on and our massive packs then started the walk up. It was off putting when women in skirts ran by while you in your mountain climbing outfit struggled with every step. The walk took about 40 minutes and was the hardest walk of my life. My lungs hurt from breathing. At the top was the refuge. Oh when i say top i mean as far up as you can go without entering the glacier area or where your body cant recover from the altitude. The hut was at 15,750 ft. the summit is 19,300 ft. Anyway in the hut is not much other than some seats and lots of beds. Quad bunks. We ate then lay down then ate again. We went outside and watched the sun go down but quickly got back inside as it was bloody cold. We could see Quito from up there and the lightning over it. We then had to go "to sleep" till 12am. No one can sleep, it incredibly cold, you feel ill from the altitude plus you are thinking about what you have to do in a few hours. So when it hit 12 we all got out of bed and got out gear on, had a quick breakfast then headed to the start of the snow/ice. Once there we put out crampons on and got roped together. I went with one guide and the other 2 with another. They did this as it was my first mountain. The guide went in front of me. My guide spoke little English. All he had to say was "slowly slowly". It was hard. A weird hard. It wasn't like how i normally feel when doing fitness type stuff. My muscles were not sore and i wasn't really out of breath. I had my ipod on at the start but when we reached the first cravas i shat myself and turned it of. The cravas was deep. Very deep. i couldn't see the bottom. The guide got over it then stuck his axe in the ice so if i fell i didn't take him with me. I got over it but i could see how easy it would be to fall in and die. The side of it was very soft and breaking away under my feet. We crossed a few more on the way. The mountain got steeper, 50 to 60 degrees and the conditions got allot worse. the wind was about 60mph and the was blizzard. My head was starting to get sore and my stomach was getting nauseous. My pace had slowed down allot. One reason was because that bloody guide kept saying "slowly slowly". The thought of giving up started crossing my mind but then i remember, Anthony and i had discussed how it would be hard for me and he had joked that i shout walk untill i threw up. So i did just that. I kept asking the guy how our pace was and he said ok. I started to have to stop allot and my guide kept making me wee seats in the slope. After a couple of hours of this i started trying to push myself because of time. The reason you climb in the mountain in the night is because during the day the sun melts the snow and you would cause lots of avalanches. The sun had started to come up. I was walked so slowly, i would stick the ice axe in and lean on it while i lifted one foot then the other. I was a snail. We eventually got to a flatter bit and i asked him how far to go, 300m he said. I decided that there was no point as i was feeling so bad and my pace was so slow it would be pointless as i would not make the top. The guy gave me hug and congratulated me, i had made it to 5600m. We turned around and i walked about 5 meters then threw up. Like at the bottom the wind proved fun and projected it over a wide area which i later found out the other climbers had the joy of walking in. The walk up had taken about 5 hours. Going back down was slower that it should of been as i felt so bad. Going over the craves downhill was bloody scary. It took about an hour or so the get down. I had to use the ice axe on myself as i was starting to turn into an ice man. The ice had built up to about a centimeter on my body. At the bottom I didn't wait long till the other got back. The Brazilian had went mental when he made it to the top, pulled out a flag and everything. We didn't waste time and headed straight back down to the jeep, i stopped to pick up some of the small volcanic rocks on the way for souvenirs. The guide drops us off at a toll booth so we can get a bus to a town called Banos. It wasn't long till one came.
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