Wandergliding: The Teleferico in Quito

January 4^th, 2022

I flew back from the Galapagos to Quito, with a brief stopover in Guayaquil where I didn’t even get off the plane. I returned to the same hostel that I stayed at when I first arrived in Ecuador, Masaya Quito. I was assigned a bed in the same 6 bed dorm that I was in the first time around but when I went up to the room, there was sleeping in the bed, even though it was only noon. I returned to the desk and was reassigned to another bed, but it was an upper bed and I definitely preferred a lower one (I must be getting old). The one below that looked unoccupied, which happened to be the one I was in on my first visit, but the guy at the desk claimed it was taken and although that turned out not to be true, I reluctantly took an upper bed. Now that being said, one of the main reasons I returned to this hostel was that the beds were like their own little rooms. You had a venetian blind you could lower for privacy. At the foot of the bed was some shelving and a cupboard. There was LED lighting running around the perimeter above your head for some mood lighting and also a lamp type light. Add to that some regular plug-in and a couple of USB outlets and you were set! On the first night there were two Swiss guys in the room who were super friendly but after the first night, I luckily had the room to myself for the following two nights. Score!

The Masaya Quito hostel:

The dorm. My first bed was the bottom on the left, and the second was A, above it.

Super colours the first night I was back in Quito:

When I was in Quito in December, the weather was pretty crap with rain and low clouds. There was definitely no chance of paragliding and I couldn’t see the top of the mountain where a local tourist attraction, a gondola called the Teleferico, ascended. So I never went. This time the weather was more favorable, so I ordered an Uber and off I went.

The place was pretty quiet but there were a few local and foreign tourists going up to check out the views. The six person gondola cabins were the same size as the ones I often ride at Revelstoke when I do tandem paragliding flights in the winter. But there were definitely a lot fewer of them and the speed of the ride was slower. The ride ascended about 1150 meters to 4000 meters above sea level and took 18 minutes to get to the top.

About to head up.

A selfie in the gondola cabin.

The views of the city and the surrounding valley were pretty spectacular but there was a noticeable smoggy haze hanging over the metropolis. Being a tourist attraction, there was the inevitable café and giftshop, but you could also walk out to different viewpoints to enjoy the vista. There were a couple of swings to hop on and capture a great photo with the capital below you. The mountain range continued to the north with a trail working its way along the spine and I could see a group working its way up there, but it looked like the majority of the people were riding horses to conquer the mountain.

All I could think of was what a good hang gliding launch this would make!

The trail up the spine.

It's a busy city down there.

Swing time.

It's a good spot for antennas.

While waiting in the line to go down, the peak showed itself through the clouds.

At the base, I grabbed a taxi to a specific local mall recommended by the woman at the hostel to buy a recharging battery for my phone as I planned on going to the jungle for a four day trek in the near future. She was right, this little mall was all about electronics. It had an interesting circular pathway that worked its way up the equivalent of four or five storeys with stores selling all kind of cellular or electronic products all the way up, apart from the odd out of place woman’s clothing store. I found my battery and I was out of there.

The circular mall.