Day five: Chimborazo, host families-- August 26

Today the group climbed partway up the volcano, Chimborazo. I had to stay at the bottom with Michael (the inbound coordinator) because I am still recovering and the high altitude and cold weather would not be good for me. Chimborazo is the highest peak in the world, even higher than Mount Everest, as was recently discovered. Since we are near the equator, we get a little boost from the elliptical shape of the earth.

We continued south, heading to campus to meet our host families. The altitude and climate changes were crazy. Every twenty minutes or so when I would go to take a sip out of my water bottle, it was contracted from the altitude changes. I went from shivering in two pairs of pants, two jackets, and an alpaca blanket to sweating in jeans and a t-shirt.

We met our families on campus at about 7pm, and they all seem so amazing. My family lives in a community called Entre Ríos just a 25 minute walk away from the university. I have two parents, an abuelita, a 16-year-old brother, and a 4-year-old niece. They are all very nice and I cannot wait to spend more time with them tomorrow!