Friday, October 29, 2010
Screw the beach,..I`m going climbing!
After spending my 3rd night in Montañita I woke up and decided to head back to Cuenca!! Haha I just can’t seem to get away from that city. I had a few reasons behind my sudden change of heart. Number one was the weather. It rained every day I was in Montañita; I went for a swim and froze my ass off. Jeez... Not so tropical. Another few reasons were the people. Montañita is full of people wanting to party, get wasted, waste their money, and hang out with other tourists. Not really my scene. I was planning on heading north and camping alone but I just wasn’t feeling it. The weather was the main factor. Plus, I had kind of made plans to go camping on a mountain near Cuenca with the Buenos Aires pizza chef and when he called me all excited to tell me he bought a Tent and sleeping bag just for the trip I didn’t feel right ditching him. So when I woke up, I quickly packed all my things, ran to the highway and jumped on a bus headed for Guayaquil. I was told this was a direct bus. Yah well. Direct to a town where I had to switch busses... Haha wtf... I made the switch, rode another 3 hours on the bus and made it to Guayaquil without much of a hassle at all. When I arrived at the bus terminal (remember, it’s the size of YVR) a guy, probably 19 came up to me. I knew the drill; he’d show me around get my ticket and get me on the bus. All he wanted in return was some mooola. I was ok with this today because I didn’t feel like wandering around. We rushed to the counter bought a ticket to Cuenca for me, rushed upstairs and I was on a bus in less then5 minutes. The best 3 dollars I’ve spent since I’ve been here. The bus to Cuenca is pretty awesome. You go through the city then the rural fields of Guayaquil. After this the bus enters Cajas national park. Awesome views. Wow. I think the highway goes about 4500 meters. You can see the clouds in the valley below, there’s super scary hairpin turns... Kind of like the highways at home! When the sun was setting I saw the nicest sunset! WOW. I’ve got a video of it but for some reason my blog won’t let me upload videos right now.
After a long 5 hour or so ride, with plenty of naps I was in Cuenca. I forgot to mention. My favourite thing about busses in this country? Every time you stop in a little town, people board and try to sell you Colas and ice cream and candied peanuts... fresh fruit, coconut water...Even empanadas!!! You don’t need to get off to find food. Food finds you. It was 8pm and I went straight to my usual hostel. It’s awesome. I get a room with 2 beds, free wifi and no checkout time for 7 dollars a night. Pretty good deal. Once I dropped all my stuff off I went across the street for a Pizza and to talk with buddy about camping. The pizza was great, thin crust, loaded with cheese, olives, oregano, tomatoes, peppers... mmm yumm. Buddy was stoked to leave in the morning. The plan was planned haha.
After dinner I went to bed a picked a movie to watch. When I was in Montañita this ausie guy I met had 500GB of movies on a portable hard drive so I got hooked up! I quickly dozed off and morning was upon me.
After showering in the morning and calling Buddy we met up and went grocery shopping. He tried to convince me that we should each only bring 500ML of water. Uh... No... We bought fruits and veggies. Wine, chocolate, tuna, cheese and bread... We went back to his restaurant and packed it all up. I got the short end of the stick in this regard. You see, he only had a little pack which fit his tent, some clothes and not much more. He also had this massive sleeping bag to carry. So I loaded my pack with all the water the food, my tent, my sleeping bag, paper for the fire, my stove...and a buinch of other shit. 50 pounds later my pack was finished. We walked through town looking for white gas or kerosene or something. But we didn’t find anything and decided we’d just cook on the fire. I hope we find wood to burn...
We caught a cab out of Cuenca, around a mountain little mountain and got dropped off at the base of the bigger mountain that was lurking over us. It was steep, but not rocky. Mostly rolling grassy hills with sections of pine and ecuopiptis trees. We didn’t have any particular destination in mind except up. So, up we climbed. Wow. So fucking hard. I can’t even explain it. After hanging out by the ocean for 4 days my lungs were used to the extra oxygen. So wearing a 50 pound pack and climbing a steep mountain at 3000 meters was super hard. My lungs couldn’t get enough oxygen and I found myself gasping for air. On top of this my weak chicken legs were burning under the extra weight. Luckily for me I was hiking with a guy from Buenos Aires that never climbs mountains in his life and he wanted to stop every 10 meters. The sun was out and we were both dripping with sweat. We climbed, stopped, climbed some more, stopped, climbed a little more, ate lunch. After lunch we climbed our last bit of the hike and stopped in this big open field. There was cows here and there wandering around and grass up to our knees. The view was more than 180 degrees looking over Cuenca, Banos, and some other rural mountain settlements. You could see mountains way way way off in the distance and see a storm far off swirling towards Cuenca. And nothing but complete silence. I mean actual silence. No water, no birds. Just the wind through the grass and once in a while a cow mooing. I figured out later that there was a random nomad farmer that kikes around with his cows and lets them graze on the long grass.
After we set up our tents we gathered some wood and made a fire. Marcus told me he had never hiked like this, never camped, and never lit a fire. This became apparent when I watched him try to light the fire. I dug a hole in the field as a fire pit but then went to my tent for a minute. I came back to a really funny scene. He had crumpled all the paper and put it in the hole, put ALL the wood, including the big old stumps we found in a meter tall pile. His plan was to light this and call it good. After a short discussion about proper fire lighting technique he agreed to let me dismantle his pile and light it my way.
Once the fire was nice and hot we cooked mushrooms, onions, garlic, zucchini, broccoli, bread, tuna, cheese, and peppers in the hot coals. We feasted on our creation and washed it down with a litre of boxed wine. The wine in this country. Not so hot. Chile and Argentina are the only two countries that have the pimp wines. After dinner we sat around the fire, burnt the rest of our wood and called it a night. I was standing by my tent getting ready for bed, and I realized I was looking at something I’d never seen before. Fire flies!! Wow... I can’t even put it into words. Standing in as grassy meadow at 3000 meters, pitch black except for a little bit of moonlight, a small flicker of light illuminating my tent, complete silence and the whole meadow flicking with fire flies. Magical is the best word I can describe it with. I tucked into my tent for the night, and just before I went to sleep I called Cati on my phone. HAHA so far away from everything yet I can make calls on my phone. Such a dork... We talked for a few minutes and I drifted into sleep land with a smile on my face... I love falling asleep in a tent.
In the middle of the night I awoke to buddy calling my name. “Max... Max... MAX! Are you awake..?”
“Yeah... what is it... you ok?”
“Come outside, it’s amazing!”
