I left Banos and traveled by bus to Riobamba, the city which is the jumping off point for hiking in the Chimborazo NP. I booked a room in an old mansion in city as everything here is cheap-
Chimborazo is the highest moutain/volcan in Ecuador at a little under 6300 meters and it claims highest mountain honors. It seems the earth bulges out a bit at the equator- and most of Ecuador is quite close to the E- and so the peak of Chimborazo is actually closer to the sun and further from the center of the earth than any place on earth. Given that I climbed over 5100 meters on Chimborazo and have never gone near Everest, I am fine with Chimb claiming top honors as I have now likely passed all those foolish Everest climbers.
In any case, I got to Riobamba at about 11am and immediately asked the hotel to arrange a tour to Chimborazo that afternoon as time was tight. Well, no tours were evidently available for some reason, so I promptly said to the hotel "Get me a driver! It is Chimborazo or bust!"
Well, a driver and pick up truck were promptly procured and we set off for Chimborazo about 1.5 hours away. As usual, the weather was overcast and so I was not too optimistic about seeing the peak, but wanted to give it a try in any case. The landscape surrounding the mountain is pretty stark and it is a cold, windy and somewhat forbidden place-
I started my relatively short hike (about 2 hours r/t) with the mountain covered in clouds. It was tough hiking given the elevation and my limited acclimatization. If fact, I was somewhat dizzy almost the entire climb, though my old hiking friend Craze might note that is not really noteworthy. But as I approached this tiny laguna at my destination of 5100 meters, LO!, the clouds cleared and the massive volcano revealed its stunning self-
The laguna also came with a snowman-
When the clouds cleared, that was definitely a 'wow' moment. It is impossible to convey by pictures how massive and tall this mountain appeared.
On the way back, we saw some of the vacunas who populate the area-
The return journey took us through some of the prettiest farmland I have ever seen, though I had difficulty capturing it by camera-
The driver was a talkative fellow, but he spoke no Anglais and he seemed to have some difficulty understanding my espanol-accented English for some reason. In any case, at one point along the way, we picked up this older Indian woman who was hitch-hiking and he then conversed with her like they were old friends.. I think he just wanted someone to talk to. I added little to the conversation.
Finally, we passed by this church which appeared to be roughly modeled on the Sydney Opera house for some reason-
Now for a six hour bus ride to Cuenca. But one last hard earned photo of Chimbarzo-
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