Up, Up Into the Clouds Above Quito

The cable car from Quito up the volcano takes you up 2,000 feet in 20 minutes

During our time in Quito so far, we had been waiting for a clear morning to do the TelefériQo cable car up the Pichincha Volcano. The mountain, which looms above Quito, last erupted in 1999, but has periodically spewed lava and chased off the residents below for more than a thousand years. Today, the skies were no clearer than the previous days, but now that I thought about it, waiting till our last full day in Quito to do this was probably a good idea. The cable car ascends more than 2,000 feet up to 12,943 feet, which is a long way up. The highest I have ever hiked in my life was Dead Woman’s Pass on the Machu Picchu trail. That was to 13,828 feet and it kicked my butt. Plus, I was more than a decade younger back then! So, getting a chance to acclimated to the high altitude of Quito before hiking on the volcano in the clouds was a serendipitous idea!

Up,up, and away we go into the clouds!

We took an Uber to the cable car start point after breakfast, and there was already a small line. We paid our $9 or so for the 20-minute ride to the top, sharing the gondola with three cheerful, young Brazilians guys, who happily took our picture with the view of the city in the background. The wooded slopes passed by the windows and glass compartment quickly as we ascended. We saw the hiking trail down that runs up and down the mountain (some people cable car up and hike down), but had no intention of doing that! We’d get our fill of hiking up top! The mist began to collect as we went up, and soon our view of Quito was mostly obscured. We were hoping that it would clear up eventually as we got to the top. Besides the opportunity to hike, the view was one of the main reasons we were going up!

The view of Quito below us was alternately obscured by clouds and then opened again

We were completely in the clouds once we got to the top. We made a quick bathroom stop at the restaurant and shops, and got ready to do some serious uphill walking. We took a few pictures of the cloud bank below us, and the gondolas rising up out of it. Then we began to hike up along the dirt path with the other visitors. It seemed to be a mix of locals and international travelers like us, as well as some families and even dogs out with their owners for some exercise!

Swinging in the clouds, high above the city

One thing that Jenny definitely wanted to do was the playground swing further up the volcano. It is located not too far from a steep drop. When you take pictures or video of someone from behind them, it looks like they are swinging out over the abyss. You’re not really, but it is a popular attraction. We had to wait a few minutes for our turn (there are only two swings), but were eventually able to swing back and forth, and enjoy the feeling of looking out over a more than thousand foot drop. By this time, the clouds below us had begun to intermittently clear. So, we got glimpses of Quito far below our legs, which was a lot of fun. If you go, definitely indulge your inner child and do the swing! Jenny needed no arm twisting — she LOVES swings. And balloons, but that’s neither here nor there!

Other than the altitude, the trail is easy walking - a family and their dog enjoying the exercise

From there, we continued hiking upwards. The total round trip on the trail to the actual mountain top is five hours. We had NO intention of doing that. We had decided we would hike till we felt we’d done enough and then turn back. Did I mention the altitude before? You could definitely feel it up here. As you labored upwards, your breath would get shorter and you felt more and more tired. Once you rested, though, and caught your breath, it seemed like you were magically refreshed. The stops to rest came more and more frequently as we continued on and to a steadily higher altitude.

Stopping frequently to take pictures of the beautiful landscape helped refresh us

The view was magnificent. At a certain point, it became fairly clear far below over Quito. We snapped away merrily at this point. In fact, whenever we had a particularly nice view, we would spend a lot of time taking pictures. This was another way of getting in rest breaks…or oxygen breaks, should I say? A little ways after the swing stop, we came upon a horseback riding center. You could rent horses from there to go at least part of the way forward. Neither of us had any interest in riding a horse, though. They did have a little cafe, which we made both made a point of stopping at on our way back. We also missed the trail just past the stop, or more accurately, took the wrong branch. It meanders like a river on its way to the sea with various branchings and rejoinings. At one point, we noticed there was no one ahead of us or behind us. We had to do some looking around before we located a tiny path to get back on the main trail.

