So what's new and interesting?  Well Carnival fast approaches and we are told to expect waterballoons from children.  Some of them seem to be getting a head start - sherry got nailed in the back as we walked a market today.  Not to be out done we've picked up some ammunition for when things get worse.  When not pelting us with waterballons the children are often part of some elaborate simpathy scheme for money.  I don't think I've seen a child under 5 yet that wasn't begging come to think of it.  Plenty of teenagers though, perhaps it's just a rite of passage.

As far as actual training goes, today we got to work on our fixed line ascent.  Basically you have yourself tied to a rope in two different places in two different manners and you have to practice getting past knots or tiedown points without ever completely disconnecting from the rope.  It wasn't too hard except that they sent half of the group in one direction around the rope ring and the other around the other.  The collision mid way was fun.  We also learned what constitutes light packing for a moderate hike - and it isn't the same as what I would consider for that.  light hikes for me don't invole full goretex outerwear and your headlamp "just in case".

So yes, that means that tomorrow is our first ascent.  Wakeup call around 4:00am for breakfast at 4:30 and a departure by 5.  3 hours by van and we get to start actually treking.   This is also the only thing that is still consistant with our original schedule.  The mountains and snow have decided to have a little fun with us causing our team to have to rearrange the climb schedule.  Cotopaxi - which was to be our second summit - is now our last and one of our initial summits is now completey scrubbed.  We'll still hit 4 peaks but it's definately a schedule in flux.

No pictures right now since I forgot my camera cable and it's sunday and nothing is open (though plenty of shops should carry it).  It's rather a shame, otherwise right now you'd be looking at a bronze statue of a Klu Klux Klan's man.  If it isn't a klansman than it's a statue of a funny man holding a cross with a giant pointed hood with slits for eyes.  Not sure which makes more sense.  It was for sale on the edge of Gringolandia (gringo land, our unofficial home) so maybe it was there just to cause a stir.  Don't know.  I just thought it was funny.

Only other things to report were flying from seattle to huston with a couple in the two seats next to me that overflowed fairly well into my seat.  They had to lift the armrests so as to wedge their girth into the airline's admittedly tiny seats.  I didn't sleep very well on that flight.  Sherry was offered $200 and a first class upgrade if she was willing to go out on a later flight - but that would have given her a total of 20 minutes to change planes in texas so a no go there.

Not much else really, today was mostly a reconoitering day, getting used to the city and the people.  Getting used to haveing to consume 4 to 6 liters of water a day to properly counteract the altitude (this is including the diamox) and finding out which restaurants serve gringo friendly food.  More to come I'm sure.

But first, as promised, a picture of the little KKK statue.  Tell me it isn't a clansman, go on, tell me.  Anyway.

Our first summit was 15,465 feet - just shy of the full three mile mark.  Though if you count the bulge of the earth at the equator we could fudge it to say above 3 miles, but anyway.  The hike started off with a nauseatingly bumpy ride at six AM across broken pavement, then rough cobblestone, then horribly washed out dirt roads.  After that little adventure we started off across a beautiful high moutain pasture.  a few piss breaks later - our guide Luis instructed the ladies how to do this with a minimum of embarassment - and we finally got the the rock wall.  Deciding weŽd rather live to see another day we elected to go around the "easy" way across a huge expanse of shale and then scramble up the last 400 feet of trecherously loose rock.  It was a blast!  pictures are posted in the gallery here https://www.arr-the-kraken.com/gallery/view.php?gid=5 .

After giddy jokes of decapatating our fearless leader and drinking his oxygen rich blood we decided to head back down.  What took us 5 hours to summit took about 45 minutes to get down.  Another jarring ride past curious cows and dogs feircly guarding their nests of garbage we got back to town.  Nearly everyone crashed immediately but Henry and I set out to take advantage of the ridiculously low prices for hiking gear here and get me a better day pack.

Some struggles with an incompetant user at the primary cafe ("how do I copy a file?") and we arrive here.  We're meeting for well deserved pizza for dinner - the hike burned 3500 calories - then a nice leasurly night before hitting the climbing wall tomorrow.

