Well after running around Quito for a few days and changing plans more than a few times, we finally settled on one thing. We are determined to go to Cotopaxi (but the three day guided climbing trip would cost us $150 per person) so we opted to go it alone. Well we realized that climbing the snow and ice coverd volcano wouldnt be possible alone so we decided to just backpack around the park. We caught a bus out of Quito friday morning and made it to the park around noon.
Today we went to the Center of the World with some of the kiddies from the Hostel, Sean and Jeff, the New Zealanders and Seth and Becky from the UK. A 1.5 hour bus ride north of Quito, it was a fabulous tourist trap with all the makings to rip every last cent from your pocket. The center of the world was marked with a huge monument built with the help of the French about a hundred years ago.
The 6 hour bus ride into the sierra of Ecuador was quite unbelievable. The first few hours we passed huge plantations where they were growing gigantic banana trees and other huge tropical plants i think to use their fibre and leaves for thatching roofs and things of that sort. Then we began to climb.