I crawled out of my tent, well, half out of my tent and saw buddy standing in the moon light with his head cocked back looking at the stars. It was, really beautiful... Full moonlight breaking through the clouds, stars bright and flickering, fire flies dancing around. I took all this in for a few minutes, said goodnight again and tucked myself back in.
I slept soundly until 9am, when I couldn’t ignore the fact that my tent was roasting me alive in the sun. Just like in the middle of the night, I crawled out, except this time, I pulled my sleeping bag out laid it in the sun and baked. Yep, defiantly not missing the 5 degree days in the Kootenays. We made tea on the fire, ate a mango and some Mr Noodles and packed our stuff up. We took a different and steeper route down. Wow, my legs were sooooo effed up. They felt like jello. We were walking down a steep gully when all of a sudden the bag that had buddies sleeping bag and his pack went zipping past me. I could hear him saying oh fuck oh fuck and I couldn’t help but laugh... An accident right? Nope, he figured since we were going down he just toss his shit down the hill. What he didn’t take into consideration was the sharp grade of the hill and the fact there was water running down the center of the gully. His bag opened, his tent flew out and his sleeping bag came to rest in the water about 50 meters below us. Smooth. So smooth.
After a few hours of down climbing we made it to the road, caught a bus and made it back to Cuenca. All in all, even though I got a little frustrated with my non mountain hip friend, it was a magical trip. The scene with the fire flies will always be with me when I think about Ecuador. The rest of the day I didn’t much, bought a few essentials, watched a movie, and went for dinner. I discovered this Columbian place that makes these corn pancake things. They put cheese or guacamole or salsa or pretty much anything you can think of on top. SO good. I talked to Juan Gabriel just before bed and made plans to go to his place in the morning. He wasn’t going to be there but his buddy John from Columbia would be. The plan in my head played out as I fell asleep. Climb every day until Sunday, Sunday, wake up for an early morning climb, catch a bus to Cuenca, and then catch a bus to Guayaquil. Monday morning, wake up, lurk around Guayaquil then catch my airplane to Lima at 640pm. Tues morning, go meet Cati at the airport!!!! Such a good plan. I slept like a baby.
In the morning I woke up and caught my bus to Cojitambo to meet John. John is a really nice dood that is about as far along with his English as I am with my Spanish. Perfect. He speaks English to me, I answer in Spanish. It’s actually a great way to learn. After getting to Juan’s house and unloading my things we discussed where to climb, packed our stuff and started hiking. We climbed an easy 2 pitch climb to the top of the mountain and then hiked across the top and rappelled down to the usual ledge where Helados Helados is and the 13 Named Kusha. It actually wasn’t the plan to come here but on the approach we got lost and I lead him to the only climbs I knew how to get to. One thing I have to mention is that for the last 24 hours I’ve been wearing my glasses.
So, we rapped in got set up for Helados Helados and John did the first lead. He made it pretty far, but from what I understood he has just been in a motorcycle accident and was pretty stiff. He called it quits, we drank some Mate and then it was my turn. I wasn’t really feeling amped about climbing this one again but it is such a beautiful climb so I agreed. I made it to the crux, was standing on an awful foot hold and I forgot about a crimp that is essential. I slipped and fell. John had me pretty tight on the rope so this meant a high impact fall. I slammed my shit into the rock and scraped it for 12 inches. My body flailed on the rope and... my glasses fell off!!! Fucking hell... I knew those looses pieces of shit would fall off one day. I don’t normally climb in glasses but I had forgotten to put on my contacts. I watched my glasses fall 120 meters to the ground... well actually I saw them fall about 10 feet then I couldn’t see anything at all. Fuck. Ok well here’s a first. 120 meters up a cliff face, climbing a 12b, pretty much blind with my shin dripping blood soaking my jeans. I worked my way up to the last quick draw john had placed and called take. I switched out the draw for an old locker I had and got lowered back down to the ledge. My shin looked and felt worse than it was. Nothing deep. Just a bad scrape, a bruise and some blood. A rain storm was coming in and since I couldn’t see anything we decided to rappel down and get out of dodge. As I was rappelling the 120 meters, a thought occurred to me. I’m so blind... I rely on my glasses and my contacts way too much. For someone who loves to live in the mountains, someone who constantly finds himself in rain storms, snowstorms and any other kind of storm, I really need my eye sight. The conclusion I came to as descended the mountain, half blind, bleeding and wet was that I should probably start seriously considering laser eye surgery. The idea scares me, but the benefit would be huge.
After we made it to the ground, we walked in the rain to the store, bought a few beers and continued our soggy walk home. We made dinner and called it a night. As I fell asleep, I contemplated the day, the conclusion about my eyes and thought... everything really does happen for a reason.
All night it pissed rain, so in the morning we decided to take it easy and lounge out until the sun dried the mountain out. We had coffee, eggs, toast and yogurt for breakfast and after, Gustavo, Juan’s worker came in with a glass of what looked like pineapple juice. But pineapple juice it was not. I was liquid drained from these massive agave plants that were in the yard. Same stuff they make tequila out of. It was sweet, warm and had an after taste of mild B.O... Not something I’d buy in the store, but not bad. In the afternoon we climbed a 3 pitch 5.10 and after we rappelled down we climbed 2 5.12s. As I was climbing, the fall from the day before was playing out in my mind and I had a hard time concentrating. When your lead climbing you want lots of slack in the rope. The more slack, the softer the fall in. Yesterday John had me super tight on the rope and today I felt a slight sense of distrust in my belayer. Not a good mix for strong climbing. We finished the day without Incident and went home. I watched a movie, talked to Cati and went to sleep. I woke up this morning with a wealth of emotions, none stronger than the others but it left me with the same feeling I had just before I left Canada. It’s hard to explain but it’s almost like there’s so many emotions that they cancel each other out and I feel blank. I Leave Ecuador in a few days and my mind is already starting to reflect on my time spent here, and looking forward to my next stop Lima Peru. I’m sure as my adventures in Peru start it we be easier to put my thoughts and feelings about Ecuador into words. Love.
After a long 5 hour or so ride, with plenty of naps I was in Cuenca. I forgot to mention. My favourite thing about busses in this country? Every time you stop in a little town, people board and try to sell you Colas and ice cream and candied peanuts... fresh fruit, coconut water...Even empanadas!!! You don’t need to get off to find food. Food finds you. It was 8pm and I went straight to my usual hostel. It’s awesome. I get a room with 2 beds, free wifi and no checkout time for 7 dollars a night. Pretty good deal. Once I dropped all my stuff off I went across the street for a Pizza and to talk with buddy about camping. The pizza was great, thin crust, loaded with cheese, olives, oregano, tomatoes, peppers... mmm yumm. Buddy was stoked to leave in the morning. The plan was planned haha.
