Monday, November 29, 2010

Ecuador High Altitude Expedition: Dispatch 1

Ecuador High Altitude Expedition: November 26- Dec 10, 2010

Lead Guide: Pepe 
Landazuri

Climbers: Diane Evans, Robert Krueger, Timothy Pattee, John Stephenson, Scott Curtis.

Pepe called on Saturday at 7:20 PST with the following news: 

Laguna 

Quicocha"Hi, Good Evening! This is Pepe calling from Ecuador. This is the first report for the new climbing season here in the Northern Andes. On this expedition we will try to climb Cayambe, Cotopaxi, and Chimborazo after doing some touring in the countryside and a series of acclimatization hikes.

After breakfast together at the hotel, we drove from Quito to go to the local market at Otavalo. Saturday is the big market day and people come to it from all over the region.  After exploring the market we head to Quicocha Lake where we had lunch.  It's a gorgeous volcanic lake.  Good food, good view!

Right now we are a small town Achopi at the base of the Illinizas (Illiniza Sur on the left in this photo and Iliniza Sur to the right), and tomorrow we will hike to 4,300 meters for acclimatization.  We changed our planned itinerary because on Sunday there is a national census, and everyone is supposed to stay in pone place from 7:00am to 5:00pm.  We figured if we are in the country, no census workers can tell us to go back to the hotel!  

So – we are all doing well and looking forward to some good hiking!  We'll call tomorrow with an update.  By for now." 

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