Reventador

10/6

"This weekend I added several new words to my Spanish vocabulary. Lodo (mud), avispa (wasp), aislante (sleeping mat), ceniza (ash), polilla (moth)…

Saturday morning I left with a group of about 20 friends from my Andinismo class for the orient, or eastern jungle of Ecuador. There we were headed to backpack through to the top of Reventador, a live volcano, to camp for the night. My friend Stephanie and I spent Friday afternoon running all over Quito buying/renting backpacks, sleeping bags, tents, botas de caucho (rubber boots), and lots of food. By 11 that night we felt fully prepared and slightly terrified for the next day. With a 5:30 wake up call a quick ride to the terrestrial station from Gonzolo (the sweet old man who works as a guard on my street), we left for the 5 hour bus ride.

When we hopped off in the middle of no where with our packs and boots, we immidietly just started hiking up a big hill..no instruction or warning. After awhile we got to the foot of a trail and were told that it would be about a 5 and a half hour hike and the usual reminder about how we were a group and no one would be left behind. The trail was exactly what I would picture a jungle in the middle of South America to look like. There were huge vines all over the place, lots of different shaped plants, strange bird calls and tons of deep wet mud. At some places ever step you would sink in about a foot and get that great suction sound when the boot was pulled out and replanted. I learned to look for tree roots and branches which buffered against getting stuck for long periods of time. Within an hour I was covered in mud and completely soaked..a mixture of sweat, rain and stream water. Lodo…

About half way through the trails I felt something stink my leg and let out a huge gasp. Slowly many people followed suit with screams and interspersed curse words. Still in shock I heard the guy behind me yell 'Corre corre!!' (RUN!) We were in the middle of a swarm of wasps..and while I made it through with only one bite..some people had 7 or 8 by the time it passed. Avispas…

It was the strangest experience to be walking through the wild green jungle to arrive suddenly in huge open space with very little vegetation at the base of the volcano. Looking around I felt like I had entered one of Dr. Suese's books with crazy carpet like ground and cooky bush things all over the place. We all crashed for a bit, taking off the mud covered boots and enjoing the feel of the ground under socks. The next few hours were spend setting up camp and playing in the stream which also served as our pure water source. We played camp type games until it got dark and it was so funny to teach and play games like psychiatrist and 'up the river' in Spanish. I helped my ñañito, Leo, collect bugs for his intomolgy class which resulted in lots of new insect vocabulary and more information about the whole process than I ever wanted to know.

The next morning we hiked up to the crater of the volcano to get a good view and then left back down the same trail. It was rainy and at parts a very steap drop..it goes without saying that the mud was all over the place. At the bottom we hung out on the highway and to catch the bus home. Being as there was a large group of us..we were dirty and had huge packs..3 buses passed before one stopped to pick us up. We had considered the option of 'halar dedo' hitchhiking.. but instead we formed a line across the highway practically forcing the next bus to take us in. There were no seats left so we spent the next 5 hours trying to stand on the crazy winding road back to Quito. I started a game of shrades..from the back of the bus to the front..and some of the other passengers even joined it..maybe one of the highlights of the trip. We made it back safe and sound about 6pm for a long awaited shower and good night sleep."