Quito without luggage

Before I touched the ground of Quito for the first time in my life I wasn't sure if the plane that I was in had to turn around and fly back to Lima. In that night the airport of Quito was already closed due to thunder-storms and we had to circle three times above the city before the plane got finally the permission to land.

I was so excited to see Henna again especially because of his new haircut! But before we could hug each other again I waited for nothing in the deserted arrivalarea to get my backpack, just one door away from Henna. The TACA-ground staff confirmed that my luggage never had been in the plane to Quito, but everything will be allright. Tomorrow it'll be in Quito.¨That was the first time I heard them say "mañana"...

Without anything beside my small daypack and the clothes I was wearing we spent more beautifull days in Quito then expected. At the end we went to the airport four days in a row and had to threaten the airline that we would claim charges at the "ministerio de tourismo". Suddenly TACA speeded up and finally I got my luggage and a compensation on top! At least 25 US per day... not to bad.

In Quito we visited the old town and observed a lot of smog by the old cars. One day we went to the Basilica de Voto and had a view of Quito we won´t forget. We climbed in unsecured gothic towers and enjoyed (more or less) the amazing deadliest view we ever had from a chathedral on a small edge outside of the steeple.

The next days we realized that we are to the right time on the right place and enjoyed the Quito festival where we danced with lots of locals on a chiva. "Viva Quito! VIVA!" We also explored the amazing landscape around Quito and did some hiking on some moutains like the Rucu Pichincha (about 4700m) and the Ruminahui (4712m) in order to get acclimatized for our big day...

In the night from the 9th of December to the 10th 2009 we just focused one target: the summit of the Cotopaxi vulcano (5897m). Equador's second highest peak even higher than all of the European mountains. A couple of hours before we started the climb, we tried to relax and sleep in the refugio (basie camp) at an altitude of 4800m. It was almost impossible to sleep. More due to nervous thoughts circling in my head than the other 20 nervous people beside us or the altitude.

The final climb started at 00:30h am. We had to check and pack our equipment (jackets, head torch, glooves, boots, crampons, ice axe...). The night was clear and calm and when we looked at the sky, we saw all the twinkling stars so far away that the summit of Cotopaxi seemed to be very small, even close, and I felt stronger then before. In a group of three (Henna, our guide, and me) we started small steps "poco a poco" our way up to the summit. Most of the time we walked in the dark, which was good, because we didn't see the long, long way up to the peak. At altitude of 5500m I felt my lung demanding for more and more air, but breathing just didn´t fill them sufficiently. I breathed in, did one or two steps and I felt like jogging for an hour. Several times, even just a couple of meters before reaching the summit I thought that I could'nt make it but Henna pushed me more then ones with the right words and touches up to the top. After 6 hours 20 minutes the sun just rose and we arrived absolutly exhausted at the summit of Cotopaxi, at fucking incredible 5897m. For the first minutes it was hard to enjoy the view inside of an active crater or the surrounding other wonderful mountains but then my gymnastheart scraped together the last energy for a handstand :-) We both agreed that we pushed our physical and mental limits quite a bit!