Close to the edge
Juan Diego Ribadeneira
Enrique Wong
ENG 0100
14 April 2014
Close to the Edge
The unscrupulous American writer Anais Nin once wrote that, “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one 's courage.” (125). When it comes to difficult situations she’s right. If you find yourself in a complicated, nerve-wrecking scenario you’ll find out that your life can, literally, expand if you have the guts to overcome the circumstances. Having courage in life can sometimes be rewarded with unique sights, heart-filling memories, and also with an extraordinary story to tell. It was a warm and sunny August morning, the sky was clear so I was glad because the night before, my friend Moro and I decided to conquer the top of mount Pichincha. I had just finished packing my backpack when he knocked onto my door. It was 9 am when we hopped in the bus heading towards Teleferico, which is a cable car that takes you to the base of Rucu Pichincha. We were feeling very excited about the idea of surmounting the summit, to be honest I was a little nervous because neither of us had done it before, but the thought of being there at 4.696 meters above sea level was extremely tempting. After a slow but breathtaking ride in the cable car we arrived to the viewpoint, the vast landscape of the city below us was beautiful, from there it was a 3 hour hike to the summit. I took a deep breath and turned around to face the peak, it looked quite intimidating especially with that huge gray cloud behind it. We started hiking west following the trail that would take us to our goal, the air kept getting thinner and thinner as we gained altitude, and my heartbeat started to go up. After 2 hours of walking uphill we decided to take a break to eat some fruit and nuts, and drink some water. We had arrived to a split point of the trail, the left path would take us through the rocky part of the peak, were we would have to climb huge boulders, walk by high cliffs and narrow trails. One of them was called “el
Enrique Wong
ENG 0100
14 April 2014
Close to the Edge
The unscrupulous American writer Anais Nin once wrote that, “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one 's courage.” (125). When it comes to difficult situations she’s right. If you find yourself in a complicated, nerve-wrecking scenario you’ll find out that your life can, literally, expand if you have the guts to overcome the circumstances. Having courage in life can sometimes be rewarded with unique sights, heart-filling memories, and also with an extraordinary story to tell. It was a warm and sunny August morning, the sky was clear so I was glad because the night before, my friend Moro and I decided to conquer the top of mount Pichincha. I had just finished packing my backpack when he knocked onto my door. It was 9 am when we hopped in the bus heading towards Teleferico, which is a cable car that takes you to the base of Rucu Pichincha. We were feeling very excited about the idea of surmounting the summit, to be honest I was a little nervous because neither of us had done it before, but the thought of being there at 4.696 meters above sea level was extremely tempting. After a slow but breathtaking ride in the cable car we arrived to the viewpoint, the vast landscape of the city below us was beautiful, from there it was a 3 hour hike to the summit. I took a deep breath and turned around to face the peak, it looked quite intimidating especially with that huge gray cloud behind it. We started hiking west following the trail that would take us to our goal, the air kept getting thinner and thinner as we gained altitude, and my heartbeat started to go up. After 2 hours of walking uphill we decided to take a break to eat some fruit and nuts, and drink some water. We had arrived to a split point of the trail, the left path would take us through the rocky part of the peak, were we would have to climb huge boulders, walk by high cliffs and narrow trails. One of them was called “el
Cited: Nin, Anaïs. The journals of Anaïs Nin – Volume 3 1939-1944. New York. (1941):125. Print.