Heading to climb Iliniza Norte

Breakfast was filled with travel tales from a Greek and two Italians staying in the same hostal. Being a Hilda's aficionada I couldn't resist the photo opportunity.

The road to Sigtso was again beautiful but some the beauty was spoilt by the dozens of fierce looking dogs barking like mad whilst trying to get hold of us, or at least that's what felt like to us. You should have seen the speed of our cycling even up hill. When the dogs weren't trying to have us for lunch, we could enjoy the greenery, the family of piglets crossing the track, the alpaca dozing in our path, the ravines, waterfalls and cloud forest that were with us all the way to Sigtsos.

Just the one, the others had run off

The bikes also needed a rest

Left this one large to give you a feel of the landscape we cycled throught

This one is for you Gilllian!

 The plan was to get to Lasso that night and cycle to Chaupi the following day, the last village on our way to our next mountain; Ilimiza Norte. To do that we needed to get a bus to Toacazo and from there cycle the last 12 km to Lasso. Our bikes travelled in style on top of the bus whilst we enjoyed some hearty banana rolls, our staple food since we arrived!

After an uneventful ride to Lasso we hit the Panamerican Highway, we took a look at the place, rode a couple of hundred metres on the Highway and were quickly convinced that we had to get out of there ASAP. Luckily in Ecuador there are small pick up trucks everywhere so after seriously haggling with one of them we made it to a village called Chaupi. Instantly we were transported to another world: mountaineering. Everyone there was acclimatising to go to Cotopaxi and Chimborazo and all the conversations turned to climbing.

For us the fact that we are here to climb those mountains became much more real. We have been having such a good time and living so in the present that Cotopaxi and Chimborazo or Cayambe just melted in the background but now, with everyone talking about it, they are ever present with us. Over the next couple of days we would be attempting our second summit having finished our cycle ride as planned.