After dinner I went to bed a picked a movie to watch. When I was in Montañita this ausie guy I met had 500GB of movies on a portable hard drive so I got hooked up! I quickly dozed off and morning was upon me.
After showering in the morning and calling Buddy we met up and went grocery shopping. He tried to convince me that we should each only bring 500ML of water. Uh... No... We bought fruits and veggies. Wine, chocolate, tuna, cheese and bread... We went back to his restaurant and packed it all up. I got the short end of the stick in this regard. You see, he only had a little pack which fit his tent, some clothes and not much more. He also had this massive sleeping bag to carry. So I loaded my pack with all the water the food, my tent, my sleeping bag, paper for the fire, my stove...and a buinch of other shit. 50 pounds later my pack was finished. We walked through town looking for white gas or kerosene or something. But we didn’t find anything and decided we’d just cook on the fire. I hope we find wood to burn...
We caught a cab out of Cuenca, around a mountain little mountain and got dropped off at the base of the bigger mountain that was lurking over us. It was steep, but not rocky. Mostly rolling grassy hills with sections of pine and ecuopiptis trees. We didn’t have any particular destination in mind except up. So, up we climbed. Wow. So fucking hard. I can’t even explain it. After hanging out by the ocean for 4 days my lungs were used to the extra oxygen. So wearing a 50 pound pack and climbing a steep mountain at 3000 meters was super hard. My lungs couldn’t get enough oxygen and I found myself gasping for air. On top of this my weak chicken legs were burning under the extra weight. Luckily for me I was hiking with a guy from Buenos Aires that never climbs mountains in his life and he wanted to stop every 10 meters. The sun was out and we were both dripping with sweat. We climbed, stopped, climbed some more, stopped, climbed a little more, ate lunch. After lunch we climbed our last bit of the hike and stopped in this big open field. There was cows here and there wandering around and grass up to our knees. The view was more than 180 degrees looking over Cuenca, Banos, and some other rural mountain settlements. You could see mountains way way way off in the distance and see a storm far off swirling towards Cuenca. And nothing but complete silence. I mean actual silence. No water, no birds. Just the wind through the grass and once in a while a cow mooing. I figured out later that there was a random nomad farmer that kikes around with his cows and lets them graze on the long grass.
After we set up our tents we gathered some wood and made a fire. Marcus told me he had never hiked like this, never camped, and never lit a fire. This became apparent when I watched him try to light the fire. I dug a hole in the field as a fire pit but then went to my tent for a minute. I came back to a really funny scene. He had crumpled all the paper and put it in the hole, put ALL the wood, including the big old stumps we found in a meter tall pile. His plan was to light this and call it good. After a short discussion about proper fire lighting technique he agreed to let me dismantle his pile and light it my way.
Once the fire was nice and hot we cooked mushrooms, onions, garlic, zucchini, broccoli, bread, tuna, cheese, and peppers in the hot coals. We feasted on our creation and washed it down with a litre of boxed wine. The wine in this country. Not so hot. Chile and Argentina are the only two countries that have the pimp wines. After dinner we sat around the fire, burnt the rest of our wood and called it a night. I was standing by my tent getting ready for bed, and I realized I was looking at something I’d never seen before. Fire flies!! Wow... I can’t even put it into words. Standing in as grassy meadow at 3000 meters, pitch black except for a little bit of moonlight, a small flicker of light illuminating my tent, complete silence and the whole meadow flicking with fire flies. Magical is the best word I can describe it with. I tucked into my tent for the night, and just before I went to sleep I called Cati on my phone. HAHA so far away from everything yet I can make calls on my phone. Such a dork... We talked for a few minutes and I drifted into sleep land with a smile on my face... I love falling asleep in a tent.
In the middle of the night I awoke to buddy calling my name. “Max... Max... MAX! Are you awake..?”
“Yeah... what is it... you ok?”
“Come outside, it’s amazing!”
I crawled out of my tent, well, half out of my tent and saw buddy standing in the moon light with his head cocked back looking at the stars. It was, really beautiful... Full moonlight breaking through the clouds, stars bright and flickering, fire flies dancing around. I took all this in for a few minutes, said goodnight again and tucked myself back in.
I slept soundly until 9am, when I couldn’t ignore the fact that my tent was roasting me alive in the sun. Just like in the middle of the night, I crawled out, except this time, I pulled my sleeping bag out laid it in the sun and baked. Yep, defiantly not missing the 5 degree days in the Kootenays. We made tea on the fire, ate a mango and some Mr Noodles and packed our stuff up. We took a different and steeper route down. Wow, my legs were sooooo effed up. They felt like jello. We were walking down a steep gully when all of a sudden the bag that had buddies sleeping bag and his pack went zipping past me. I could hear him saying oh fuck oh fuck and I couldn’t help but laugh... An accident right? Nope, he figured since we were going down he just toss his shit down the hill. What he didn’t take into consideration was the sharp grade of the hill and the fact there was water running down the center of the gully. His bag opened, his tent flew out and his sleeping bag came to rest in the water about 50 meters below us. Smooth. So smooth.
After a few hours of down climbing we made it to the road, caught a bus and made it back to Cuenca. All in all, even though I got a little frustrated with my non mountain hip friend, it was a magical trip. The scene with the fire flies will always be with me when I think about Ecuador. The rest of the day I didn’t much, bought a few essentials, watched a movie, and went for dinner. I discovered this Columbian place that makes these corn pancake things. They put cheese or guacamole or salsa or pretty much anything you can think of on top. SO good. I talked to Juan Gabriel just before bed and made plans to go to his place in the morning. He wasn’t going to be there but his buddy John from Columbia would be. The plan in my head played out as I fell asleep. Climb every day until Sunday, Sunday, wake up for an early morning climb, catch a bus to Cuenca, and then catch a bus to Guayaquil. Monday morning, wake up, lurk around Guayaquil then catch my airplane to Lima at 640pm. Tues morning, go meet Cati at the airport!!!! Such a good plan. I slept like a baby.
In the morning I woke up and caught my bus to Cojitambo to meet John. John is a really nice dood that is about as far along with his English as I am with my Spanish. Perfect. He speaks English to me, I answer in Spanish. It’s actually a great way to learn. After getting to Juan’s house and unloading my things we discussed where to climb, packed our stuff and started hiking. We climbed an easy 2 pitch climb to the top of the mountain and then hiked across the top and rappelled down to the usual ledge where Helados Helados is and the 13 Named Kusha. It actually wasn’t the plan to come here but on the approach we got lost and I lead him to the only climbs I knew how to get to. One thing I have to mention is that for the last 24 hours I’ve been wearing my glasses.