Now that I have a cable and now where to post pictures I should be able to add more photos to the gallery, it's easier than linking to them here and we all know I am generally lazy (current excursion excluded).

Hope all are well in seattle, ireland and afgahnistan.  Peace out yo.

Our itinerary has also changed drastically as I think I mentioned in my last message. Because of the weather patterns down here some of the mountains we were going to climb are too dangerous due to avalanch hazard. So we will be climbing 4 mountains total. Two of them will not have snow. And the other 2 have glaciers. We are attempting Mt. Cotopaxi last on Feb 12th because it has had bad weather. We are giving ourselves a few days to give us a longer window for when to attempt it. We are also climbing Cayambe which is one that I really want to summit. Keep your fingers crossed for us on Feb 4th for that one.

Today we got up bright and early (4 am) to hike up Ruca Pinchincha which overlooks Quito. For Zack and I being from the West Coast that was a tough wake up call. I think we both have jet lag. Anyway, we started off at a pretty good clip and made the summit by 12:30 pm. Zack is doing really well with acclimating. I am having a hard time breathing at high altitude but hopefully my body will get used to it. We summited this 15,465 ft peak on our second day here so thats pretty good. No wonder I could not breath.

Tonight is dinner. We get to sleep in tomorrow and both Zack and I are excited about that. Tomorrow we will be at the climbing wall all day then packing for the climb of Cayambe.

Well, we're now in Otavalo after our attempt on Cayambe (19,000 feet).  You'll note I didn't say successful attempt.  Sherry and I made it to a little over 17,500 - a few made it to just over 18k - and then the gale force winds, binding ice storm and 15 degree drop in temperature set it.  Really too bad too since the day before we'd been out training on the lower portion of the glacier (the "terminal morrain") in nice weather with clear skies.

When we finally got back down to the hut we me the group of people who had showed up the night before.  they said that they'd seen the weather forming and felt incredibly bad for those poor fools heading out that morning - that would be us.  One of the ladies sounded sort of familiar, like I knew the accent.  Turns out she's from seattle and works at REI - she was my outfitter.  So she said she was sorry about our lack of a summit but wanted to know if he clothes worked or not.  They did.

All of that has sort of served to cement a feeling of mine that I'm a dirt hiker not a snow/ice hiker.  we're having another "normal" summit of 17.5 in a few days with no glacier and I aught to enjoy it more.  We'll see what happens for the last climb.

So now we're here in Otavalo - home of a famous market or two.  If you show up to the animal market early you can buy yourself a lamb or pig or whatever.  If you show up really early you can sometimes buy yourself a child.  The normal market is full of random art, blankets and nicknacks and will probably be where we spend most of our time.

I have pictures to share of training and driving and what not but most are film and those that are not are forever thwarted by this country's lack of USB ports.  Now it's time for a nap though.  An 8 hour summit attempt starting at midnight on about 3 hours of sleep can sort of drain you.

Peace to my peeps yo.

I did fall into a cravesse on the way back down. Just up to my left knee. I was able to pull my self out right away but my heart did skip a beat or two.

Now we are in the market of Otavalo north of the Ecuador. Zack got some great pictures when we passed the equator. I was on north and south at the same time. Pretty cool.

Well, off to do more shopping. Then we leave tomorrow for more climbing. Later.

A little more info on our guides. They are really good at telling stories. One of them, Luis, has climbed Everest a few times. He helped guide a blind guy up to the summit. Apparently on that trip some of the other camp members stole his good luck charm. It just so happens to be a rubber chicken! How strange is that? But he apparently loves this chicken. They put it up for ransom and took pictures of it in all these strange positions. Mountain guides have a really good sense of humor.

The other guide that we spend a lot of time with is Nelson. He guided the trip I was on two years ago. Well, we happen to be down in Ecuador during Carnival. They are a catholic country and take this very seriously except of course the children. Every time they see a gringo they shoot us with water or throw water ballons at us. Zack has taken up the fine art of staring them down so they don't get us. Anyway, Nelson decided today to arm himself with a very powerful water gun. He sat on top of the hotel balcony and shot all of us as we were trying to get in and out running errands. Luckily I'm managed to avoid most of it but he is sitting across from me right now in the internet cafe and I'm not leaving until he goes. I'm sure he's just waiting for me to leave. :) All in good fun.

