Going...

I left Illiniza Norte at 11 am after the hike. The same driver that dropped us off near the camping area picked us up the next morning. He was very friendly…I loved his smile despite the missing teeth. On our way down to the main road I was trying to figure out the most efficient way to get to Cuenca, farther south in Ecuador and nine hours away. It seemed as if I had to backtrack an hour to the terminal on the edge of Quito to catch a direct bus. This didn’t sound so efficient to me. As we turned onto the road we saw a bus en rout to Cuenca from Quito, the exact one I needed, so the friendly driver decided this was my chance to be efficient. He then proceeded to speed down the highway as fast as the car could until we caught up and passed the bus as my friend Alex (who had guided me on the mountain) flagged down the driver, who eventually pulled over to the side of the road.

In the blink of an eye I jumped out of the car, my pack had somehow already been transferred onto the bus and I was waving goodbye as I hung from the door of a moving vehicle. It all happened in what it seemed to be five seconds. I was now making my way south.

There was no seats left except the driver’s assistant’s – who generally just hangs from the door yelling the rout, jumping on and off as the car barely stops to take care of luggage and tickets – so I sat there for a few hours chatting it up with the driver until I was able to make my way back to a regular seat. Nine hours later exactly (very unusual, in fact) I was in Cuenca, Ecuador!