More Adventures - July 26th to August 10th, 2015

"Blue Moon, you knew just what I was there for"  July 31, 2015

I had been looking forward to hiking with friends up in the high grasslands (paramo) above Otavalo by the Mojanda Lakes on the 29th - but despite it being the dry season here, it was cloudy, cold and threatening rain (probably because of "el nino").  And since the lakes are about 4,500 feet higher in elevation than Cotacachi, we'd probably have been up in the clouds.   Looking forward to going there soon, though.

Meanwhile to brighten things up, I bought another $1 bouquet at the mercado:

Though we didn't go to Lagunas Mojanda that day because of the weather, friend Kristin and I still went for a nice long walk in the countryside. We did run into rain showers - but we just got out raincoats and umbrellas.

Agave plants on a ravine wall

After correcting for one wrong turn, we made it to the village of Piava Chupa and met a young man who showed us the trail that goes down into the ravine to the Sisa Faksha waterfall, which I've been wanting to find. No time to get to the waterfall that day, though. We also spotted roads and trails going down into other ravines that we want to explore.

Jimson weed along the road

I decided to lead a hike to the Sisa Faksha waterfall on Sunday, August 2nd for Cotacachi Hikers - and I hadn't yet been all the way down into the canyon to the falls. So figuring I'd better be sure of the way, on the 31st I made my way there - with the help of Luis, who lives in the indigenous village of Piava Chupa above the falls. He took me to a promontory and pointed out the trail below and the smaller canyon where the waterfall is - and also pointed out some medicinal plants.

Dam viewed from the trail

 I made my way down the somewhat perilous trail, crossing a small landslide and landing on my butt once when I slipped on loose rocks. But the trail was well-marked and I made it down to the canyon floor and then up the side canyon toward the falls. I heard whistles, looked up, and there was Luis with 3 of his children coming down another steeper trail to join me.

Luis and kids coming down - steeply.

It's a beautiful waterfall.  Luis says that the whole village comes down here on June 23rd, during the celebration of Inti Raymi (summer solstice) for a ritual bathing ceremony.

Cascada Sisa Faksha

We stopped on the way out at a crystal clear spring bubbling up near the river and sampled the tasty mineral water.  Luis brought a bottle of it back up with him; he said he drinks some every day for his health.

Then on August 2nd, eight Cotacachi Hikers - ranging in age from 33 to 73 - met at the mercado and walked out to Piava Chupa and then hiked down the challenging trail into the ravine of the Rio Ambi and up the side canyon to the waterfall.

Hiking down into the ravine

Janette, Kristin, Del, Laura,  Tayo and Greg at the falls.  I took the pic, and Gin was waiting out by the river.

Purple flower along the trail

The trail back down to the main ravine was a bit treacherous - lots of loose slippery soil.

Heading back up to Piava Chupa

View of Mount Fuya Fuya from the trail. I'm hoping to climb this before I head back to Vermont.

In a pasture along the road back to Cotacachi sits this Holstein watering tank.  Thought I was already back in Vermont!

 The next day,  August 3rd, was a gorgeous day, so I decided to head off to El Angel to go hiking among the frailejones in the paramo.  I had hiked among these fascinating plants way up in the Andes in Colombia and was eager to see them again.

Frailejones - from a hike I took in Colombia in December of 2011

I caught a bus to Ibarra and then another one to El Angel - about 2 hours away and higher in elevation.

View from the bus to El Angel.  I love the colors of the fields of quinoa.

The bus dropped me off in the center of El Angel, by the central square that was filled with topiary.

A guy popped out of a store when he saw me pass by and led me to a decent hostal several blocks away where I got a basic room with shared bath for $8 (all the private-bath rooms were taken).  I then checked out the options for hiking in the reserve, which is about 17 kilometers above the town.  I was disappointed to find that there was only one trail in this part of the reserve, good for about an hour's hiking.  Through my hostal, though, I was able to make what I thought was a great arrangement:  for only $7, a guy would drive me early the next morning to within about 4 miles of the reserve.  I would hike to the reserve, do the one-hour loop, then walk back down the road to town - a good day's hiking!

It was only mid-afternoon when I got this arranged, so I went for a walk on a road that took me up onto a ridge above town.

Fields leading up to a farm on the ridge

...from another angle

Quinoa under the Andean sky

Flowers on the ridge

View over town to Mount Imbabura - with laundry drying

Street view on ridge above town

Modern church tower with quinoa "sun"

Country home on the ridge

"Hose 15".  The # and other writing are part of  faded political ad painted on the building.

Blue house - back in town

Roof dogs. They kept popping their heads out of the many holes in the wall to bark at me. It made me think of "whack-a-mole" - and made me laugh.

The main church in town - with statue of frailejones

Unfortunately, I never made it up to the reserve to go hiking.  In the night I got sick  and still felt lousy in the morning, so I headed home.  It took me a few days to be feeling up to par again.

The following weekend was Fluz, a festival of 23 films in 5 days at the AmiCine Teatro, on the grounds of a home for abused and abandoned children. When I attended on the 6th there was a good mix of expats and Ecuadorians in the audience. I saw a great Ecuadorian film (El Nombre de la Hija) and then saw a few other good films over the course of the 5 days.

And then yesterday we had another great Cotacachi Hikers adventure.  5 of us took a bus to Imantag, then hired a truck to take us to a reserve above the village of Peribuela, where we met up with 2 more of the group.  We spent a fun 4 1/2 hours hiking on grassy roads and narrow trails, up through mossy montane forest and in meadows with spectacular views.

 

Great views right from the start

Adelpha butterflies - on a cow pie in the road

Kristin & Laura in the woods

Laura, Kristin, Diane & Del out in a meadow

Underside of primitive fern leaf - with spores.

Purple orchid against the rock

Me - with Bonnie, Kaden and Kristin clowning in the background

The views just kept coming

Butterfly on Flower

Forest & Mountain

Orchids in the woods

Butterflies on the brink of a high waterfall - without the water.  It only flows in the rainy season.

This is how dense and mossy the woods could be.

Heading back down towards Peribuela

At the end of the hike, we called the truck driver who had driven us up to the reserve and he came back and drove us down to Imantag - another fun ride with fantastic views.  And after waiting a while on the plaza for the bus to Cotacachi, we decided to hire another truck driver to take us there instead.  We were enjoying those truck rides!  And 4 of us then wolfed down a tasty pizza back in Cotacachi.

Only 3 weeks and 3 days until I head back to Vermont.  Lots more to explore here before I do that - so I think the time will fly by!

Shining Bromeliad in the Peribuela Forest