Two starving boys headed out for dinner on tuesday night, after a long journey back from the amazone. 3 hours by boat, 2 hours by car and 1 hour flight. Kind of remote... No wonder why it's so untouched and beautiful! Great steak and fresh gambas on the barbie... cold beer.... it tasted GREAT. And for only 14 bucks (for the two of them!), it tasted even better. Plans were made for the rest of the week, starting by taking a day off and discover parts of Quito.
After breakfast it was an hour walk down to the most renommated part of Quito, the old town. The inkas destroyed it before the spanish invasion, but the spaniards rebuild it, and it's very pretty! Quito has a great cultural heritage and many bautiful buildings and interesting museums, but there's not enough time to go into any depth. Instead they decided to get out of Quito a few days earlier and head for the mountains and the town of Riobamba.
So yesterday morning they packed their stuff, got a cab to take them to the busstop, where a local bus leaves every hour for Riobamba. It's a 3 hr ride.. but of course the taxidriver picked up on Bram's and Tim's conversation and proposed he'd drive them there instead. For another couple of bucks... (in south america gasline still come cheap ;-) , so of course they took up the driver on his generous offer! Great opportunity to practice some spanish.
The hotel lays in the outskirts of Riobamba, nice place but dubious surroundings... but it should be ok, this is the hotel recommended by the tour operator. Tim called Brigitte to give her an update while Bram went to a more private room to take a.. you know. Only to discover, (when done), that there's not water in the hotel. Cojones..... !!! Much to Brigittes pleasure, who overheard Bram swearing from a distance. hahaha. Water did return later..
I mentioned to Brigitte that it would be nice if Bram could give me a call, after all it's been a week now... I'm sure there were phonebooths in Quito, if he didn't want to bugger Tim for his Blackberry.. Brigitte fired off an sms to Tim... and voila! Bram phoned home immediately: - Hi honey, I had to call you ??? @#*? Caramba, Riobamba... grrrrrr, you don't H A V E to call, but it's nice if you do. Such a typical laid back Bramos . Spoiled gringo. Bueno... i'm kind of joking, I'm used to it. He just knows that everthing is ok at home, Tim works the phone, so what's the big deal. ;-)
Riobamba seems to be the place to be. "Vet cool" Tim says, that is "awesome" in english. Today it's rise and shine early for the Devil's train up to Banos. You get on the train, on the roof, before the sun comes up. And then you ride up to approx 4000m through beautiful landscape and stunning views. The mornings are chilly, so you want to be dressed for the occasion. Tomorrow they'll travel to some place at 5000m, and ride down to 2200 on mountain bike. Seems the guys have found themselves some great activities for acclimatisation... Life's a bitch. Stay tuned.
Saturday: Swooooossshhhh... from 4800m to 2800m, speeding down a volcano on a mountain bike. Conditions could not have been better, with fantastic weather offering stunning views of the surrounding snowcapped volcanos and the andes landscape. Just awesome. And not a bad luck in sight, not even a flat tire. And Riobamba is growing on the boys. A taxi to downtown is only 80 cents, good restaurants after all with more gambas and steaks. For only 3 bucks. The boys start to know their way around!
Sunday morning: Mountains here they come. Finally! Breakfast and gearing up for a 2-day trip. A 4WD is ready to take them to the refuge where they sleep tonight. Probably a couple of hours drive. Tomorrow is the first attempt for a summit, leaving the refuge at 3 am. Climb up is estimated to approx 4 hours, so tomorrow morning when I've dropped the kids at school, they strap on their crampons and should be standing on Carihuairazo, 5018m, at 1pm our time. Here a short description, a little contradictory to Brams vision of a walk in the park : "Carihuairazo lies to the north east of its much vaster neighbour Chimborazo. Depending on conditions the final summit on the ridge can be difficult or impossible (and the penultimate summit may be less than straightforward). The normal route to Carihuairazo Maxima (5,018m) starts from a camping spot at ~4,600m, reaching the main ridge either via the SW-ridge or from West via the glacier, followed by a difficult technical climb to reach the summit tower." Carihuairazo's Glacier has lost an important part of its mass during the last decade as a result of global warming and ash covers caused by the recent volcanic activity of its eastern neighbour Tungurahua. Carihuairazo is considered inactive though. Have a safe summit push. We wait for more news. Stay tuned... 
