Vacation

I know this is a bit late but better late than never right. Last week was vacation for day of the dead and its very celebrated holiday here in Ecuador. I was under the impression that it's only really significant in Mexico, but i was quite wrong. So everyone travels for the vacation to gather with families in various location. My family went to Riobamba which is a city about 3 hours south of Quito so an aunts house on my moms side of the family. It was beautiful. The city itself is kind of runned down and not as nice as quito but it's known as having some of the best mountains around the city. Being somewhat isolated from nature here in quito, it was such a relief to get out and hike and enjoy the wonders of nature. We hiked Chimborazo which is a inactive volcano. The peak is at 6310M which is about 19,000ft, but we only hiked to about 5000M (about 16,000ft) but still that the highest i've ever been. It was amazing. With teh first steps i took from the car at around 4000m my lungs were already burning. The farther i went the worse it got. Exhaustion kicked in a lot fast and my muscles just didn't want to move. It's amazing the effect of altitude. But never the less my father and I pushed forward to the second check point where we were greeted by a wonderful cup of hot cocoa. The last 100ft or so though was tough. Every 15-20 steps we'd have to sit on a rock for a few minutes to catch out breath and rest a little before going again. It was a littel scary at one point because I was really out of breath but when I breathed in I didn't feel like i was getting all that much air because it's so thin so it was a little nerve racking but i had to remind myself to just breath slowely. Scuba diving helped with that as the general rule for breathing (if i remember correctly) is 4 seconds on the inhale and 12 seconds on the exhale. Anyways that was amazing views above the clouds. I also played some tennis with my uncle each morning at a club that hes a member at and that was really nice. Besides that we really just hung out with teh family for the days and played cards and games and watched movies. So it was really fun bonding time. We went on other various walks as well through the city and as well as outside in the farm fields. It was a great vacation though that i'm so happy i got to share with my family.