So, we rapped in got set up for Helados Helados and John did the first lead. He made it pretty far, but from what I understood he has just been in a motorcycle accident and was pretty stiff. He called it quits, we drank some Mate and then it was my turn. I wasn’t really feeling amped about climbing this one again but it is such a beautiful climb so I agreed. I made it to the crux, was standing on an awful foot hold and I forgot about a crimp that is essential. I slipped and fell. John had me pretty tight on the rope so this meant a high impact fall. I slammed my shit into the rock and scraped it for 12 inches. My body flailed on the rope and... my glasses fell off!!! Fucking hell... I knew those looses pieces of shit would fall off one day. I don’t normally climb in glasses but I had forgotten to put on my contacts. I watched my glasses fall 120 meters to the ground... well actually I saw them fall about 10 feet then I couldn’t see anything at all. Fuck. Ok well here’s a first. 120 meters up a cliff face, climbing a 12b, pretty much blind with my shin dripping blood soaking my jeans. I worked my way up to the last quick draw john had placed and called take. I switched out the draw for an old locker I had and got lowered back down to the ledge. My shin looked and felt worse than it was. Nothing deep. Just a bad scrape, a bruise and some blood. A rain storm was coming in and since I couldn’t see anything we decided to rappel down and get out of dodge. As I was rappelling the 120 meters, a thought occurred to me. I’m so blind... I rely on my glasses and my contacts way too much. For someone who loves to live in the mountains, someone who constantly finds himself in rain storms, snowstorms and any other kind of storm, I really need my eye sight. The conclusion I came to as descended the mountain, half blind, bleeding and wet was that I should probably start seriously considering laser eye surgery. The idea scares me, but the benefit would be huge.
After we made it to the ground, we walked in the rain to the store, bought a few beers and continued our soggy walk home. We made dinner and called it a night. As I fell asleep, I contemplated the day, the conclusion about my eyes and thought... everything really does happen for a reason.
All night it pissed rain, so in the morning we decided to take it easy and lounge out until the sun dried the mountain out. We had coffee, eggs, toast and yogurt for breakfast and after, Gustavo, Juan’s worker came in with a glass of what looked like pineapple juice. But pineapple juice it was not. I was liquid drained from these massive agave plants that were in the yard. Same stuff they make tequila out of. It was sweet, warm and had an after taste of mild B.O... Not something I’d buy in the store, but not bad. In the afternoon we climbed a 3 pitch 5.10 and after we rappelled down we climbed 2 5.12s. As I was climbing, the fall from the day before was playing out in my mind and I had a hard time concentrating. When your lead climbing you want lots of slack in the rope. The more slack, the softer the fall in. Yesterday John had me super tight on the rope and today I felt a slight sense of distrust in my belayer. Not a good mix for strong climbing. We finished the day without Incident and went home. I watched a movie, talked to Cati and went to sleep. I woke up this morning with a wealth of emotions, none stronger than the others but it left me with the same feeling I had just before I left Canada. It’s hard to explain but it’s almost like there’s so many emotions that they cancel each other out and I feel blank. I Leave Ecuador in a few days and my mind is already starting to reflect on my time spent here, and looking forward to my next stop Lima Peru. I’m sure as my adventures in Peru start it we be easier to put my thoughts and feelings about Ecuador into words. Love.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
Sun, Sand, Surf. On route to Montanita Ecuador.
I woke up early in Cuenca and
packed my things, went across the street and at some toast and peanut butter
with coffee. I made it to the airport with plenty of time. Checked in and
surfed the internet while I waited for my flight to Guayaquil. I arrived in Guayaquil and sat down at a café
in the airport. I wanted to charge my laptop so I could use it on the bus. I
ordered a veggie sandwich and an orange juice. 10 dollars... omg… why do
airport stores and cafes always have to gouge you? Maybe because the airlines
gouge you on your ticket, they feel they should should too. Seems unfair. Is
this what capitalism is? I digress. So I charged my laptop. Ate my sandwich, it
was pretty good and caught a cab to the bus station. Wow. This bus station is
no Greyhound Nelson. It was bigger than
the airport!! 3 levels of pure mayhem. No English, no tourists, I was on my
own. I walked around with all my stuff for 20 mins and finally found the ticket
counter. Or should I say the 120 ticket counters.. No joke. 120 counters. So up
and down I went looking, looking. Finally I asked someone and they pointed me
to counter 87. Thank god Cati taught me numbers in Spanish before I left.
Anyways I bought my ticket which was on the first floor and and trudged up to
the third where my bus was. On the ticket, all in Spanish was my departure
time. 345pm or so I thought. Thinking I had plenty of time, I found a corner
and decided to write for a while.
Afte 20 mins pasted I opened my
translator on the computer and started translating the bus ticket I had
received. Ok I bought it at 1:22. Great. And it leaves it 1:50. Wait.. what..
shiiiit!!! A quick check of my cell revels the time. 14:08…I laughed and
thought to myself “totally going to be one of those days” before I picked up my
bags and boogies to the right departure door. I went through the gate, walked
to the bus and some guy checked my ticket. He said something I didn’t
understand, half glared and half smiled while he talked driver. I had defiantly
missed my bus but I think buddy felt sorry for me and let me on the bus. The
bus was kinda like a greyhound but the driver is separated by glass. I was
happy I could see the driver because the whole drive he danced in his seat,
arms in the air, fist pumps, all to the beats of the Rocky theme song and other
such classics. I sat in the front row so
I could see out the front window and
take in the view.. I met an old lady we chatted and then she and I promptly
fell asleep.. HAHA oops. Missed the
first hour or so. I thought the ride was supposed to be only 2 hours but 3
hours later I was in a small town called Salinas. Here, I would change busses
and continue my trip to Montañita Ecuador. Well I was watching for a terminal
so I knew where to get off. Damned if I wasn’t the last one on the bus when it stopped
and they told me to get off.. WTF?! Hahaha so there I was, standing on the
street in a small town with my bags and my thumb up my ***! Again, playing the
poor dumb gringo card I asked the driver where the bus to Montañita was. As we
were speaking a silver car rode up flashed his lights and buddy’s amigo rolled
down the window. I’m not sure if its just the language thing or what, but why
does it always seem like everyone knows each other when I’m in a different country?
I was told this guy was a taxi, and
against my better judgement but with seriously no other option I paid for the
taxi to the terminal. I don’t get it, why didn’t the bus stop at the terminal?
Ill never no.
