Last Saturday, my jungle friend Bibi, my Baños friend Mario, and my new friends Gabe from Canada and Audra from Ohio went to Cotopaxi, the highest active volcano in Ecuador. I was a LITTLE nervous about the whole being 5000 meters in the air (about 16,500 feet, for those of you who are like my mom and said, "Sara, meters mean nothing to me.") after being extremely short of breath on the teleférico which was 4100 meters up (about 13,500 ft). Have no fear, my friends. I survived. ... Barely.
Now, I dressed as warmly as I could, considering I live on the equator, where it DOES get cold ("chilly" in Wisco), but there is no such thing as a below zero (Fahrenheit) winter. I wore jeans, tennis shoes, long sleeves, a sweatshirt, my fleece, a scarf, and then I bought a llama hat and matching gloves. Yep, I looked Ecuadorian.
The guy sitting next to me is Cuban - Mario - so that's why I don't look like him.
On the bus we climbed, climbed, climbed. Then, we stopped. They let us out. And we were told to climb. On foot. I looked up, and then I looked down. And then I got scared. Who am I kidding? Sara Vanderstappen climb a MOUNTAIN? Ugh. Even re-typing it makes me groan.
After about 3 steps, I was already panting. Shoot. I looked at the girls next to me though, and they said that they were out of breath too, so THAT made me feel better. And we all agreed that if the altitude got to us, there would be NO SHAME in turning back. So, I kept going up. And then I got to the snow. I liked the snow for about 5 minutes. And then I remembered why I hate Wisconsin winters so much! Brrrrrrrr. But this snow was ok, because I knew that I was going to be leaving it soon :) But seriously? It was so weird being in the snow in the middle of July!
At one point, I'm going to guess about 1/4 of the way up, all of a sudden my stomach was CHURNING and I had an instant headache. I have to turn back. I can't go on. I'm going to throw up. I sat down for a minute, and drank some water, and then I ate a Snickers. A few minutes later, I felt completely better. The guide told us to buy chocolate (no problem!) in case we felt sick. Good thing I listened! I was surprised that the chocolate actually solved my problem, but SO happy, because I didn't want to turn back. I was really serious about turning back, too - I even told the GUIDE that I was going back.
Bibi and Mario waited for me to get better, and then we started again. About half way up, my stomach started churning again. My cheerleaders Mario and Bibi were wonderful though, and we waited it out so that I could keep climbing. When we finally saw the refuge, it seemed to get easier, because we could see what we were climbing towards. While were were hiking, it started snowing REALLY hard. We were all covered in WHITE and freezing to death, but we KEPT GOING.
At one point, the ground was really steep, and COVERED in snow, and I thought for SURE that I would be falling off the side of the mini-cliff, but alas, I made it without falling. Surprise! I actually do have balance!
When we FINALLY reached the top, after a little over an hour of hiking, it was SUCH a good feeling. I actually climbed a mountain! Who would have ever thought! I WAS the last one in a group of about 20, but I don't even care. I CLIMBED A MOUNTAIN. The guide said that we could go higher if we wanted to see the glacier, but I said noooooo thanks, this was good for me! So I sat and made new friends with the other people that didn't go all the way up.
The walk down was... FAST. It was steep and the ground was sandy and not solid (the same as the way up, I suppose...), and my legs were in a HURRY. Bibi kept making fun of the way I was walking/running/looking like an idiot. I kept telling him, "My legs are going faster than I want them too!" And he just laughed and said, "I can see that!" Shoot.
When we got to the bus, we had the option of riding in the bus down, or biking. I was so warm and cozy in that bus! And I made new friends. And I do not regret even the tiniest bit being on a bike. On a mountain. Let's face it - I'd PROBABLY be dead on the side of the mountain somewhere... Now though, every time I can see the top of Cotopaxi (which has been a lot these days, because it's been SO nice outside!) I think, "Hey, I climbed that!" What a great feeling. But seriously, the end of my mountain climbing days...
In other news, summer camp is a BLAST. Not really. The poor kids are supposed to be learning English, but I'm selfishly just practicing my Spanish all the time. We just play tons of games. At least they have fun? I hope no parents complain though... Oh well! I'm leaving the country!
Today we took a field trip to the zoo. How interesting it was! The kids LOVED it, and I enjoyed it too. Although instead of having elephants and giraffes, they had raccoons, and white-tailed deer. Really? I literally bust out laughing when I saw it. I also got to walk INSIDE a cage with owls. And a sloth. I saw a few sloths in the jungle, and as in saw, I mean I think that what I was looking at was a sloth, but it could very well have been a bird's nest... They were BORING in the jungle (which I told our guide and it broke his heart), and let me tell you, it was JUST as boring two feet from my face. I wasn't even SCARED that it would JUMP on me, because they DON'T MOVE. BOOOOOOOOORINGGGGGGGGGGG.
The most exciting thing that happened at the zoo was when Mateo - slow, absent-minded Mateo - dropped his bag. I was standing with the kids, and I hear (in Spanish), "Teacher, I dropped my bag." I was thinking, "Well, pick it up, you dumb kid!" (I love my job), but instead of saying that, I said, "OK... What do you want me to do about it?" Then, I looked at Mateo. He was looking down. In the pen. Where the kangaroo was. And there was his bag. Are you kidding me?
Being the good person I am, I said, "Violeta! Grab that stick and try and get his bag!" So, she grabbed a stick, laid down on her stomach, and went for his bag. I was REALLY nervous about that dang kangaroo. She couldn't reach. Someone with longer arms had to do it. GREAT. So, I laid down on my stomach and reached for the bag. I couldn't SEE anything because of the way the fence was, but the other teachers were yelling at me, "LEFT! RIGHT! ALMOST THERE!!!!!" Until I grabbed it. I was SWEATING the whole time, because of the DANG kangaroo! Jesus, it could have attacked me or something! So, needless to say, I can't WAIT until next week's field trip....
Until next time,
Sara the MOUNTAINEER!
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