Tomorrow we are heading out to hike up a 17,500 ft peak called Iliniza. No snow on this one but we have to leave early so that we don't get caught in the afternoon thundershowers. We leave at midnight. Needless to say I'll be tired when I get back. But we do get to go to some hot springs the following day of the hike so I'm excited about that. Kind of a spa I hear. Massage, mud bath, that sort. I'm not so sure about the mud thing.

After that we attempt Cotopaxi. This is the one I did two years ago. I'm looking forward to the challenge but not the pain. Hopefully the weather holds out. It hasn't been as nice here as I'd hoped our guides are a little discouraged as well. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Well, I'm off for now. Off to a meeting and then maybe pizza for dinner. I know it sounds strange but I'm craving pizza. Hopefully Dominos is open. Everything closes around here on Sundays. No cars are allowed on the roads. Very strange. But at least you don't have to smell diesel fuel that day. Very quiet and relaxing.

Thwarted.  Thwarted of my third summit by beings (are they alive?) too small to see.  Yup.  Incan gringo death rot is what you'd probably be tempted to call it.  It's what I'm tempted to call it.

A few days ago in Otavalo - thankfully the night after visiting Jose's tapestry workshop and the market - lots of little deadly buggers decided to set up camp in my system.  It's cost me a trip to the hot springs (damn) a training hike (meh) and so much strength that making it to the hut on Cotopaxi would be wishful thinking let alone summiting.

The guides, for their part, have been nothing but supportive.  Woke them up the first night to basically be told what I already should have known - start taking Cypro.  They were patient with me on the 3 hour drive back from Otavalo to Quito and then really became aware I wasn't doing this as some sort of strange prank.  Talking with Nelson this morning about Cotopaxi the conversation went something like this:

Me: I just don't have the strength to make a dent in Cotopaxi and it's starting to look like it'll be a long while until I do.

Nelson:  Don't discount human recovery man - we've got three days still till the climb and now that the Cypro has you cleaned up we should be able to rebuild you.

Me:  The Cypro hasn't done jack and it's been the required three days.

Nelson:  Really?  Yeah, you probably need to see a doctor or something.

So with that and a few other discussions I rebooked my flight from quito from the 13th to the 9th (tomorrow).  And let me tell you - trying to rebook a flight over a shitty phone connection between someone who speaks no spanish and someone who speaks poor english battling with a last name like "birkenbuel" can be like pulling teeth.  I ended up calling continental's 800 number from my cel phone just to make sure everything took.  Yeah, long distance on a cell phone from quito to the states while roaming in ecuador, that's going to be a fun bill to see.

Anyway.  Today is the first day in about 3 days I've had the strength and, uh, "stability" to roam outside of the hotel and type.  I was going to painstakingly peck out an update from my cel phone but I forgot the email authentication scheme I set up to post via email - made it too secure :)

Sherry felt bad but I told her that I'd summited one peak and thrown myself bodily at a mountain that would not be summited that day and I shared it with a friend so it was all good.  That and with now 5 continents under my belt and innumerable stupid health risks I really was due for something like this.

We'll see how trying to leave the country tomorrow goes, then trying to meet with a doctor as quick as I can.  It'll be interesting for certain.  I will certain remember this trip though :)

Shoutouts to people who will never read this:  Henry, the jokes make up for the snoring (barely);  Christina, always handy to have a doctor on hand, but please no more OBGYN horror stories;  Nelson and Jaimae, worthy of trusting my life with, I'll try the tabletop traverse when I get home; Papa Noel, coolest beard ever.

So our team is down one but we'll keep trekking. Zack missed out on some fun stuff but at least you all can hear it from me.