The driver whipped around the
streets, up dirt roads and through stop signs for 15 minutes until we reached
the terminal. This terminal de auto bus was quite different from Guayaquil. I
wished id got a picture, but I was hot, sweaty, nervous and slightly angry. It
was 430pm and id only had a small over priced sandwich and I honestly had no
idea where I was. There was people running around selling random fried things i
didn’t recognize, little kids selling pirated dvds and dudes yelling
everywhere! Luckily I knew a few important words for this situation. I asked
the driver, what bus, what color and I
knew where I was going. Something I’ve come to realize is when you ask
directions, people will tell you the wrong ones before they would admit they
didn’t know. He pointed to the Azule auto bus. Another pointed to the Verte bus. Finally a guy pointed me to
the Blanca y Verte bus. Success! The driver
told me he was heading to Montañita and I sat down with a breath of relief. We
drove through town in the rickety colourful old bus picking up people on random
corners. We finally made it out of town and I got my first glimpse of the
ocean. Ah, the Pacific Ocean. Bliss. Oh how I missed you sweet sweet ocean. I
asked a guy how long it was going to take to get to Montañita. 50 minutes.
Cool.
After an
hour and a half we arrived in Montañita. Or I should say I arrived in
Montañita. The bus stops, your quickly ushered off the bus. You have to be
quick or they will drive away with your bags before u blink. I got off the bus,
walked down the main drag and quickly saw guys holding surf boards, dreadlocked
rastas riding long boards and thatched bungalow style buildings. On the bus
when I realized id be showing up in the dark I had called Emily to see if she
could book me a hostel. My original plan was to show up and just walk around
and find a place but since it was going to be dark I wanted a place to go to
directly and ditch my stuff. Emily didn’t have any luck finding anything so I
called Cati and she said she would work on it.
I had walked half a block and
ducked into an internet café to call Cati back. She said she hadn’t found a
place yet so I told her not to worry about it. I walked down the street towards
the ocean, found the first place that said “hostal” and inquired about a room.
10 buks for the night. Seemed like a good deal. I took the room, ditched my
stuff and went to the main drag of town. I found a little pizzeria and sat on a
bench out front and drank a beer while I waited for my pizza. I met 3 ausie surfers and they told me they were staying in a dorm for 3.50 a night.
Stoked. I finished my pizza, walked around a little bit and took in the scene.
It has the same vibe as little party towns in Thailand do. People drinking at
renegade bars on the street, everyone hippied out and embracing the surfer vibe.
Hemp Necklaces!!! Vegan Cookies..! haha.
So this morning I woke up, and
promptly switched my sleeping status to the hostel just down the beach that had
the cheap dorms. The dorm is is on the top floor. Its just a loft style open
air concept with little sleeping areas separated by trunks you can lock and
store your stuff in. It over looks the beach, you can hear the waves and a bug
net is included. Perfect. At first I wasn’t overly stoked on the place but I’m
quickly starting to love the vibe here and I’m defiantly happy I made the long sweaty journey here. Im going
to stay here a few more nights and then my plan is to take a bus 20 km north
where my guide book says you can visit this Nation Park and camp on the beach. I’ve
got 10 days before I have to make it to Guayaquil for my flight to Lima. I hope
to spend the next 10 days chilling, breathing, and doing yoga, hiking, swimming
and practicing my Spanish. Beach life is a nice change of pace and I think it
will be a good way to spend my last days in this diverse country. I find it
hard not to be excited to go meet Cati in Peru but I also tell myself to not
dwell on the future and enjoy the moments that are upon me. Esta es mi
vida!
Ps. Te Amo Gorda, miss you lots..
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
Random hike with a random Buenos Aires pizza chef.
The last little while has been a mixxed bag of emotions for me. On the one hand, I’m in a country on the equator traveling and being free. I’m meeting new people every day and really… I can’t complain. I’ve been watching the weather in Nelson and I’m defiantly excited to be missing winter. Anyone from Nelson knows that winter is just around the corner. But I suppose that even though I’m traveling you still have your ups and downs the same as you would in regular life. The people I’ve met are really great, generous, fun people. But I can’t help but miss the people who I love. I spent practically every day during the last 10 months with Cati and as well I saw my parents and siblings regularly which hadn’t happened in the past few years. I guess you could say I’m craving the connection, the love, the warmth that only comes from the people we are close with. It seems that the downs only come at night and it seems like a natural feeling. Going to bed alone in a strange building where you really know no one that well.. Loneliness is always right around the corner. I suppose its worth mentioning that this practical post is written at midnight and I’m sitting in my bed in my room.
All this being said, I do not regret coming here alone nor do I feel like I want to come home or anything like that. This blog has been a great outlet for me and as long as it helps me express my emotions will continue to write and write and write.
So after I finished writing my last post, I went back to the hostel, changed into my dirty climbing pants, put on my rain jacket and grabbed my pack. I wandered down to the Supermaxi which is supermarket that is surprisingly resembles a save-on or a Safeway. Its funny, they even have Smuckers jam which is import and it`s 8 dollars a jar.. Did i buy it..? Yeah right.. I located the cheese that i had tried at Juans houses (super yummy kinda soft.. like feta .. salty.. but not crumbly), grabbed some buns for 6 cents a piece, some Aqua de coco which is coconut water and a can of tuna..all this cost me 6 bucks.
After i finished i walked back to my hood and went and banged on the door of Marcus`s pizza restaurant. About a week before, i had met him and he had mentioned he liked to hike into the mountains. We talked a while and decided that we wuld go for a hike on the following Monday… IE me banging on his door on this Monday. He was busy cleaning his bar after a slightly saucy night before that he had had with some friends. On the counter was some smoke and we both par-took in a long healthy safety meeting before leaving on our adventure. The day was pretty cloudy, the rain was on and off but it seemed like it was going to hold off. After he finished cleaning we set off for the bus and I chased Marcus down the street as he cut in and out of the sidewalk, through cars at red lights and past people wandering the streets. We made it to the bus stop and I watched the big blue city busses puff out black diesel smoke as they barely stopped and people jumped in and out of the semi rolling bus. I’m told that because of the elevation and the lack of calibration to the engine for the elevation even a brand new bus puffs out thick black smoke. Its pretty gross. When our bus came, we jumped on( it was literally moving as we got on) and we paid our 25 cents for the ride. The bus quickly filled with people on lunch break and hoards of kids going to or from school.. I don’t think it was a usual tourist route because I received more then a few inquisitive looks from the kids and adults alike. The bus winded through the street and i couldn’t help but notice the fact that it was normal for the bus to roll as people got on and off. WCB would totally not approve..
