Guagua Pinchincha

Lao Tzu was the founder of the Taoist philosopy.  He is quoted as saying that, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with one single step."  While this sounds almost dreamy he did not summit a 15,695 volcanoe, but I did!  While I wished I could have brought the patience of Lao Tzu on the summit today, I instead sprung on it like the good mountain cat that I am.  I went with two German women and 1 Australian fellow.  I quickly realized that I was not in the company of in shape individuals and my impatience reared inside as I sat and waited, sat and waited, sat and waited for ALL 900 of their breaks!  Eventually the girls slowed down enough that I hopped along with this French couple who shared their delicious lunch with me.  I anticipated an easy turista climb, but instead encountered a relatively modest ascent and it proved challenging the last 1,000 meters.  Coming down was certainly tricky and I had to free climb sections that under any sort of watchful eye would scorn such endeavours. I admit that my impatience gets the best of me because I know all of the dangers that come with late descents.  There´s a lot of treachery with steep descents and I fancy getting the heck out of there and back onto the normal trail in like--- a jiffey.  I was super impressed with the French woman (Judy) who despite her looking like she´d keal over rocked it out and summited with me.  I was of course representing Colorado to the best of my ability and was the first to ascend.  My ego does back flips when I pull stuff like this off!!  I have been getting a fair bit of negative feelings about being an American and many travelers have a great disdain for Americans.  With that being said, you´ll have to excuse me as I pass you on the trail. It´s only fair, right?  While there may be anti-American sentiment by many that has certainly not impacted my adventures especially with a really, really friendly Australian in particular (eh hem!).  It struck me yesterday as I was on the rooftop terrace enjoying dinner with my new traveling companions how normal this life was for me.  Like being in a different continent completely removed from my life was as normal as could be.  Nevertheless, I love the quality of connection and oneness I experience as a traveler.  Hospitatlity, politeness, kindness, and generousity is a common place.  I get less alone time here compared to my own country.  Today´s goal of making the sumitt is accomplished.  Learning how to be more patient---well it´s like Lao Tzu said, a journey of a thousand miles begins with one single step.