Just another weekend hiking active volcanoes

All of you have been warned, this post has a good chance of being obnoxiously long, but a sweet weekend deserves some light.

So surprise! I live with a famous soccer family, and despite the fact that i have no interest whatsoever in soccer, its pretty sweet. My Ecua-dad played for Quito 10 years ago before he hurt his knee. His brother, Alex Aguinaga played for the Ecuador Selection and now in Mexico, and is uber famous here. Ive been told he's one of the best soccer players in Ecuador's history. Sweetness! So friday night was his "despedida" (retirement game) of his professional career- and of course i got to go!

As we left for the stadium, i was smooshed in a car with my ecua family, including my Abuelita (grandma). We got in the stadium, and for some reason my family got split up (for one my ecua brother got to be on the field for the opening) and i ended up going with my Abuelita. As we kept going through different security check points, i realized we were going a lot further than the rest of the crowd. Then it clicked...this is Alex's mom i'm with! And yes sure enough, we were headign for the press box. I sat by and enjoyed the game with the owner of the owner of the Mexican team Alex plays for and listened to my Abuelita get interviewed by tons of radio and TV programs.

Side note- alex chose who he played with, so of course my Ecua Dad was out there. Fun times at my first ever soccer game.

After a couple hours of sleep Friday night, i was off on a weekend excursion with my sweet volcano class. We started at the crack of dawn and headed for Cotopaxi- an incredible snow capped volcano- that when it erupts- will basically destroy a ton of stuff and cause a bit of chaos. We took a bus as far as we could and then did a difficult hour and a half hike up to the shelter that lies in the snowcapped part before the glaciers start. It doesn't look like it would be a hard hike as you can see the yellow shelter in the snow the whole time, and its a straight shot- but the ground is loose so for every step its half step back. For an hour and half up ;its a 15 minute slit-jog-in-the-ash- back down.

Once we caught our breath at the shelter we went for another 15 min or so further for some beautiful views of the glaciers. We didn't have the equipment to climb further, but after a slight panicked feeling as we were walking on a severe angle in snow on the side of the volcano to get to this flat area- i was happy to take the pictures and turn around.

Breathtaking- and extremely different than my past extreme volcano hike in Guatemala.

Once everyone was safe and sound back on the bus- we headed to Banos, a BEAUTIFUL small town in the lush green mountains in the edge of the jungle and the sierra. I had stopped through last weekend, but it was great to be able relax there for the evening.

Good old faithful lonely planet led us to an incredible cafe-restaurant where i enjoyed nachos, the hummus and pita, followed by a plate of pad thai. We all ate so much, but it was so cheap, and we were all famished and we all enjoyed the luxury to indulge a little.

Sunday morning was another 5am wakeup call and we headed out- sin breakfast- to talk to look some past destruction of another active volcano- Tungurahua. WE talked to a local about the people who live in the area, and about his past experiences of having to evacuate, and restart over his crops continuously. Its amazing how people continue to rebuild over past lava destructions like it didn't happen, to be destroyed again in only a few years.

The landscape was once again too incredible for words.

This country is so so beautiful. I wish everyone could enjoy it.