Fuya Fuya

9/14

This weekend was the first trip for my andinismo class, and my first excursion out of Quito. Saturday morning 17 of us met at the Train Station to catch a train and then a bus to Otavalo. Otavalo is a really neat city about an hour and a half (more on a bus) outside of Quito. The group was really great, and it was fun to get to know a group of people really well. If you go away for the weekend..and climb a mountain together.. you automatically get really close. J In Otavalo we dumped our stuff at the hostel and then headed to the ‘cascadas’ (waterfalls) where we were going to do some repelling. We took a long path to this beautiful sight with lots of falls and hiked all the way to the top. From there we rolled up our pants and traveled through the water to this cave where our leader began stripping off all of his clothes. Everyone sort of followed suit and Diego led us underneath some falls where we had the biggest water fight I have ever been a part of in my life. Fully soaked and freezing, we went back to the drop and set up for the repel. The whole trip was a very different feel than things in the States. Very little precaution is taken and you just sort of go. We were crossing bridges about 2 inches thick, jumping vallies.. and no one even instructed us how to repel..we just sort of went with a carabineer and no helmets. It was amazing to be walking down the side of such a powerful waterfall with water splashing all over your face. After every one had gone we started back to the hostel... walking through the beautiful city at dusk with our packs and gear.

That night we all ate together at the hostel. There was an amazing live band playing traditional Quetcha music. As soon as the food was done and the wine came out everyone started to dance. We tried to learn some of the traditional moves, but more or less we were all just messing around. The other people (some Europeans) staying the hostel joined in a bit later and we made a big line of bridges to dance through. By the time things died down it was about 10. I figured that since we had an early wake up call..and a full day of hiking ahead of us, we would call it a night..but no, not in Ecuador. Every pueblo and city in Ecuador has their own fiestas..and it just so happened that Otavalo was in the middle of some great parties. We walked a few blocks from the hostel and found another band playing more or less the same sort of music. There were people everywhere dancing, eating, selling things and just typical Ecuador fiesta-ing. The good thing about this country is that all guys have rhythm haha..we got back to the hostel at about 1:30 the next morning.

Day two we all loaded into a big truck..and drove down a windy path up to the base of Fuya Fuya. From there we hiked to the top..well into the clouds and then basically ran down once we got there. Lots of amazing views, great pictures and near accidents (haha)

I return home very dirty, exhausted and amazing that is has only been 2 days..