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So arrived into quito after a small detour via columbia where the world most s***e airport is with a million guards. Quito is considerably higher than alot of other cities meaning there is less oxygen which was instantly noticable. I got a taxi to a hostel called The Secret Garden. Obciously my room would be on the top floor which is noramally an annoyance but is even worse with a massive backpack and no oxygen. My first mistake was to sit down and have a nice cold beer which is normally a big nono when you arrive at altitude but it slipped my mind. Luckily it didnt cause any problems. The hostel was fairly cheap, 4 pound a night but after you add dinner and breakfast on it cost more like 10 quid. My first night sleep was wierd as my breathing wasnt right, a common problem at alititude. The next day i went with a few guys up a cable car on a nearby mountain. The view was real good but walking anywhere was a nightmare again because i was still acclimatizing. I then went to the worst turkish bath with luke warm water and cold steam room. The next day i went to the ecautor. First the main one with the monument made by the french which turned out to be 200m out of place, we then went to the small place about the real one which turned out to be really interesting. Only 9 years ago the discoved a monument on top of a near by mountain. I was a wall that starts exactly on the ecuator then goes in a semi circle and stops marking the angle of the earths tilt. The monument was over 1000 years old. In the evening i got talking to an American who was going to climb a mountain in the south, Cotopaxi. I decided i would give it a go to so i went with im in the morning and booked. I became slightly concerned when we started checkin for the correct size of ice axe and other serious equipment. When i then asked about how fit i needed to be i was told by the guy, normal fitness. I now know normal means normal for a very fit person. In an exercise for acclimatizing we decided to go south to a crator called Quilatoa.
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