I'm on top of the mundo!

Take a good, long look:

Look fun? Inviting? Like something you'd care to do? Well, if you enjoy breathtaking heights, breathtaking views, or breath-freshening mints, then the Teleferico in Quito is the place for you! (Okay, liking mints is not a prerequisite for this place, even though you are in a small, confined cable car with several other people for twenty minutes where fresh breath is important!)

The Teleferico is a gondola lift that runs up the peak of Pichincha, a volcano overshadowing the bustling, high-altitude city of Quito. It's a twenty minute ride and, honestly, I wish the cars would move a little faster––now wouldn't that be fun?! :D

About halfway through the ride, we slipped into the clouds and found ourselves surrounded by swirling, undulating gray and white. A little disconcerting, a little cool, a little like a scene from Jurassic Park.

The clouds ended just at the top of the peak and the end of the ride. Now, this place is a major workout for your lungs. Once you step out of the gently-moving cabin, you'll discover that ordinary activity requires a great deal more effort than you've previously experienced. Walking up the slope here leaves you feeling about as agile and energetic as Jabba the Hut.

This quiet shack looks down on Quito's skyscrapers

Oh, just another llama. #nbd

Welcome to the top of the world! You've now gone from over 10,000 ft. to nearly 13,000 ft. It's cold and blasted by a brittle wind. No trees grow here. Nothing lives up here beyond a few birds and Emperor Kuzko's cousin. In the little fog-shrouded gift shop you can find a flavored oxygen bar to help you get some breath back. You can also find some breath mints, in case you forgot those.

Whether you wish to feel invigorated, uplifted, or just plain "fuzzy," we have the stuff for you!

We spent a couple hours wandering the grassy landscape (taking several shameless breaks to stop and catch our breath). Eventually, the clouds began to thin and a sweeping view below was unveiled, the skyscrapers of Quito on one side of the peak, the rugged Andes on the other. 

When the time came to head back down, we complied––a little eager to no longer feel like a herd of slugs sans lungs––but the hour we spent up above the clouds was an hour spent in a different world. A world, far, far removed from any place I'd ever been.

What happens in Baños…

Let's clarify a few things before you start cracking bathroom (baños) jokes. It's a place. In Ecuador. It's called "Baños." Kay bye.

Baños is the theme park of the jungle. It's set at the base of an active volcano––the kind that actually looks like the volcanoes we see in movies; cone-shaped with smoke seeping from the top––and surrounded by the HUGEST MOUNTAINS EVER, which are covered in waterfalls, which are swarming with man-eating piranhas. It's a cool place.

Regan and I decided to be audacious and––despite all the robbery and kidnapping stories we'd heard––took a four-hour bus ride out to the much-aggrandised Baños for our last weekend together. Baños was totally worth the eight hours I spent envisioning what I'd do if robbers jumped onto the bus and demanded all our stuff. Yup.

Roasted guina pig anyone? If not, you can buy some taffy at one of the 5,695 taffy shops in town. Literally, ever other shop sells taffy.

After we'd explored the town a bit, we took a taxi cab around, stopping to view all the waterfalls that plunged into the furious river below. The mountains, swathed in jungle-green and brimming with birdcall, towered above us. I've never felt so small as I did gazing up and around me. They were just…so…big.

Oh. Also we jumped off a bridge. And I'm not talking your boring old jump-off-a-bridge-into-the-creek-to-cool-off kind of jumped-off-a-bridge. I'm talking we-stepped-off-a-bridge-and-plummeted-down-through-the-canyon-to-finally-hurtle-back-and-forth-over-the-crashing-rapids-below.

That kind of jumped-off-a-bridge.

We screamed and we laughed and we scream-laughed as our heart rates increased to astronomical speeds. I felt a deep, warm, honey-sweet feeling at having conquered something like that.

Our lives will never be the same.