The hills are alive...

Primarily with the sounds of me gasping for air.

Yesterday, we all decided to climb Pichincha. We've heard a lot about Cotopaxi, the tallest volcano in Ecuador, and we've received some information about hiking it. However, to make sure we were all up for it, they insisted we try out Pichincha first. Before I jump into this embarrassing enumeration, I'd like to go on the record as saying that I never had any real aims of climbing Cotopaxi. Snow covered volcanoes just aren't my thing. I mean... they're REALLY cool, but as for climbing, I have trouble with fences.

So, we go to Pichincha. First of all, Pichincha has this teleferico that takes you up toward the top. You may be thinking to yourself, "What is a teleferico?" GREAT question. It's like a ski lift of NIGHTMARES.

 

We scrambled off the teleferico. Well, I scrambled off... I'm sure everyone else got off in a very organized, rational manner. And the view is just stunning. Truly, it is. But I'm standing there trying to calm down from my teleferico panic attack, and I'm certain that this whole mountain climbing is not going to go my way. 

Let me paint you a little picture. Pretend the picture below is a mountain. I mean, it IS a mountain, but pretend it's Pichincha. 

Great pretending. Now, something you need to know about this mountain is that the top is far off the page to the right. It's difficult to tell where exactly, because the top of this mountain is also covered in clouds. 

Ok... So, the teleferico really does most of the work for you. It zooms (well, scoots) over miniature cows and their yappy, herding dogs and goes straight for Pichincha's jugular. Imagine, if you will, that the teleferico stops on the "x."

Well, I made it about here, before I could no longer move and breathe at the same time. And, honestly, this graphic might be a little too generous with my actual distance.

My companions made it off the page, but not quite to the top, before they had to turn around because it was getting too late. Sophie, who has been sharing a head cold with me the last couple of days, stayed behind with me (too graciously), and we bonded over our Emperor's New Groove surroundings (yes, I know we're not in Peru... thank you.) We were later joined by Iris, our former Luxemburg child-star friend from our language school. The three of us spent a nice amount of time enjoying the scenery of the Andes.

 

Finally the rest of the group rejoined us, led by none other than Hugo, our fearless (actually, he's also afraid of heights) van driver and guide during our time in Ecuador.

Before we hopped back on the teleferico of broken dreams, we took a moment to get a classic shoe shot. Enjoy, blog readers.

Oh! While we were on Pichincha, the clouds parted enough that we were able to get a view of Cotopaxi.

That was actually really incredible. However, I think it goes without saying that I will not be climbing good ole' Cotopaxi anytime soon. I really would LOVE to... but I think we can all imagine how that would end.