We left our houses at approximately 10.30am and hailed a few taxis to take us there. We bought our tickets and didn't have to wait long to get into the cabins. Each cabin took 6 people which was perfect since there was 12 of us meaning we neatly fit into 2 cabins. The ride up was pretty scary but the view was amazing looking right out over the whole city.
The Teleferico climbs from 2800m to 4100m in the short 10 minute ride and is breathtaking (literally). At the top it is rather chilly with an average temperature of 6℃, I was definitely glad I took my scarf. There are many platforms and areas from which you can take photos and you can see the whole of Quito city which spans a much larger area than I imagined. We had a relatively clear day but as you can see in the photos there was already quite a few clouds and a layer of smog over the city by the time we arrived (in typical fashion Sunday was a much clearer day but nevermind!)
At the top we wandered around taking multiple photos for a while, then we decided to head up and round the corner a little bit where the view was slightly elevated, it was pretty magical and there was even a layer of mist floating above the ground due to the crisp, cool air as seen in the photo below.
There is the option to walk right to the top of Ruca Pichincha however even just being at the top of the gondola the effects of the altitude were apparent with an increased heartrate and shortness of breath from just wandering around to take some photos. Only Timo was up for walking to the top so we reluctantly left him behind to venture to the top. These photos below were taken by him from the top of the mountain and are pretty incredible!
The rest of us headed back down on the gondola and enjoyed the gentle descent down the mountain. At the bottom we hailed a taxi and a van to take us back to La Floresta (the neighbourhood we are staying in) where we decided upon somewhere to eat for lunch, we were a little hangry by this point (approximately 1.30pm). We decided upon 'Pollo Campero' a Latin Chicken Fast Food Chain so we hailed two taxis and piled in hoping the taxi drivers would bring us to the right place. Thankfully, our taxi driver did take us where we wanted to go however the other 5 not so much... we waited outside the place for half an hour in hopes they would turn up but no luck and the hunger was immense by this point so we went in and had some lunch anyway. The lunch was pretty good for fast food and considering it only cost us $12.65 for 5 people to eat we certainly had no complaints!
By this point we were pretty tired so Ruby and I caught a Taxi back home and the others walked. We still have no idea what the others got up to whilst we waited and eventually went in and had lunch but it was all part of the fun and they were safe ☺
Hope everyone is well, miss you all back home!
Having a great time ☺
Georgia xx
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