About 20 mins on the crowded bus and we made it to our stop. We were on the outskirts of town and the mountain we were going to hike was just south of us. We walked down the road, turned down a driveway and walked up to a house. This was the house of buddy’s girlfriend. We were greeted by a couple sketchy but harmless dogs. Marcus told me they had rescued one of them from some guys yard. Its collar was so tight that its neck had been lacerated.. Poor thing.. it was really scared and barked a lot with its tail between its legs as we walked up to the house. We went in, met Marcus` girlfriend and I learned that she was from California, bought this adobe open plan house and land for like 30 000 ( ½ acre at least) and had like 2º years on Marcus who was in his 30s. We talked for a little while, had another safety meeting and said goodbye.
When we left the house we walked down a dirt road for a few hundred meters and turned up an overgrown path. We walked up and up past cows and sheep and really cute farm style houses with a Spanish twist. We stopped at a little renegade general store where Marcus filled his water bottle and bought some candy coated peanuts. He told me the name for them in Spanish but I forget. As we walked away from the store and up the path there was an indigenous women and her kids walking towards us. A little girl.. maybe 2 or 3 was running ahead down the past and with classic toddler style did a face plant dive onto the ground. She immediately began to scream bloody murder and Marcus, the women and me all cringed.. Now in North America.. If i was in Vancouver with a friend and we saw this.. i think we would probably just say.. ouch , bummer.. something like that.. Well as we got closer to the little girl who was now crying against her mom, Marcus walked over, said something in Spanish and handed the little little girl a few candied peanuts.. she took them, stopped crying and put them in her mouth. The women said gracias with a big smile and we continued past them .. Something about this really made me feel good inside. The simple act of what he did seemed to be a natural reaction for these people..Simple.. yet extremely touching..
The houses faded away and we were soon hiking up a grassy half treed mountain. Marcus, being from Buenos Aires which i think is pretty flat had a hard time with the steep incline and we stopped muiliple times before we got to the top. Along the way he collected flowers that he planned on putting in his restaurant and he also was grabbing dirt, smelling all the moss and ferns and kept saying wowwww look at that view and omg isn’t this amazing?? It was really beautiful but I wasn’t as in awe as him. I think this is because I live in one of the most beautiful places on this planet.. We walked along a treed ridge we came across an old creepy building and went inside. All that was inside was a massive cross, dirty walls and a make shift alter. There was also writing on the wall that read ``12 de abril 1963`` creepy.. I took some photos and as we trudged along the mountains reminded me of home and as we summited the top we got a glimpse of an ever higher mountain down the other side and across the valley. It was scatted with small little buildings that he said were mostly empty and there were cows and horses way up high on some parts. There was also a large cliff that looked at least 70 meters. We talked about hiking down and across the valley so we could hike up the bigger mountain but it was too late so we opted to traverse the ridge instead. We walked for a while and stopped to have cheese and tuna sandwiches. As we ate lunch of decided that in a 10 days we would start really early, pack enough food for a night and hike to the cliffs I saw. Currently this plan stands and Marcus has scoped out the tent and sleeping bag he’s going to buy for the trip. After lunch we continued across the ridge through a little mini valley and up another ridge. We walked probably for 4 hours and when we go to the top we had a 360 view of Cuenca, Banos and various other valleys and mountains..Amazing view. I celebrated by doing handstands while Marcus took photos.
We hung out at the top for a little while, Marcus collected more flowers and we started to descend towards Banos. It took us probably another hour before we made it to the bottom and hit a street. We sat at the bus stop and across I could see another makeshift store in someone’s house. I went over and bought a big beer for us to share and we drank it sitting on the side of the road while we waited. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed something move across the street. I looked closed and realized it was a drunk lying on the ground... He was just starting it sit up and rubbing his eyes. He must have been walking and passed out.. Sad.. Really sad... but a few people now have told me that alchoolism is rampid here and gerneally accepted in the public. You can get 26 ounces of 80% liquor for 3 bucks… maybe this is part of the problem? Hasn’t anyone thought of this? Anyways the drunk guy staggered down the street away from us and I’m pretty sure I was the only one feeling sad at the bus stop. I kept thinking of intervention on TV. Such a 1st world shows... people have issues? Let’s stick em on TV get them the best treatment and help them`... Here? I doubt that guy has anyone who’s going to help him before its too late… sad...
All these thoughts were quickly washed from my mind when the big blue bus rolled up. This was a special bus! There was music blaring from it and I laughed when I realized it was TLC playing... I turned on my video recorder before we boarded and got some awesome footage. The driver had decked out this bus with custom speakers and a cd deck... haha seriously? Not going to see that in Canada...
The few days leading up to the weekend were pretty boring. When I first got here I was climbing with Juan Gabriel during the week. This of course was possible because Juan doesn’t work besides going on guiding missions. So he was around every day and we climbed and climbed and climbed. Well this past week, Juan has been out of town and all the other climbers that I know are either working, or students. I haven’t met a single tourist climber here. So everyone climbs at the climbing gym during the week and goes out to the real rocks on the weekend. Weekend Warriors.
So what have I been doing? Well I’ve found a pretty good internet connection with a really helpful guy who runs the café. The computers still suck in the place and I finally go frustrated and bought a tiny cheap laptop. As you probably have noticed if you read my blog I’ve finally been adding photos to the blog and soon to come are videos! I’ve found a really cool falafel place that you can get a falafel sandwich, and a plate of fries for 3 bucks... yum! Just down the street from this guy I met a man who runs a ``convenience`` store. I put this is quotations because really they are just little holes in the wall behind bars... yes behind bars. When they open up shop the roll the big metal gate of and behind it you’re looking into basically a walk in closet behind bars. They see anything from chocolate to chips, booze, bread, eggs and even toilet cleaning pucks! When I met this man... I think his name was Herman or something, I asked for Peqeña aqua sin gas… small water that’s not carbonated. He quickly responded in English in a heavy New York accent... We got to talking and he told me he had been in New York City for like 20 years, had a US girlfriend and his daughter was born there. The reason he was back is because as we all know the US economy is in the tank and I’d guess the first people to get laid off would be the immigrants. So Herman decided to buy this shop off a lady for like $5000 fully stocked with Coca Cola , Cigarettes, candy, toilet pucks and a lot more. At the end of our conversation he invited me to his house for his daughters’ bday but I wasn’t available because I wanted to be climbing.
