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The drive through the city was harrowing, but when we finally got to the base of the mountain, I breathed a sigh of relief. I was pretty sure that the ride had taken at least 5 years off of my life.
He actually drove sensibly on the nearly deserted mountain road. We went higher and higher as I could feel myself beginning to pant.
Quito had a little bit thinner air than DC, but the TeleferiQo was even higher. I had mild asthma, so I was struggling to breathe as we got to the top. I cursed myself for forgetting to bring an inhaler to Ecuador. I’d left so hastily that I hadn’t packed it.
Oh well.
When I got out, I paid the insane rate that was displayed on the taxi meter and walked into the TeleferiQo office.
There were two rates: one for locals and another for tourists. I paid the tourist rate and got a ticket to take the cable car up the mountain.
The line to go up wasn’t too crowded. There were only four people in front of me. I stepped quickly into one of the slowly but steadily moving cars when I got to the front of the line.
I was by myself inside of the car. I was mildly acrophobic, but somehow dangling from this large cable car, I didn’t feel scared. I liked looking down at the city, feeling as if I were in a sci-fi movie, floating above the Quito landscape. We were so far away that I might as well have been in the clouds.
It wasn’t easy to breathe now, but I did finally get to the top. I got out and was out of breath when I walked around.
It was difficult for me to see very far. I really was among the clouds, which blocked my view from the very top of the TeleferiQo.
I was not going to make it around the area surrounding the TeleferiQo. I was a little disappointed, because I’d just paid for a ticket and a taxi ride all the way up here, but I was going to go back down.
Then I noticed a sign that said that they offered donkey rides.
Beside the sign, there was a short man with dark grey hair and a wool cap on his head.
I realized that it was a little chilly up here, even though the sun had been up for several hours. I wished that I had brought a jacket with me when I came here.
I looked to the side. There was a little girl who was standing behind a table full of scarves and jackets.
When I came closer, I realized that they smelled strongly of llamas. I knew what llamas smelled like because my elementary school had had a llama farm next door. I lived in fear of windy days, when the stench blew towards us.
I had a clear choice here. Either I could freeze up here, or I could do as the Romans did.
I went to the little girl, who definitely should’ve been in elementary school, and I paid her a few dollars for a pretty, colorful scarf that had rainbow stripes and a green jacket that smelled so strongly of llama that I expected myself to begin to crave grass.
When I wasn’t incredibly cold anymore, I walked back to the guy who was standing next to the donkey ride sign.
“I’d like to take a ride.”
He looked at his watch.
“The next one leaves in 5 minutes. Let’s get you a saddle.”
He motioned to someone I hadn’t noticed before.
There was another kid with black hair and tan skin that matched the guy who was running the donkey ride business.
He gave me a once-over, as if he were measuring me. Then he went to the fence and pulled off a saddle. He pulled a donkey over and fastened it.
“Try this,” he said in heavily accented Spanish.
I looked at the donkey. It wasn’t very tall, but I wasn’t, either. How was I going to get on top of it?
I’d ridden horses in the United States a couple times, and there was always a mounting block. But there wasn’t one here.
I looked around, as if it were hidden somewhere, but I couldn’t see anything.
“Excuse me, how do I get on the horse?” I hoped that I didn’t sound like a complete idiot.
