Over the Mountains and Under the Weather

Big, fun, tiring day of firsts, ending with a whimper. Here´s how it went down:

H.S. was still feeling ill today, so she decided to stay back and not participate in the hike in the mountains. Two other girls (Miranda and Megan) decided not to go because the hiking in Mindo had left them feeling so depleted, and they were uneasy about the idea of altitude and strenuous walking. So Ms Getzen stayed behind to be with them, and the rest of us loaded on the bus around 7:15 and headed out to Pasochoa.

The day was quite clear and sunny when we got to the Pasochoa area, and a lot of students immediately put on sunscreen and broad-brimmed hats. Another, distinct group did not, and some of them actually literally shrugged and said ´Nah´at the suggestion that they might want to. Can´t say they weren´t warned. Weekly. For the last year. ´Strongest sun on Earth´, I would say to them. ´On the equator, over a mile in the air. Only place in the world where that happens.´ That is just what I would say, and just what many of you parents remember me saying. Remember?

A number of students charged up the hill as fast as the foremost guide would allow. There was one guide in front, and one in the back, and two in the middle. They were all young - three women and a man, all of them extremely professional and well-trained. The students seemed, really, remarkably enthusiastic about going, despite the early start.

A few students, though, had trouble from the start. The long and the short of it is that all of them improved dramatically once they started taking the guides´ advice to heart: Breathe in through the nose, out through the mouth; take tiny steps, go slowly. I tried my hand at coaching as well - ´If you´re breathing hard, you´re going too fast. Slow down.´ After a number of starts and stops, we got a good rhythm going and all of those who started out got to the end game of the hike.


Which was a fairly vertical bit of hill, with step-like spots carved out in the grass by the cattle. (We saw some of them, too.) That scramble was a little too much for the rear group, and they went no further. Of the rest, all made it to the lip of the crater, from where we got an unbelievable view. The crater is huge and tree-covered, and three kurikinguis, Ecuadorian eagles, were circling it majesitcally. It was great.

Then came the last dash to the summit, and lunch. The guide charged ahead, followed by the first group of students, and then by me...and there was one spot where my fear of heights took over. I sat down, looking at a very dramatic fall that I couldn´t stop fixating on, and called out to Chris, who was at the top, and whom I could see, that I didn´t think I would make it all the way. I don´t think there was any real danger - I would have had to have jumped a good six feet to either side, hitting nothing, to get to the point where I would have fallen. But as any of you know who have hiked to the top of a mountain thats worth hiking to the top of, there are some pretty hairy vistas much of the time. This was one. And I walked back down to the lip of the crater to tell the ones coming from behind that if they aren´t completely comfortable with heights, which I am not, the stretch to the summit was going to be hard.

One heeded the advice and went no further; the others charged ahead with their guide, and made the summit. I told the student who had stayed at the edge of the crater I would be back, took off my backpack (which made me feel unbalanced), and decided to try again, this time crawling if need be. I didn´t quite crawl, but I did make it, and it was glorious. An incredible view all around. Of the 23 of us who started out, something like 17 made the very top, and all made it to within 100 vertical meters of the top. A great experience.

Back down the mountain, where it started to become clear that some of the students had gotten sunburned. And some of those students - R.Mecz. and Shaun F. - have pretty much gone to bed, having arrived back from the hike extremely tired. As most of us are - but the sunburn may have contributed. We´ll see how they feel in the morning and how their faces look; if they need any attention, we´ll be sure they get it. Others are sunburned, but appear to be much more chipper. People are saying things like ´I never knew I could do anything like that´or ´I pushed through it and I´m so glad I did´. It was a big success. But a few kids are pretty droopy - we´ll keep you posted.

Miranda and Megan, meanwhile, went to the Guayasamin museum and loved it, and then spent the afternoon being shown around the old town by Guillermo Jr., the son of the restaurant owner Guillermo, who has become such a good friend of our students over the last two trips. They may even have made it onto Ecuadorian TV - someone was filming a new spot for a channel that is about to debut on the 24th of this month! Both of them said a line for the camera, once each apart and then together. Big, big fun - Guillermo says he´ll tape it when it airs and put it on Youtube. I will definitely keep you posted.

Nothing scheduled tomorrow until 10:00, though we´ll look in on the kids who aren´t feeling well long before then. And we will either have an unscheduled, ´explore old Quito / rest´day, or a ´Come to the market and the mall´day, depending on how people are feeling. We have a tired bunch on our hands.

And not just the kids.

Thanks for reading!