Hola From Otavalo, Ecuador, This morning our team of intrepid climbers met our one man team and intrepid driver, Orgel, and headed into the not so subtle Quito morning rush hour.   Climbers heading off to a big mountain are always ready to leave the grips of the city in search for greater adventures but today Quito had a way of making sure we didn't rush off and lose sight of where we were.  Wall to wall cars made the first five miles take as long as the final 50 but rain was falling so we didn't feel rushed either way.   Our destination today was a volcano called Fuya Fuya, which rises to 14,700 feet, higher than Mt. Rainier, but in Ecuador is relatively low in comparison to others.  We come here in January because it is supposed to be the "dry" season, but today this high, tropical landscaped proved otherwise.  Light rain fell in the morning leaving Quito, but north of the city and higher up the clouds thickened and the rain turned real.  In Seattle there are over a hundred ways to describe rain.  I'm pretty sure today we only needed one.  Let's just call it, solid.  With a "solid" rain falling, we solved riddles in the trailhead shelter, ran quick sprints along the lake shore before sprinting back and did pull ups on the beams to pretend we were getting our heart rate up.  All-in-all the acclimating process was short lived and we were headed down having never walked a foot uphill.  The rain continued to pour as we ate lunch in town and killed time before arriving at the hacienda for the evening.  La Casa Sol sits high on a steep hill overlooking town and it was here that we had the day's most exciting event.  With a we cobble stone street, our driver gunned it up the hill trying to get momentum before spinning out on the wet surface.  It took two more goes to pull the van into the tiny parking spot and unload the bags.  Ben and I had to put rocks behind the van's tires at one point to keep him from sliding backwards into the ditch.  As we say before a day of ice climbing in Bozeman, the adventure starts the second you get in the car.  Tomorrow's road promises to be even more thrilling!  The road to the mountain.... Wish us luck on our way to Cayambe. Saludos, RMI Guides Adam Knoff, Ben Liken and Team