Aug 15 - Sep 3, 2016: Ecuador

Aug 29, 2016.  Hotel Oasis, Riobamba, Ecuador.

• Bus to entrance of Chimborazo, with mountain mostly clear and the road going right beside it.  Small groups of vicuñas in the fields - transplanted from Peru, Bolivia, and Chili after Ecuadorian ones were gone.  Lots of photos of great mountain vistas, deep canyons, little hamlets sprinkled about.

• Started walking up road to Refugio Carrell (4800 m), but hitchhiked most of the way (I was worried I wouldn't make it in time).  Walked the path to Refugio Whymper (5000 m - Ecuador's highest refuge) and it turned to be no sweat at all - could I be getting acclimated?  

• By the time I reached Whymper, Chimborazo had clouded up.  Glad I left fairly early.

• Interesting note: Chimborazo is the highest mountain in the world, if you define height as the distance from the center of the earth (Chimborazo: 6384 km; Everest: 6382 km).  

• Walked/ran back mostly straight down, through mostly sandy terrain called the "arsenal", which is so arid that it is compared to the Altiplano of Bolivia.  Vicuñas on the way down, too, and near the road while I waited for transportation back to Riobamba.  Got picked up by a cooperative and ended up sitting in the back on a metal floor, canvas above and both sides, open (to dust) in the back.  Never again.