Day 6: Chimborazo y Guayaquil

January 8

You know how sometimes people tell you that your head is up in the clouds? Well today I was higher than the clouds. Literally.

Welcome to Volcano Chimborazo! With an altitude of about 5000 meters (15000 feet)  above sea level I was standing higher than the clouds! Cool right?! It was.... but not a first. The drive to the volcano was awful. I felt so sick do to the altitude! My doctor gave me pills to help with altitude sickness but I didn't know we would be so high and I had them packed away in my suitcase.

Chimborazo Volcano

We stopped to take pictures of the view!

 We drove up to the first cabin and had some coco tea to help make us feel better. I remember I was given some when I was in Peru but I didn't like it. This time it really helped! The plan was to walk to the second cabin. It's only 1 km away but on average it takes 45 minutes to climb. We were told that if we still didn't feel good after the tea we could stay and wait. A couple of the girls felt so bad they couldn't climb.

Do you see where the clouds are in the background?!

We had two tour guides - one in front and one at the back (for us slow pokes). It was hard because you walked ten steps and were out of breath! It was crazy but I was so determined to make it to the top. And when I say the top, it wasn't even the top of the volcano, it was just the next cabin.

Proof of the Altitude!

It's kind of ironic that I am wearing a toque and sunglasses. At first it was really cold, but after we started hiking it got really warm! It was a very cool experience. How many of you can say you climbed a volcano?

Not a very good picture as it was taken on the bus.

Coming down was much easier that going up and it didn't take nearly as long. When we got down we started our five hour bus ride to Guayaquil to meet our new host families! The journey was long, but fun at the same time. We talked and played games and had incredible views!! Driving through the clouds was a little scary however; to our left was the edge of a mountain, in front was ... well who knows because it was so cloudy! It was almost like a scene from a movie. Unfortunately my pictures didn't turn out very well.