Riobamba, Chimborazo- lots of photos

Hello, vacations! I'm on my intermedio- my one week mid-trimester break. I'm working on a midterm essay now, but I took the weekend as my vacation and went to Riobamba to climb up Chimborazo with some classmates.

Riobamba is about 3-4 hours south of Quito, and I went with my friend F whose grandparents live just outside of the city. With 2 other classmates plus Alvi there were 5 of us. First we stopped in downtown Riobamba, which has some beautiful churches, colorful streets, and plenty of pre-Valentine's Day street lovin'.

I love this picture except the lamp post

F's grandparents have a campo- a small farm just outside of Riobamba, and it was BEAUTIFUL. Every time I leave Quito I'm secretly upset that I live in a big city instead of something more colonial, like Cuenca, or pretty, like F's family's campo. At the quinta there were all sorts of animals- at least 6 dogs (including two puppies!), a cow, donkies, baby guinea pigs (nursing in the picture!), chickens and a rooster, etc.

guinea pigs raised for consumption (!)- the one on the left is nursing a baby!

burros- the fuzzy one on the right is a baby

sunset on the farm

view of the local river, a quick hike out from the farm

I love how these hang in the fog- it's tomate de arbol- tree tomatoes that make a yummy juice

F's grandparents very graciously allowed us to stay at their home, which was beautiful. The beds were comfy, and they even had a mini indoor garden- lovely. F's 90 year old grandpa watched soccer most of the time, and her grandma talked with us a lot. She had prepared pascualinas- little pot pies for us- as well as some brothy soup and dessert. We had also brought food to cook spaghetti, salad, etc. so we had lots of food!

Early on Sunday we got up to head up to Chimborazo- about a 30 minute drive from Riobamba- if you don't get lost. We got lost, but it ended up being a highlight of the trip for me- we saw these beautiful rolling countryside hills and rural homes. Riobamba (and its surroundings) seemed to be a very unfinished city- most of the homes have a "roof" that could be easily converted into an additional story on the home. I've been told that this is because so many migrant workers send remesas- remittances- home and their families use the money to immediately start construction. If the worker gets laid off in the tough economy, or has a health issue, or for any other reason can't continue sending the same amount of money home, then the construction on the house back home stops. Because remesas constitute the 2nd biggest part of the Ecuadorian economy (after petroleum), the unfinished construction everywhere doesn't surprise me.

rolling hills while we're lost

Heading up to Chimborazo was quite the feat. None of us expected much snow, but it was intense! We saw lots of cars getting stuck, and it was a rough drive- especially because it was a one-way road up and down the mountain. On the way back down, the driver of a truck got stuck, and 7 cars ended up lining up behind him, waiting for him to move on. We were heading in the other direction, and luckily followed a car with 4-wheel drive off the road "path". Still, all in all it took us about an hour to move 20 meters what with the stuck truck, our stuck truck off the road, cars blocking the road, etc. That was the bad part about the drive. The good part was that we saw llamas heading up!

cold weather llama!
you can kind of see Chimborazo in the distance but the clouds make it tough

Once we got to the first refugio- refuge house- we started hiking up to the second refugio, our goal. It was snowing/hailing and we were already ar 4,000+ meters altitude. After a brutal hike uphill for about an hour (maybe more?), we made it to the second refugio at 5,500 meters. To continue on to the peak from there you need to have mountain climbing gear, and you need to have seriously trained so we didn't head up any further. The problem was that none of us expected snow or sun (it was cloudy when we left) so by the time I got back down the mountain, my face was terribly burned and I was seeing funny colors- sunglasses and sunscreen would have been a smart decision.

climbing up (or down? now I can't remember) the mountain

pre-traumatizing sunburns. Also, I lost that hat on the trip- :(

Still, it was a great trip. My face is currently peeling off like a zombie, but it was worth it! Now- back to my classwork and preparing for my Rotary dinner on Friday!