Pasochoa

A friend of mine invited me to go hiking with a group last Sunday, and I leapt at the chance to go. There are lots of natural areas to walk around and there are some cool hiking opportunities, but lots of them are outside of Quito, and the fact that I don't have a car here means that I can't easily get there- I have to research bus options, schedules, and waste a lot of time waiting for transportation (that may never arrive!). A few friends with cars took us there, which really helped.

The view from the drive out there

Pasochoa is a tall mountain that we were hoping to climb. It's one of the tallest volcanoes between Pichincha (which surrounds Quito) and Cotopaxi (which is in another province), and on a clear day, you're supposed to be able to see both Pichincha and Cotopaxi.

Pasochoa's crater from an ancient eruption

We didn't make it up to the top because we started too late (8:30am by the time we got there), but we were pretty close- the last bits looked slow because you needed to literally climb rocks to get there, but altitude-wise, we were pretty close to the top. We went with two geologists, which made for some interesting tidbits.

Views kept getting better as we climbed higher

Climbing up was pretty exhausting because of the altitude and the fact that there weren't really switchbacks- just straight uphill climbing. Still, by the time we made it out of the forest and up to the páramo there were clear views, and every time I stopped to take a breather, I was rewarded with amazing views of the valleys.

For those that can semi-easily recognize Quito- the Parque Metropolitano is on the other side (on the L) of the dark hill in the middle of the photo

Lunch in the páramo

Hiking buddies

Going downhill was pretty intense as well- lots of the path was criss-crossed with huge tree branches, so I had to be careful not to twist an ankle or anything. But it was so lovely to get outside of Quito and to stretch my legs a bit! This weekend I'm leaving on a long bus trip to Quevedo (in the Los Ríos province) and then to Calceta (in Manabí) to visit Ecuador's most successful Fairtrade certified cocoa cooperative, so I'll be longing for the days when I'm not trapped on a bus.