Okay, we're four days into our adventure and way behind on keeping up with our blog. It's probably my fault, but we'll blame Nick just because. Lets see if I can't give a little overview of what life has been like since we stepped through security at Pittsburgh International and began our trip to Ecuador.
We spent all day Thursday in the air traveling from Pittsburgh to Houston, Houston to Panama City and then, finally, off to Quito where we met up with our guide Dan and our driver Hugo (don't say the "H"(. On day one we headed off for Otavalo where we would begin our aclimitization with small hikes - the first of which was around a crater lake - followed by a day at the market and a second hike to a waterfall and then off to meet a master weaver and designer. It's been a great experience filled with wonderful people, interesting places and lots of avocados - Ted loves 'em. To help in the aclimitization, Dan has us using a small heart rate monitor thingy to see how we're doing as we climb our way higher and higher on each hike. Basically, it boils down to this - Ted rocks and is kicking butt proving that training really does payoff, Laura is doing excellent and making her way with a slow and steady pace that works and will take her as far as she wants to go, I'm doing great and feeling no ill effects from the higher elevations, Nick is afraid his heart is going to explode. Yep. Nervous Nick. But in the end, he's getting everywhere everyone is getting and loving every minute of it. Today was our hardest day so far with a summit of Fuya Fuya - we put in a good pace up a very steep landscape that took us above 13,000 feet. The highest Ted and Nick had ever climbed and they did great. We all did. We celebrated on the summit with cheese, breads and avocados. It was a great way to celebrate a great climb. Afterwards, we headed to Quito where we'll spend the next few days continuing our climbing and training. Tomorrow we tackle Pichincha with Dan and our lead guide Chris Warner who joined us today after summiting Cotopaxi just yesterday. The 15,000+ peak tomorrow will be another first for Ted, Nick and myself. Each day we're getting stronger and more comfortable with the altitude and our ability to do this. It's been great. We all appreciate all the blogging and well - wishes we've been getting from everyone. It means so much to know people are thinking of us. I certainly can't sign off without letting Arianna and Natasha know how much their dad misses them and thinks of them constantly. They've been his strength and inspiration to do this and come home safe to share his stories. Nick sends the best to his dad and Glacier. Laura sends her best to her family who we heard such great stories of today as we climbed. And I want to be sure Lara knows how much I miss her and can't wait to come home and share my photos and journal of this incredible journey. Thanks to all of you for your support and love. We couldn't do it without you.

That's all for now as we're off to bed to rest up for tomorrow. We'll write again soon.
Ted, Nick, Laura and Todd