Teleferica

Today almost all of the MSU/USFQ students went up Pichincha, the mountain just to the west of Quito, in a cable car system called the Teleférica. It was amazing. The cable car took us most of the way up, and you can walk a bit farther. The view was fantastic. When we were about halfway to the top (from where the cable car left us) we took a horse tour of part of the mountain and saw a small waterfall. During the tour we could hear thunder, but we were so high up that we were above the storm. By the end of the tour, I was pretty tired, but we all wanted to get as far up as we could, so we kept climbing. This was a bit of a physical challange for me because I'm still acclilmating to the altitude, I think moreso than everyone else. So, I had to go slowly and take breaks. By the time we got as high as we could on acutal trails, it was starting to get dark and foggy: time to go back. I had to walk a lot slower than everyone else to get down, so one other girl (Jackie) and I would up getting separated from the group. By the time we made it back to where the horses had been, it was so foggy that Jackie thought we were lost. Not soon after that, we met a few policemen/soldiers who walked us the rest of the way back. It was quite an adventure.