Hola - buenos mi amigos!

Now in Florianopolis after taking 3 flights overnight from Quito. So, finally in Brazil, the last Country I will visit before the UK, (hopefully unless the ash cloud messes with me and sends me home via New York.....). Happy to hear the strike is off and the airports are currently open so hopefully will be home as planned. You will be happy to know that the weather is pretty shocking here, rainy, cold and windy but I'm off kiteboarding today and tomorrow before heading up to Rio which is much further North and hopefully hot and sunny.

It was fun in Quito, great to meet up with Jess - she is loving her work over here. It really is perfect for her; staying on a ranch in the middle of nowhere with dogs, horses, beautiful scenery, solitude, washing clothes in the river etc. It was also nice to spend some more time with the Guantanamera crew, including Valerie who turned up at the Hostel after I got back from Cotopaxi. Reece also made an appearance for my last couple of nights which was great. Top bloke despite his tendancy take things from me...... We had a very amusing night singing Karaoke with a bunch of Ecuadorians on my last night in Quito. Reece, Valerie, Rachel, (from Colorado), Rob (from London), and Dave (Ozzie) put in a good show. We even managed to drag a group of Norweigan girls and some other English lads down with us! Excellent night to finish my trip in Ecuador.

This was after meeting up with Jette, Violette, Alex and Hennie on my first night in Quito, with Jess, Joanna and Ash. It was my first foray into Gringo-Land, i.e. the New Town and I didn't get mugged or stabbed which was a bonus! Not sure how I survived my second night though...... After spending the day wandering the Old Town with Jess - cobbled, narrow and steep streets with colonial buildings and some pretty impressive churches, plazas and other such buildings, it was back to the roof terrace for the weekly Pub Quiz. A round of history followed by a round of general knowledge and things weren't looking good for us. The last round was music and without wanting to blow my own trumpet, we won the whole quiz probably on the back of the performance in this round alone! Even the losing teams were on good form, we met pretty much everyone else in the hostel including an English guy called Chris from East Grinstead. I asked him if he'd left a postcard on Floreana in the Galapagos and it turned out he had and it was the one I had picked up to deliver to his mum!! We agreed to climb Cotopaxi together with a Canadian guy called Brendan. The hostel then organised a big yellow school bus to take us into the New Town where the night got very funny very quickly. Got back to the hostel in daylight and wasted most of the Friday. Managed to head to the climbing shop to sort out all my gear - harness, thermals, waterproofs, windproof jacket, balaclava, ice boots, ice axe, crampons etc. Alot of gear. Friday night was very chilled, said farewell to Tom - definately somebody I'll be seeing back home - and went from being called hot by a very drunk English girl to being called mean in the space of 10 minutes......