On Friday I woke up late because the night before Cati and I were talking about Peru on Skype till late at night. The plan for the day was to meet one of Juan Gabriel’s buddies at the climbing wall to get a key for the house in Cojitambo. I went to the bathroom and on the way back a guy stopped me and introduced himself as john. He is a fellow Canadian who’s lives in Montreal going to school. He’s an interesting character and he explained to me he was trying to be here for 8 months on like 4000. He was just at a juggling convention sleeping in a park and he told me he does juggling acts at red lights for cars... Kind of like a squeegee kid but clean cut and with a circus routine. Pretty cool guy and defiantly a funny sense of humor. Anyways, he just got to town at 530 am and I invited him along to the wall. We met Pedro, grabbed the key and walked around town for a while not doing too much. At 5pm I got a call from Margarita and went to meet her at the bus terminal. We made it to Azgues, met Pablo and jumped on another bus to Cojitambo. We had dinner when we arrived at Juan’s house and went to sleep.
That morning we woke up hiked from Juan’s house up the hill and up the mountain to the base of an easy climb. We each tied in about 15 meters apart and silmileltanous climbed up the 6 meters to the top. We walked along the top of the mountain and over to the start of the rappel. We rapped down to the ledge where helados helados is and 2 climbs over from that was the 13ª Marga and I were going to try and the direct 13b line that Pablo was working on. We stayed there for the whole day, each of us taking turns burning ourselves out trying to make progress on it. I made it farther then I had before but once I figured the beta out I was too tired to do it. We rappelled off in the dark and walked the 30 mins home. Oh I forgot to mention... I saw the most beautiful sunset I’ve ever seen inland... You get awesome sunsets on the ocean no matter where u are in the world but to be 4 hours inland and 3000 meters up.. Wow... what a sunset. I didn’t have my camera with me but luckily Pablo did and he got some awesome shots... booyyah.. The next day I woke up sick… something I ate maybe... and Pablo and Margarita couldn’t climb anyways… The night before I had copied Dexter season 1 so I watched like 12 hours of Dexter while I lay on the couch. The house was empty and before I went to bed I was feeling pretty upset. So today is Monday. My plans? Well I’ve decided on weds to go to Guayaquil for a night then on Thurs morning I’m going to Montanita. What`s there you ask? The OCEEEAN. I’ve been feeling down, people are busy and not really able to climb that much so I figured what better thing to do then hit the beach! 30 degrees, sand and surf will cure anyone’s blues in OCT. I’d rather be climbing but I’m really not doing that much lately so I’m out! I’ll keep you posted! Love.
PS. These photos are straight off Pablos camera. Nop photoshop. no nothing!
All this being said, I do not regret coming here alone nor do I feel like I want to come home or anything like that. This blog has been a great outlet for me and as long as it helps me express my emotions will continue to write and write and write.
So after I finished writing my last post, I went back to the hostel, changed into my dirty climbing pants, put on my rain jacket and grabbed my pack. I wandered down to the Supermaxi which is supermarket that is surprisingly resembles a save-on or a Safeway. Its funny, they even have Smuckers jam which is import and it`s 8 dollars a jar.. Did i buy it..? Yeah right.. I located the cheese that i had tried at Juans houses (super yummy kinda soft.. like feta .. salty.. but not crumbly), grabbed some buns for 6 cents a piece, some Aqua de coco which is coconut water and a can of tuna..all this cost me 6 bucks.
After i finished i walked back to my hood and went and banged on the door of Marcus`s pizza restaurant. About a week before, i had met him and he had mentioned he liked to hike into the mountains. We talked a while and decided that we wuld go for a hike on the following Monday… IE me banging on his door on this Monday. He was busy cleaning his bar after a slightly saucy night before that he had had with some friends. On the counter was some smoke and we both par-took in a long healthy safety meeting before leaving on our adventure. The day was pretty cloudy, the rain was on and off but it seemed like it was going to hold off. After he finished cleaning we set off for the bus and I chased Marcus down the street as he cut in and out of the sidewalk, through cars at red lights and past people wandering the streets. We made it to the bus stop and I watched the big blue city busses puff out black diesel smoke as they barely stopped and people jumped in and out of the semi rolling bus. I’m told that because of the elevation and the lack of calibration to the engine for the elevation even a brand new bus puffs out thick black smoke. Its pretty gross. When our bus came, we jumped on( it was literally moving as we got on) and we paid our 25 cents for the ride. The bus quickly filled with people on lunch break and hoards of kids going to or from school.. I don’t think it was a usual tourist route because I received more then a few inquisitive looks from the kids and adults alike. The bus winded through the street and i couldn’t help but notice the fact that it was normal for the bus to roll as people got on and off. WCB would totally not approve..
About 20 mins on the crowded bus and we made it to our stop. We were on the outskirts of town and the mountain we were going to hike was just south of us. We walked down the road, turned down a driveway and walked up to a house. This was the house of buddy’s girlfriend. We were greeted by a couple sketchy but harmless dogs. Marcus told me they had rescued one of them from some guys yard. Its collar was so tight that its neck had been lacerated.. Poor thing.. it was really scared and barked a lot with its tail between its legs as we walked up to the house. We went in, met Marcus` girlfriend and I learned that she was from California, bought this adobe open plan house and land for like 30 000 ( ½ acre at least) and had like 2º years on Marcus who was in his 30s. We talked for a little while, had another safety meeting and said goodbye.
When we left the house we walked down a dirt road for a few hundred meters and turned up an overgrown path. We walked up and up past cows and sheep and really cute farm style houses with a Spanish twist. We stopped at a little renegade general store where Marcus filled his water bottle and bought some candy coated peanuts. He told me the name for them in Spanish but I forget. As we walked away from the store and up the path there was an indigenous women and her kids walking towards us. A little girl.. maybe 2 or 3 was running ahead down the past and with classic toddler style did a face plant dive onto the ground. She immediately began to scream bloody murder and Marcus, the women and me all cringed.. Now in North America.. If i was in Vancouver with a friend and we saw this.. i think we would probably just say.. ouch , bummer.. something like that.. Well as we got closer to the little girl who was now crying against her mom, Marcus walked over, said something in Spanish and handed the little little girl a few candied peanuts.. she took them, stopped crying and put them in her mouth. The women said gracias with a big smile and we continued past them .. Something about this really made me feel good inside. The simple act of what he did seemed to be a natural reaction for these people..Simple.. yet extremely touching..
