(A Translation)

September 24, 2006

Today I had a crazy adventure! In the morning, I met up with my Quiteño friend Daniel who also brought his sister. We planned to walk up Rucu Pichincha. It was good because Daniel’s sister does not speak English, so I had to practice my Spanish. At first I was a bit embarrassed because I think my Spanish is very bad. It was okay though because Daniel helped me out. He can speak English very well but he always wants to learn more. So, Daniel helped me and I helped him.

We took the Teleferico (cable car) up and then started to climb to the peak of Rucu Pichincha. Unfortunately, after one hour, Daniel’s sister told us that she had a headache and couldn’t continue. Daniel told me that he would go back with her. I said, “No problem. I’ll continue on by myself.” Daniel and his sister left, and I continued to walk for another hour and a half. Then, when I was almost at the peak, it started to hail! At first, the pieces of hail were like pebbles, but then suddenly it began to hail large chunks of ice. It was hailing so hard that it hurt! I was a little scared and quickly turned around to go back down the mountain.

After just 10 minutes, hail completely covered the ground. There was also a lot of fog and it was really difficult to see the path. I tried to walk carefully, but I also wanted to get down the mountain as quickly as possible. It was really cold and I was scared that the weather would get even worse. After a half hour or more, I smelled smoke and heard voices. I discovered that there were 3 people hiding from the storm by the side of the mountain. They told me that I should wait with them until the storm lifted. They had a tiny fire and invited me to sit down next to it. It was such good luck that I met them! All of them were really friendly and nice. They didn’t know much English so I had to try to speak in Spanish. I sat next to the fire and chatted with them for a while. They shared their tuna fish and potato chip sandwiches with me. There were two guys, Roberto and Christian, and a girl, Paola. The two guys were really funny. It began to snow and Christian and Roberto played in the snow and got into a snowball fight. After a bit, other people also arrived to rest and wait for the storm to end. It was like a party because there were so many people and everyone shared their food. Everyone gave me cookies, fried pork, and candy.

After about half and hour to an hour, Christian, Paola, Roberto, and I decided to leave because the weather was a bit better. The four of us left and the other people stayed there. There was a lot of snow all over the ground and the guys didn’t have good shoes. Because of this, they fell many times but always laughed, even though with was freezing and our hands and feet were frozen. Our clothes were completely soaked and we couldn’t feel our feet. While going down the mountain, the weather improved slowly. When we reached the Teleférico station, the sun appeared and you could see Rucu Pichincha again, but it was covered in snow. Even though I was frozen, I thought the view was beautiful. When we finally reached the Teleferico station, we went to a café to drink some coffee and warmed up there. We chatted about music and other things for a long time and finally took the Teleferico back down to the city. When we reached the bottom, we said goodbye. I thought I was very lucky to meet such cool people!