On November 1, while I was packing the necessary stuff to take to the excursion, through the materials I brought a thermal lycra, scarf, sunglasses, sunscreen, a wool coat which brings more warm, a ski mask, a pair of extra socks in case I needed them, glooves, boots, chocolates and gum.
Once I had my backpack ready I tried to rest to be able to go with enought energy to the volcano, as que trip was going to be difficult for the heighs we would be and the time trip (10 hours roundtrip), but I couldn’t and I was awake until the time I had to get to the ofices Explor It in Alborada 1era Etapa Mz. O Villa 26, Calle Principal Av. Agustin Freire in Guayaquil City.
Once I got to the offices at 2:00 am Pablo welcomed me, who introduced me before to the tour guides that will go in the buses accompanying the tourists, once in the buses we headed to the meeting point in Atarazana at Primax gasoline where there were the majority of passengers waiting in a long line, we took list and while that we where sending one by one to the buses so they could accomodate and rest until the next stop, we would head to Montalvo crossing Babahoyo.
In the way I could talk to Juan chofer in one of the tree buses, who was telling me that he traveled almost to the entire Ecuador working as a chaffeur and it is true that one has to figure out to talk about anything, that is how the chaffeur doesn’t sleep in the way.
Around 6am some of the passengers were waking up and with Ricardo guide we delivered snacks to the travelers and then we made a stop passing Guaranda so the women could go to the restroom, that stop took longer and guides as passengers took advantage of the ocassion to take breakfast.
Credits to Fabian Vega
Once in the vehicle we counted the people to know if there was anyone left in the touristic stop where you could see a nice landscape. From Guaranda we could observe far away the Chimborazo in a very sunny and clear day, waiting for us to measure our strengths.
Once we head to the entrance of the reserve we register all the passengers and took the native guide who made the greeting in quechua and told us the love story of Chimborazo and Tungurahua mama, we could see that they had a headache and felt dizzy (the chaffeur too) so I started to shared chocolates and gums that I saved the night before in my package knowing that probably someone else would want them.
Once we made the register of all the passengers we started to ascend until reguge Hermanos Carrel 4.950 meters over the sea level, in this point you could already see at least 70% of the people of our bus presenting different symtoms because of the heigh, once everybody left the bus the guide Ricardo gave indications to the passengers so they could enjoy the visit to the volcano.
Credits to Fabian Vega
While Juan, our chaffeur, rest a little group he was with the native guide to the second refugee and suddenly the snow started to fall over the volcano making the landscape more beautiful than it was, the native guide said that Tayta Chimborazo was happy and that he receive us with love.
Once we head to the second regufee we drank hot chocolate to be able to retake the energies and get back to the bus to Guayaquil, of course passing first to what it was the Laguna de Colta and the first Catholic church of Ecuador, the Balbanera, built on August 15, 1534.
Memory Tomb
From this experience I can say that I learned how works the planification of the operation from the perspective of the travel agency and also the managemenet of the groups, observing the work of the national guides and native guide.
Without doubt I can say that the work of the guide is very heavy, tired but also fun, very richful and full of nice emotions that makes the work easy and the relation with the people that you work with and the tourist that want to visit different places that Ecuador can offer.
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