Greetings all!
I have returned from 4500 meters above sea level! Alive (barely) and in one piece (again, barely). I left my house at 6 this morning to meet up with the biking tour. Due to traffic, we did not arrive at Cotopaxi until around 9. We stopped at a small hut to pay the $2 park entrance fee. They were also selling coca tea and coca candy, so I bought both because they are supposed to help with altitude sickness. I really liked the tea, it tasted like green tea. Then the guide said you can suck on the leaves-when I did that part of my mouth went numb. The dentists that were on the bike trip (they had been in Quito doing volunteer work) said that cocaine works the same as novacane. That was a fun new fact for the day. The tea had a pleasant effect in that I felt energized and was no longer feeling the altitude, so I guess it does its job well. Too bad it is illegal in the US. Then the tour guide explained the itinerary for the day and I was confused because there was no hiking on it. He explained that the climb to the base camp of cotopaxi is very difficult and takes between 1 and 1.5 hours and then you have about an hour up top and it would cut into biking. So instead, we drove up to the parking lot (4500m above sea level) and biked down the mountain. When we got to the top I was pretty glad we would not be doing any climbing. It was snowing at the top with really strong winds, so the climb would have been miserable.
I don't know what I was expecting when I signed up for a bike tour but it certainly was NOT like what I found at the mountain. The roads were all rocks with bumps that resemble the ridges on the highway that make noise so you wont swerve off the road. So I basically went down gripping the handle bars/breaks for dear life. By the time I reached the first checkpoint my hands were sore from holding on so tightly and I was developing a headache from being bumped around so much. I kept going but I need to be honest, I REALLY was not having a good time. Then we reached a flat area where the guide explained we were going to bike to see ruins. He warned us that this area was deep sand and some uphill so we would begin to feel the altitude. After about five minutes I had to get off of my bike and walk it through the sand. When I reached a point where I could get back on my head was pounding and I found it difficult to see straight. This is NOT a good sign when you are as high up as I was today. I decided to sit and take a break/get rehydrated while the group checked out the ruins. This was fine because they had to come back to where I was sitting in order to get back on the trail. When they returned, I was feeling much better. I popped a few coca candies (which help with altitude sickness) and continued on my merry way. We stopped at a restaurant on the mountain for lunch and I assumed this meant the end of the journey. WRONG. We got back on the bikes and road another two plus miles down the mountain before we could call it a day. At this point, it was four o'clock and I had been biking for nearly 6 hours.
My palms are bruised from the handle bars, my head still aches a bit from all the bumping around and my legs are sore from the race. Needless to say, today will mark the end of my physical activities in Quito. I am happy to go back to clinic tomorrow and maybe I will walk around some of the churches/old city tomorrow or this week. I will have to see what the rest of the gang wants to do. Only 4 full days left in Quito, I can't really believe it! But I am ready to come home and I am SO excited for school (eek senior year..when did I get so old!?)
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