Well, I'm back and what a fantastic trip it was. We didn't get to see whale sharks, but the other large pelagics more than made up for that!
We flew into Guayaquil, Ecuador a few days early so we could see the country side a bit. We got into Guayaquil late on friday due to American's flight running late out of Miami. But finally we touched down and retrieved our baggage. Low and behold, the driver for the Grand Hotel Guayaquil was waiting for us at the exit. I will say that the entire time in Guayaquil, this hotel treated us wonderfully!
Anyway, we booked af the GHG for three nights even though we wouldn't be spending all three nights there, just our luggage would. The next morning the Hotel's van took us to the airport for our early flight out on Tame to Quito (this flight also ran late which was par for the course on every flight this trip).
Quito was nice, I liked it better than the small glimpse of Guayaquil that we had. We stayed at the Los Alpes Hostel which was a very nice and inexpensive hotel next to the American Embasy. That dayed we walked around Quito and Old Town and ate some wonderful meals in the local restuarants.
The next morning we were met by Christian from a tour company we hired to take us by four wheel drive up to Cotopaxi, which is a 20,000 foot peak volcano near the Andies range. It was a long beautiful trip driving up there and we parked the 4X4 at around 15,000 feet elevation on the side of the volcano.
We got out into the cold and began climbing the steep trail up to the base camp building at around 16,000 feet elevation. Because of the thin atmosphere it was like climbing while looking through two paper towel rolls, and you definetly had to take baby steps. I wanted to continue up to the glacier/ice pack so we climbed and additional 1000 foot elevation to where it started. Mind you, I'm only dressed in a sweatshirt, shorts and tevas and it is well below freezing with alternate snow and sleet whipping around us!
Anyway, we reached the beginning of the ice, and I got the crazy idea that I want to climb up even further. Well my wife and the guide both said "uhn-uh, no way!", so I said okay, see ya in a bit and started up the snow covered icy slope. I scambled up about another seven or eight hundred feet in elevation, passing a couple of climbers in full artic gear, ice axes, crampons... the works, who looked at me like I'm an apparition!
I climbed until I was stopped by a large ice crevass that there is no way I could jump over without an ice ax or something like that. So I turned around and mostly on my butt, made my way back down to my slightly pissed off wife.
If you go to Ecuador, ya gotta go up onto Cotopaxi, absolutely beautiful!!!
*Continued in reply....
We flew into Guayaquil, Ecuador a few days early so we could see the country side a bit. We got into Guayaquil late on friday due to American's flight running late out of Miami. But finally we touched down and retrieved our baggage. Low and behold, the driver for the Grand Hotel Guayaquil was waiting for us at the exit. I will say that the entire time in Guayaquil, this hotel treated us wonderfully!
Anyway, we booked af the GHG for three nights even though we wouldn't be spending all three nights there, just our luggage would. The next morning the Hotel's van took us to the airport for our early flight out on Tame to Quito (this flight also ran late which was par for the course on every flight this trip).
Quito was nice, I liked it better than the small glimpse of Guayaquil that we had. We stayed at the Los Alpes Hostel which was a very nice and inexpensive hotel next to the American Embasy. That dayed we walked around Quito and Old Town and ate some wonderful meals in the local restuarants.
The next morning we were met by Christian from a tour company we hired to take us by four wheel drive up to Cotopaxi, which is a 20,000 foot peak volcano near the Andies range. It was a long beautiful trip driving up there and we parked the 4X4 at around 15,000 feet elevation on the side of the volcano.
We got out into the cold and began climbing the steep trail up to the base camp building at around 16,000 feet elevation. Because of the thin atmosphere it was like climbing while looking through two paper towel rolls, and you definetly had to take baby steps. I wanted to continue up to the glacier/ice pack so we climbed and additional 1000 foot elevation to where it started. Mind you, I'm only dressed in a sweatshirt, shorts and tevas and it is well below freezing with alternate snow and sleet whipping around us!
Anyway, we reached the beginning of the ice, and I got the crazy idea that I want to climb up even further. Well my wife and the guide both said "uhn-uh, no way!", so I said okay, see ya in a bit and started up the snow covered icy slope. I scambled up about another seven or eight hundred feet in elevation, passing a couple of climbers in full artic gear, ice axes, crampons... the works, who looked at me like I'm an apparition!
I climbed until I was stopped by a large ice crevass that there is no way I could jump over without an ice ax or something like that. So I turned around and mostly on my butt, made my way back down to my slightly pissed off wife.
If you go to Ecuador, ya gotta go up onto Cotopaxi, absolutely beautiful!!!
*Continued in reply....