Volcanoes in Quito's Backyard

On a sunny Friday morning we headed to the beautiful volcano Pichincha that sits just to the west of my house. It is the one that I stare at in admiration every day on my walk to school and the way I tell the weather because you can always tell if it's going to rain based on the clouds rolling over the volcano. I had gone half way up this volcano once before because there is a famous cable car called El Teleférico that takes you up a big portion up the mountain. The trick is, you have to go early and on a sunny day if you want to hike the rest of the way to the top. So on this day we finally got to hike for a couple hours up the rest of the way to the summit (el cumbre). In these areas full of tourists it's easy to meet people from all over the world who speak all sorts of languages and have interesting stories about why they came to Ecuador. The summit of Pichincha is the tallest summit I have reached in Ecuador because of the help of the cablecar. Because we are also almost on the equator so the sun moves directly overhead, that day on top of the summit was the closest to the sun that I have ever been! It stands at 4,969 meters tall, or about 16,302 feet. If you ever plan a trip to Quito, Pichincha and the Teleférico is a must-see, as long as you give yourself time to adjust to the altitude before you go!