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The Soul of a Journey

"The soul of a journey is liberty, perfect liberty, to think, feel, do just as one pleases." ~William Hazlitt

Map of the journey

Touch the sky

Touch the sky

Published on July 29, 2013

We took a taxi up the side of the Pichincha volcano, to the base of the teleferico platform.

The teleferico.

Chimbrazo, a neighboring snow-capped volcano.

The line for teleferico tickets.

Pricing.

D’oh!

Boarding the cars!

View from inside the car, going up!

This adorable little guy was in our car. He thoroughly enjoyed the ride.

Top platform, looking back down. The city of Quito spreads out literally as far as I can see in either direction.

Now we hike!

The teleferico has bike racks, and lots of bikers ride the mountainside.

The trailhead. See that bumpy peak in the middle? That’s where we’re headed.

It was cold; we were glad we brought our warm gear.

My ears were freezing, and I had to layer my rain jacket over my fleece. Glad Craig brought extra gloves!

Ready? Yes!

This awesome ground cover feels like Astroturf.

Enjoying the views.

The trail goes on forever!

Sat down for a rest.

The sky is actually that color when you get up this high. No filters or adjustments were made to any of these pics.

King of the World!

Going higher and higher…

Llamas!

Warmed up enough to lose the scarf for a while.

Steep part of the path + high altitude = lots of huffing and puffing.

The posters said ‘Toca el cielo,’ or touch the sky. So we did.

Lying down in the grass alongside the path, I felt like I could grab the clouds and pull them over me like a fluffy blanket.

Enjoying the view.

The woman who tended the horses…

Sky Ponies! These are the horses that the smart people chose to ride up to the peak.

Looking back down the path at the horse corral and cliff.

This is what I was actually seeing while hiking. 😀

We have to go up there? Every time it looked like the peak was just ahead, that turned out to be an illusion.

Earned another amazing view.

And another.

Exhausted. Sitting down for a snack.

Can you SEE how thin the air is?

At one of the kilometer markers. Altogether, we hiked about 6 miles roundtrip and ascended from 13,300 feet (top of the teleferico platform) to about 15,000 feet.

The trail, leading to the peak. We made it about halfway on this trip. We’ll get an earlier start next time, we were running out of daylight.

See the rainbow?

Sunbeam!

Exhausted. Going back down.

One last view of the neighboring volcano and the city below.

View from the bus stop, waiting for a cab to go home!

Published by Lauren

I'm a nomadic freelance writer, out enjoying the world!

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Tags hike, Pichincha volcano, Quito, teleferico, teleferiqo

Categories Ecuador, Quito

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