It was an early start for Chris and I the next day, the drive to Cotopaxi national park wasn't long, picking up John from the US on the way. Ecuador has nearly 50 volcanoes - over 30 of them are on the mainland, the others are basically all the islands in the Galapagos. On the way to Cotopaxi you see a good dozen or so of the ones on the mainland. It's pretty cool. Unfortunately, as is often the case, the perfect cone of Cotopaxi is not visible as we approach it. Stopping at 4500m we climb the 300m to the Refugio clinging to the side of the volcano. We are joined by Brendan and Darren & Celina, (Darren is from the UK but lives in Switzerland with his girlfriend Celina). The 6 of us with our 3 guides will join about 40 others in attempting to summit later that night. First off, we needed some training on walking / climbing on the ice so trekked another 300m to the glacier. I was already nervous since the 300m to the refugio was hard enough. My aclimitization after being over 3000m for so long in Bolivia and Peru was now totally ruined from being at sea level for a month, (in fact, Paul at the climbing shop had recommened I not do it, suggesting I should stay at the Secret Garden in Cotopaxi national park which is at 3500m for a few days). The ice climbing was actually fun and I felt a little more confident when we got back to the refugio for dinner. Chris and Brendan were struggling though. Marko, our head guide split us into our pairs at dinner. I was to be with John with Fausto as our guide. We were in bed by 7.30pm - and for the first time on my trip I didn't have a single beer or cigarette that evening. It was freezing, depsite the huge spleeping bag so I slept in all my gear. At midnight we were woken up for 'breakfast' and at 1am we were paired off and harnessed to our guides and headed off. It was a beautifully clear night which was good news for views from the top. We could see so many stars and also the huge expanse of lights from distant Quito. Other than that, we could make out our guide and partner in front of us with our head torches and vaguely imagine the sheer drops, ice bridges and crevasses everyside of us. Within an hour I was already really struggling. It was almost impossibly hard work. You couldn't manage 10 steps without needing to stop and gasp in as much thin air as you could. I was stumbling like a drunken idiot and had started to think I wouldn't get much further. We had already left Chris and Brendan far behind who were both really struggling and I couldn't imagine how I would manage another 5 hours of this! Somehow though, John and I managed to spur each other on, with Fausto being extremely patient and encouraging. We passed vague outlines of huge lumps of ice and rock, saw ominous looking holes and large cracks in the ice below us. I spent most of my time looking down at my feet in front of me, making sure to tread where the guide had. On several occasions the guide would shout at us to keep to moving and not to stop - stopping on an ice bridge over a crevasse is not a good idea. It was also encouraging / worrying when everynow and again the guide would stick his axe firmly into the ice and wrap the rope around it ready to take the strain of our weight if we slipped or fell at certain points........ John and I seemed to alternate with our exhaustion and mental toughness. If he was struggling and didn't think he could make it, I felt OK and encouraged him to keep going and vice versa. I did get a little worried at times, especially when John was sick. We had caught up with Darren and Celina at this point, Darren was also being sick and I was seriously struggling for breath, my lungs were bursting. So far the climb had been constantly uphill with no respite and some difficult parts where you seriously needed your equipment or nerve on the narrow sections. However, this all disappeared from the mind as the sun came up and revealed the most breathtaking vista: brightening white snow, frozen waterfalls of ice, incredibly steep slopes, lush green valleys, black and red hardened lava flows, brilliant blue sky, a sea of clouds with snow capped peaks poking above them like icebergs, the huge perfectly triangular shadow of Cotopaxi stamped on the landscape and clouds to the West, and the oh so cruel and beautiful summit! The guide told us we only had 200m left our hearts lifted until we saw what was still ahead of us....... An impossibly steep track up the ice. It took us a good deal of time to climb these last 200m. We were stopping every few steps now and progress was painfully slow, with my legs now really hurting. Just as we were about to have to sit down again, the guide encouraged us to keep going and we finally heard those words, "....... we're near the summit!". We kept going and hit the summit a couple of minutes lates. It was an amazing feeling getting to the top. Amazing. And we were incredibly lucky with the weather. It was perfect. We had a true 360 panorama. We could see the valleys, the towns, the other smaller peaks, some miles away and some not, (Chimborazo, the highest mountain in Ecuador at 6390m is nearly 100KM away and yet looks just over there!), the amazing ice and snow formations and of course the immense crater, smoking ever so slightly, (last report of 'significant' activity was in 1975), and impossibly round. I was very emotional, possibly fueled by the relief and feeling to have actually completed the summit. I would of stayed for a long time but the cold started to bite about 20 minutes later so we harnessed up again and headed down. Despite seeing the extent of the steepness, danger and beauty of the glacier in daylight, the trek down was excruciating. It seemed to take forever, our legs were ruined, we were exhausted and the high of reaching the summit was no longer a driving force and it appeared we were making very little progress. Finally we got back to the refugio and joined up with Chris and Brendan who hadn't made it. In fact, alot of the groups didn't make it - we were 4 from 6 in our group to make it, and were 4 from 13 to actually make it on the day. I was feeling very smug, exhausted but proud for the rest of the day and to an extent, a little still now! 5897m is pretty high. It's higher than Killimanjaro by a few metres and higher than both Everest Base camps by several hunderd metres. I felt for Chris, he was gutted and just went to bed when we got back to the hostel around 2pm. We had got up at midnight, eaten, climbed to the summit from 1am to 7am, returned to the refugio at 10pm and ate at 6.30pm after eating nothing but chocoloate all day. Somehow I managed 4 beers, fueled by the acheivement and the appearance of Reece, Kamila and Sarah (Danish who I met in Galapagos), and Valerie, and stayed awake until 10pm!

And so, I was back in Quito - my last day was spent arranging things for my return and for my last few days away in Brazil. I also went for lunch with Valerie and Reece before seeing Jette and Violette for one last time. We got back to find Rachel, Rob and Dave to hit the karaoke with us and that was my last night in Ecuador. Loved the Country. Like Bolivia, I really felt like I was in South America. The people look so different, are so friendly, laid back and proud, the food was great, (spicy), there was an element of danger there and the sounds, smells and sights felt like a million miles away from things back home. I envy Jess living there for while as she is. However, after the mighty parties of Montanita, the beauty of the Galapagos and the acheivement of Cotopaxi I am now ready to come home. I've done and seen an amazing amount of stuff over the last 6 months but I feel it's enough for me right now. Some people might think I'm mad but alot of times, it's just nice to have your friends and family around and some sort of roots with the odd creature comfort thrown in. I'm sure these feelings might change after time back home however but for now I'm ready for a pint, to watch a game of footy, to have a proper night out with friends without any lethal, cheap and nasty local shot, your camera getting nicked, drunkenly speaking another language you barely understand and asking "where are you from, how long you been away and where have you been?" questions, and of course to speak with family, to cook my own dinner and to not have to carry my sole possessions around in a bag and in my sight at all times! So, I'm in Brazil and feeling very excited about coming home. However, rest assured the next 2 weeks will be cool and I'm positive there will be one more blog at least....!

Hope all you beautiful people are doing well, having fun and feeling good. I shall see you all very soon I hope.

Cheers.

Matt.