Weekend away from Quito 101:

Unfortunately, during this weekend away didn’t I create a new dance craze. However, I did:

• meet some very cool people;
• bathe under an ice cold waterfall;
• gaze uninhibited upon the awesome sight that is Cotopaxi volcano well within the realms of death if it chose to erupt;
• learn a new game;
• hike up a mountain;
• help an injured friend down a mountain; and,
• enjoy myself immensely for a very reasonable price.

How did I do it?

Step 1: gather a group of friends and contact Secret Garden hostel Cotopaxi to book one night’s accomodation and 3 fantastic meals for U$38 per person.

Step 2: arrive 10 minutes early at Secret Garden in Quito to chat with Amy and Sam, your soon to be shuttle-bus buddies from Sydney.

Step 3: while making your way to Secret Garden Cotopaxi in your shuttle bus for the low cost of U$5 per person, get travel advice from your countrymen and find out that the hardest things about travelling for Amy is leaving her beloved dog at home with a friend of a friend. Also, ascertain that Sam loves to climb up the tallest thing around and is prone to jumping off things. Be warned that he is very easily swayed by peer pressure and that she will feed you… This could be fun.

(3 points/total points 288)

Step 4: be greeted very cheerfully by a Canadian volunteer to show you around this amazing hostel, where every window has a view of Cotopaxi… Even the composting toilet.

Step 5: fit yourself with gumboots, wellingtons, galoshes, big rubber boots, las botas de agua or whatever they call them in your country and hike through a beautiful forest to a nearby waterfall.

Step 6: be peer pressured into stripping down to your shorts and bathe in the ice cold water because “you won’t be here to do this again”

Step 7: walk back to the hostel to be greeted by an amazing view of the snow capped volcano that is Cotopaxi.

Step 8: count your lucky stars due to the fact that this is the first time in almost a week that it has been clear enough to see it in all its glory.

Step 9: eat some free banana bread and the second of three amazing meals.

Step 10: play a massive game of werewolves with just about everyone who is staying in the hostel and prove to yourself and all the witnesses present how horrible you are at lying.

Step 11: walk in on a Dutch couple heavily petting in the jacuzzi.

Step 12: have a really awkward conversation for about half an hour whilst relaxing in the jacuzzi before they take the party back to thier hobbit hole in the side of the hill.

Step 13: return to the common area to be taught the “cereal box game”. However, don’t be discouraged if their is not a cereal box, use an empty box of wine instead.

Step 14: choose to watch, rather than play, as competitors bend down to pick up the wine box with their mouths without touching the ground with their hands. They have three attempts and cannot leverage themselves against anything other than themselves. After each competitor has achieved this feat, cut. a centimeter from the box. Repeat until failure or the box is the width of a playing card.

Step 14: wake early for another stellar meal and after chatting to the players of last night’s game about their super sore legs, be grateful that you chose to watch last night’s festivities.

Step 15: join Becca, from Miami and who also loves the wine box game that was introduced to her by a guest a few nights earlier, for a tough 4ish hour hike from the hostel (3800m) to the summit of Pasochoa (4500m).

Make sure she warns you that she’ll give everyone the benefit of the doubt… To a fault.

(3 points/total points 291)

Step 16: help your friend down from the summit of Pasochoa by allowing her to push against you as she hops down after she severely sprains her ankle.

Step 17: resist the urge to tell her that wearing proper hiking boots instead of runners may have prevented this from happening.

Step 18: be proud of your teams efforts to make it back safely after another friendship building experience.

Step 19: exclaim “that’d be right!” (or something along those lines that you don’t want to write in your blog for fear of your parents reading it) as you see the shuttle bus filled with slightly annoyed guests that’s been waiting an hour and a half for you drive by when you are 5 minutes from the hostel.

Step 20: relax, have some more kick arse free banana bread, ice the shit out of your friends ankle and wait for another shuttle to take you back to Quito.