• Warm showers — you don’t know what you’re talking about unless you’ve ever showered in freezing cold mountain water pumped directly to your shower from above 4,000m (~13,000 ft) without any heating because the gas bottle is empty again.
• Potable tap water — it may not sound like much but have you ever had to use bottled water for brushing your teeth?
• Hygienic food — I am going to spare you the details. Use your imagination.
• Heating and insulation — ever spent a night at 4,500m (~15,000 ft) in a ramshackle hut without any heating?
• Toilets that don’t clog — do you put your used toilet paper into the bin? You think that’s gross? You do know that’s what half the world does?
• Fast, reliable transportation — bliss is a night in a museum-piece Bolivian bus as it rattles over unpaved roads for endless hours. What’s an easy three-hour train ride for us would be an arduous twenty-hour bus ride for most of the world.
• Fast Internet — now this may not be as important to most people as it is to me but my new high-speed DSL connection surely does save my day.

We complain and complain (and that includes me) about everything. In fact, we have a pretty darn good life.

PS: I’m back in Germany and just moved to Hamburg. If you’re around, come visit me!

Before I came to Ecuador, I had never been above 4,000m (~13,000 ft) of altitude. Back in Mexico, I was dreaming about climbing Iztaccihuatl (5,230m / 17,158 ft) — but that didn’t work out. Between traveling, studying and partying, there was just not enough time for acclimatization or training. Over here in Ecuador, though, high altitude is defined differently than in other parts of the world. Sitting at 2,800m (~9,200ft), Quito is the second-highest capital in the world. Being above 4,000m (~13,000 ft) is nothing — a number of important streets actually reach this altitude. Living in Quito, you are so well-acclimatized that being above 5,000m (~16,000 ft) hardly makes you breathless.

Ecuador also bears some real challenges, though: the country’s nevados are so high that they are glacier-covered in spite of their proximity to the equator. Ecuador’s highest mountain — Volcán Chimborazo — is 6,267m (20,560 ft) high. While we haven’t actually made it onto that icy monster yet, we did climb Ecuador’s second- and third-highest mountains: Volcán Cotopaxi (5,897m / 19,347 ft) and Volcán Cayambe (5,790m / 18,996 ft). Climbing one of these mountains is quite an experience: you get to a climbers’ refuge a day before the climb. There, you spend a restless nap in your sleeping bag waiting for midnight to come around, when you start climbing while the snow is hard from the night’s cold. You spend the rest of the night climbing, waiting for the sunrise on or near the summit. The views are absolutely unforgettable!

Similarly unforgettable, however, is the torture you have to go through to get to the top (or well, maybe not everybody — but I did). Above a certain altitude, your body simply starts shutting down (that’s about 5,500m for me). Taking even one more step seems a close-to-impossible task. I literally had to drag my ass up that mountain half the night, using up every last bit of energy I could summon. But, boy, was it worth it!

See more photos.

If you really want to feel the music, though, you have to go to Ecuador’s north coast (Esmeraldas province). In its most remote northern reaches, this province is in its majority African-Ecuadorian. And, god, do they get the rhythm! Even in the smallest, poorest fishing village — without running water, road access or any other “civilized” amenities — somebody will have a huge stereo, put the speakers out on his porch and blast Salsa all throughout town. In the towns, we are talking about every other house. Go to a restaurant, and after you finished your meal, the owner will kick back the chairs and give you an impromptu dancing lesson.

Even after more than ten hours of Salsa lessons, I can still only dream of getting the rhythm in that way.

The point where it becomes really funny, though, is when parents not only misspell names (such as Mirian, instead of Miriam) but totally miss the name’s meaning. Can you imagine naming your child Stalin or Darwin!? Both of them are present in my daily tutoring group! But, hell, these are vaguely English names, aren’t they? Well, not really…

CENIT depends on donations to continue to support Quito’s working children! If you can afford it at all, even the smallest amount, please consider giving a donation to this great organization. This is one project we should definitely support! Don’t forget that even small amounts of money can go a long way in Ecuador. Check out how far your money goes! Learn how to donate.

Thank you!

Anyhow, I won’t complain — this also saves me from the usual pre-Christmas panic. Merry Christmas, to the all of you!

In the last couple of weeks I have mainly been teaching the sixth graders. You wouldn’t believe what challenges this involves… I have had to learn how to calculate square roots of five-digit numbers without a calculator; for this, I had to get back up to speed on addition, subtraction, multiplication and division — all without a calculator; I had to explain the movement of the earth in the solar system — movimiento de traslación, rotación y inclinación; I have had to explain the parts of the leave, in Spanish; and much more. It’s fun and it makes you realize just how much one actually learned in school — and then usually forgot.

It’s amazing, really, how much we depend on electricity. Without it, there’s no TV, no Internet access, no light to read (though we do have our stack of candles by now — you learn). Worse, there’s nothing to keep that freezer from melting and your food from going bad. How do people live without electricity?

Well, one more thing I have to admit to: we didn’t climb the whole 1,700m by foot, as Quito has a cable car taking you to over 4,000m before you even start walking. It’s fun!