After we got back into Quito we got ready for another climb of Ilinisa Norte. It is not a glacier. A lot like the stuff I trained on in the states. It was really beautiful. Unfortantely for me I got the Incan gringo death rot once we got up to the little up most of the way up the mountain at about 4765 meters. I stayed at the hut while the rest of the crew made the summit after 4.5 hours. Needless to say by the time they got back I had turned into a popsicle. I was colder than I've ever been before. Not to mention all the mold and mildew I was breathing in while they were gone. I met a lot of people in those 4.5 hours though. One was a 30 year old Ecuadorian woman with a 5 year old girl. She was divorced and worked at the Belgian Embassy as a technicial. She spoke French and Spanish fluently. Unfortantely, I don't speak either of those very well. So she tested out her English on me. I think she did pretty well if I picked up that much info on her.

The following day we went up into the Cloud Forrest to visit this great Spa. It had hot springs and the best trout I've ever had. A bunch of people got massages. I'm waiting until I get home.

I seem to have developed what they call the high altitude hack. I keep coughing and it is driving me bananas. I've had more hard candies than I can count. My teeth will probably be rotten by the time I get back.

Today we are getting ready to head up to Mt. Cotopaxi. This is the one I did two years ago. Keep your fingers crossed that the weather is good. We've got an extra day to wait out any storms that come by so hopefully we'll all summit. I feel pretty strong and hopefully will exceed my height record of 17,500 ft.

Everybody, please keep your fingers crossed for me. I really want to summit this one. Hopefully I'll have pictures to prove it. :) Take care.

The flight back was interesting - an exercise in amusement and stress management. Get to the airport, the lady at the counter said "oh, didn't they tell you your flight is delayed 2 hours?" - haven't I heard this before?. I got up at 3:40 and thus am very tired so I sleep on the floor of a cold airport lounge for about an hour and a half. Once we start boarding the plane the moment I step on board a baby begins screaming uncontrollably (real ego booster there), however once I sit down she quites down and doesn't make a peep for the rest of the flight. The jetway is pulled back and the plane slowly starts to roll backwards. At this point the man one row up grabs the airsick bag and retches noisly into it a few times. Yeah this is going to be a fun flight.

Huston was a little better. US security found the horribly dangerous weapon that a 1.5 inch pair of scissors constitute burried in my toiletries bag (I forgot I borrowed them up on Cayambe) so did a hand search and generally molested my carry on bag. It was fine. While they were busying themselves with the minutia of my Ipod I glanced over and saw a group of men huddled in a circle. Prayer group I decide. They break and part so that John McCain can leave the center of the circle. It isn't actually the only republican I've ever considered voting for but it looks just like him. Anyway - the pious young men are standing now in groups of two or three chatting when a gorgeous dark skinned woman walks slowly by. They resist and resist and then each of them in turn grabs a quick glance or two then returns to their huddle. Mr. McCain gets a nice long look. Not leering or anything just appreciative. Some things are just hardwired eh?

So now I'm home and still recovering. Sherry should hopefully be making an attempt at cotopaxi today. They have a buffer day built in so that if the weather blows today they can try tomorrow. I hope it's better than last time for her, though it could really hardly be worse. For my part I'm definately dissapointed not to have had the chance to try it, though it is an awfully harsh experience, but I'm looking forward to hearing the tales when she gets back.

Sherry had a few things in her emails that didn't quite make it into here, so I may do some creative database editing to post her emails in where they belong in this little journal when I slice it off as a travel log. I definately want to keep her perspective.

Damn body, still on east coast time, waking me up at 2:00 am.

So now we have a last name, the tormenting can begin. Well once you're home in, what, two and a half weeks? Not soon enough I'm sure.

I am giddy with ill gotten knowledge. The best kind really.

Worked my first 60 hour week - not going to be doing that any time soon - which probably feels worse for coming straight after two zero hour weeks. The one day off was productive though. Found out more about what it takes to be a groomsman, which is good since now I'm going to be a groomsman in a second wedding. Enjoyed some 6 pound pizzas from northlake followed by a flaming alcoholic birthday party which I was sadly too tired to enjoy propery (plus my drinks don't tend to catch fire). Vague plans were made for vagas some time in april.

And lest it ever be forgotten, kicking justyn's ass at bowling for once in my life was quite enjoyable. Hear that J? My 143 completely stomped your 142. Yeah. The subsiquent and more typical 112 loss to 155 was less enjoyable.

Anyway, work calls again. *sob*