there's no place like... ecuador.

I'm sitting in the airport now, waiting to board for my long way home. This past week has been a whirlwind. On Saturday morning, I finished up my last night of call, packed up my things, and said my goodbyes. On my way to the bus stop, a little 5 year old ran out of his mother's shop to yell "Hola Doctorita"... I had treated him for an ear infection at 2am... but his little greeting somehow softened my lack of sleep on his account.

Monday, my dear friend Sarah and I headed out for a great adventure... climbing the world's 2nd highest active volcano, Volcan Cotopaxi, sitting in splendor at 5897meters (19348feet). We hiked up to the refuge to leave our stuff, and headed up the glacier a bit for "Glacier School," the how to crash course on ice axes, crampons (like giant metal 12 point claws that strap on the bottom of the boots), and how to fall down the glacier gracefully.

We slept (or tried) for a few hours on 1.5 ft wide bunk beds stacked three high in the refuge. The guy next to me was snoring loud enough that I was grateful for the sound of the alarm at 12:30am. We got on all our gear and had some breakfast and headed out into pitch black, lit only by our headlamps, by the almost full moon, and a host of brilliant stars... between the waves of fog, wind and snow. Let's just say, I'm glad it was REALLY dark, because I couldn't see the glacier drop off for thousands of feet.
Sarah is an all star mountain climber (being from the Alps, she's a natural), and pushed our pace the whole time. We snacked on chocolate bars and gatorade throughout the night and steadily climbed in elevation. Parts were SO steep and windy, parts we had to take BIG steps over crevasses in the ice, but for the most part, I couldn't help but marvel at the grandness of it all.

The last 80 meters of elevation were the toughest. The sun had just begun to come up, it was incredibly steep, incredibly windy, and just negative 25 degrees celcius. We came over one ridge (that I thought was the top) only to have another higher ridge ahead.... but when we reached the summit, I realized once again why I love the mountains.

The sun was pouring in, the cold wind sweeping snow across the rim of the volcanic crater, several other summits (Chimborazo, the Illinizas, Cayambe) were visible above the cloud line as well. It was breathtaking. I couldn't help but praise the amazing Artist that created it all.
It took only an hour and a half to descend what had taken almost 5 hours to climb!

To see the sharp contrast of the jungle, the glacier topped volcanoes, the big city of Quito... it's pretty incredible that such a tiny country has so much variety of culture and geography. But I'm convinced once again, that what makes a place is its people... and I will miss my dear friends in Ecuador.