The horseback riding center and cafe is in the first part of the hike

The deep valleys and soaring cliffs made for amazing, stark scenery, especially once we were past the tree line. The clouds occasionally swept by, giving the landscape a dramatic moody appearance. After the second or third time Jenny asked me how much longer I wanted to hike, I got the message. I pointed out a tiny peak that was a hundred yards or so ahead and said we could turn around once we got to there. It was, of course, another false crest, and the trail continued to lead upwards after a slight dip. Still, it was a really cool view from there, seeing the trail rising and falling and eventually disappearing into the mist.

The curtain of the clouds starts to rise a little, giving us a peak of the city far below

We turned around and began our hike back down. We stopped at the cafe fora drink and a big bag of Ecuadorian potato chips. They had beers displayed among their soft drinks, juices, and water. The previous evening, we had been unable to order a beer with dinner because of tomorrow’s election. Still, it was worth a try. I asked, “Cerveza?” They said, “Si!” The crisp golden lager tasted all the better because we knew we were evading the rules prohibiting the sale of alcohol for two days before the election! Well, and the beautiful views all around didn’t hurt either. We rested on the wooden picnic bench and watched other travelers hike by or stop for a snack, too. I saw some order an actual meal, and others check out our beer and follow our lead, breaking the rules!

The trail rises and falls, ever upwards, with scenic views at every turn

When we returned to the swing, we each had to do it again, of course. If there had been a long line, I might not have. However, we had to wait for only a couple people and we were back, stretching our legs out over Quito thousands of feet beneath us. We also decided to take the side trip to the chapel not far from the cable car entrance. It wasn’t particularly exciting, either in decoration or views along the way. Still, we had the rest of the day at our leisure, so could afford to take our time.

The view opens up as we near the cable car

Eventually, we got in line for the cable car ride down. We switched sides so we were facing Quito rather than the volcano for this ride. When we got closer to the bottom, we saw the hiking path, again. I swear I saw the exact same person trudging down that I had seen going up, hours ago. It could have been! At the bottom, there is a kiddie amusement park with tame rides and other carnival attractions. We were there, so thought, “What the heck?” We ambled on down the path to it. We took our time, slowly walking through it, neither of us in the mood for riding any of the kiddie rides. The worst part, though, was we he had to trudge up the very steep path a good fifty yards or so to leave!

The kiddie amusement park just downhill from the cable car entrance

We had our only Uber technical issues on the way back down. The app is now giving you a code to give to your driver, who then enters it to get paid. However, the app refused to recognize that we had entered the driver’s car. Instead, it showed us running along in front of his car, according to the GPS, with him chasing us. It was funny on one hand, but a big pain in the butt on the other. Eventually, the driver had me cancel the ride and request it again. Unfortunately, he wasn’t quick enough to grab it and another driver got the fare. He essentially motioned for us to get out and drove off. I felt bad that he didn’t get paid for driving up to the the cable car park. For us, it was merely an inconvenience and a longer wait for our new driver.

Souvenir and craft stands in Quito’s historic district

From that point on in the day, we were merely relaxing. Our flight to the Galapagos Islands left around 7am the next morning, so we had to get up very early to go the airport and check in. We also had to re-pack, so we wanted to take it easy and have an early night of it. We walked the streets of the historic district in the area of our hotel for awhile and checked out a bunch of the souvenir and craft sellers. I got a good laugh at a guy with a toy mouse on a fishing pole and string, who was scaring the bejesus out of a small dog who alternately barked at the mouse or hid behind its owners legs.

A day spent hiking in the mountains isa good day, at least in Worldwidemike’s eyes!

The sky kept looking like it was going to rain, but never really did — kind of like it had done the entire four days in Quito. The only real precipitation that I would call rain was on the night of our arrival. No complaints, but still an interesting aspect of Quito weather to remember. It had been a good four days full of beautiful views — none better than todays panoramas up on top of the volcano overlooking Quito. I’m glad we saved it four our last day, and even more happy that we decided to do it! Highly recommended!!