The houses faded away and we were soon hiking up a grassy half treed mountain. Marcus, being from Buenos Aires which i think is pretty flat had a hard time with the steep incline and we stopped muiliple times before we got to the top. Along the way he collected flowers that he planned on putting in his restaurant and he also was grabbing dirt, smelling all the moss and ferns and kept saying wowwww look at that view and omg isn’t this amazing?? It was really beautiful but I wasn’t as in awe as him. I think this is because I live in one of the most beautiful places on this planet.. We walked along a treed ridge we came across an old creepy building and went inside. All that was inside was a massive cross, dirty walls and a make shift alter. There was also writing on the wall that read ``12 de abril 1963`` creepy.. I took some photos and as we trudged along the mountains reminded me of home and as we summited the top we got a glimpse of an ever higher mountain down the other side and across the valley. It was scatted with small little buildings that he said were mostly empty and there were cows and horses way up high on some parts. There was also a large cliff that looked at least 70 meters. We talked about hiking down and across the valley so we could hike up the bigger mountain but it was too late so we opted to traverse the ridge instead. We walked for a while and stopped to have cheese and tuna sandwiches. As we ate lunch of decided that in a 10 days we would start really early, pack enough food for a night and hike to the cliffs I saw. Currently this plan stands and Marcus has scoped out the tent and sleeping bag he’s going to buy for the trip. After lunch we continued across the ridge through a little mini valley and up another ridge. We walked probably for 4 hours and when we go to the top we had a 360 view of Cuenca, Banos and various other valleys and mountains..Amazing view. I celebrated by doing handstands while Marcus took photos.
We hung out at the top for a little while, Marcus collected more flowers and we started to descend towards Banos. It took us probably another hour before we made it to the bottom and hit a street. We sat at the bus stop and across I could see another makeshift store in someone’s house. I went over and bought a big beer for us to share and we drank it sitting on the side of the road while we waited. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed something move across the street. I looked closed and realized it was a drunk lying on the ground... He was just starting it sit up and rubbing his eyes. He must have been walking and passed out.. Sad.. Really sad... but a few people now have told me that alchoolism is rampid here and gerneally accepted in the public. You can get 26 ounces of 80% liquor for 3 bucks… maybe this is part of the problem? Hasn’t anyone thought of this? Anyways the drunk guy staggered down the street away from us and I’m pretty sure I was the only one feeling sad at the bus stop. I kept thinking of intervention on TV. Such a 1st world shows... people have issues? Let’s stick em on TV get them the best treatment and help them`... Here? I doubt that guy has anyone who’s going to help him before its too late… sad...
All these thoughts were quickly washed from my mind when the big blue bus rolled up. This was a special bus! There was music blaring from it and I laughed when I realized it was TLC playing... I turned on my video recorder before we boarded and got some awesome footage. The driver had decked out this bus with custom speakers and a cd deck... haha seriously? Not going to see that in Canada...
The few days leading up to the weekend were pretty boring. When I first got here I was climbing with Juan Gabriel during the week. This of course was possible because Juan doesn’t work besides going on guiding missions. So he was around every day and we climbed and climbed and climbed. Well this past week, Juan has been out of town and all the other climbers that I know are either working, or students. I haven’t met a single tourist climber here. So everyone climbs at the climbing gym during the week and goes out to the real rocks on the weekend. Weekend Warriors.
So what have I been doing? Well I’ve found a pretty good internet connection with a really helpful guy who runs the café. The computers still suck in the place and I finally go frustrated and bought a tiny cheap laptop. As you probably have noticed if you read my blog I’ve finally been adding photos to the blog and soon to come are videos! I’ve found a really cool falafel place that you can get a falafel sandwich, and a plate of fries for 3 bucks... yum! Just down the street from this guy I met a man who runs a ``convenience`` store. I put this is quotations because really they are just little holes in the wall behind bars... yes behind bars. When they open up shop the roll the big metal gate of and behind it you’re looking into basically a walk in closet behind bars. They see anything from chocolate to chips, booze, bread, eggs and even toilet cleaning pucks! When I met this man... I think his name was Herman or something, I asked for Peqeña aqua sin gas… small water that’s not carbonated. He quickly responded in English in a heavy New York accent... We got to talking and he told me he had been in New York City for like 20 years, had a US girlfriend and his daughter was born there. The reason he was back is because as we all know the US economy is in the tank and I’d guess the first people to get laid off would be the immigrants. So Herman decided to buy this shop off a lady for like $5000 fully stocked with Coca Cola , Cigarettes, candy, toilet pucks and a lot more. At the end of our conversation he invited me to his house for his daughters’ bday but I wasn’t available because I wanted to be climbing.
On Friday I woke up late because the night before Cati and I were talking about Peru on Skype till late at night. The plan for the day was to meet one of Juan Gabriel’s buddies at the climbing wall to get a key for the house in Cojitambo. I went to the bathroom and on the way back a guy stopped me and introduced himself as john. He is a fellow Canadian who’s lives in Montreal going to school. He’s an interesting character and he explained to me he was trying to be here for 8 months on like 4000. He was just at a juggling convention sleeping in a park and he told me he does juggling acts at red lights for cars... Kind of like a squeegee kid but clean cut and with a circus routine. Pretty cool guy and defiantly a funny sense of humor. Anyways, he just got to town at 530 am and I invited him along to the wall. We met Pedro, grabbed the key and walked around town for a while not doing too much. At 5pm I got a call from Margarita and went to meet her at the bus terminal. We made it to Azgues, met Pablo and jumped on another bus to Cojitambo. We had dinner when we arrived at Juan’s house and went to sleep.
That morning we woke up hiked from Juan’s house up the hill and up the mountain to the base of an easy climb. We each tied in about 15 meters apart and silmileltanous climbed up the 6 meters to the top. We walked along the top of the mountain and over to the start of the rappel. We rapped down to the ledge where helados helados is and 2 climbs over from that was the 13ª Marga and I were going to try and the direct 13b line that Pablo was working on. We stayed there for the whole day, each of us taking turns burning ourselves out trying to make progress on it. I made it farther then I had before but once I figured the beta out I was too tired to do it. We rappelled off in the dark and walked the 30 mins home. Oh I forgot to mention... I saw the most beautiful sunset I’ve ever seen inland... You get awesome sunsets on the ocean no matter where u are in the world but to be 4 hours inland and 3000 meters up.. Wow... what a sunset. I didn’t have my camera with me but luckily Pablo did and he got some awesome shots... booyyah.. The next day I woke up sick… something I ate maybe... and Pablo and Margarita couldn’t climb anyways… The night before I had copied Dexter season 1 so I watched like 12 hours of Dexter while I lay on the couch. The house was empty and before I went to bed I was feeling pretty upset. So today is Monday. My plans? Well I’ve decided on weds to go to Guayaquil for a night then on Thurs morning I’m going to Montanita. What`s there you ask? The OCEEEAN. I’ve been feeling down, people are busy and not really able to climb that much so I figured what better thing to do then hit the beach! 30 degrees, sand and surf will cure anyone’s blues in OCT. I’d rather be climbing but I’m really not doing that much lately so I’m out! I’ll keep you posted! Love.
PS. These photos are straight off Pablos camera. Nop photoshop. no nothing!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)