Birthday in Ecuador - and More - Aug. 12 to 23, 2015

View of Imbabura from the old Otavalo Road

I thought some of you might be interested in a project I volunteer for on Thursday mornings here in Cotacachi. Every weekday a group run by expats serves a filling breakfast for 25 to 45 very poor indigenous elders from the area. They are so appreciative - their smiles, hugs and thanks are such a great reward. Here's a YouTube video about the project:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e73HGgiOflA .  Donations are very much appreciated!

View from the rugged road from Otavalo up to the Mojanda Lakes

On August 12th, my landlord Alfredo drove 4 of us to the Mojanda Lakes, high up  above  Otavalo.  It's a beautiful area for hiking! The clouds were low, so we saved climbing Fuya Fuya, the mountain that towers over the lakes, for another day.

Karikucha , the largest of the 3 Mojanda lakes

The happy hikers:  Dennis, Elin, Kristin & Alfredo

Purple flower in the paramo (high-altitude grasslands)

Lupines (Chochos del Monte) and rugged mountains

Road we walked on past the lakes and through the mountains

Alfredo pondering the beauty

One of the peaks of Mount Fuya Fuya, which we got to see when the clouds lifted a bit

On the 13th I took a nice walk from my casita up the old Cuicocha road to the village of Chilcapamba, about 2  miles away.  And happily I found another nice country lane to loop back to town on.

Corn stalk stack along the road - and Mount Fuya Fuya

Goat aiming high for lunch

Corn stalk stack in a country yard

August 14th was my birthday and it was great to receive lots of warm wishes from family and friends via Facebook and email.  I started the day off with a pleasant walk:   I'm right at the edge of town & country, so  I just walk out the back path and there are burros, cows, goats, sheep and horses (not to mention the pigs, chickens and guinea pigs right outside my door).

I was treated to lunch by my friend and hiking buddy Kristin.  We ate a tasty traditional Ecuadorian meal at El Convento, in the courtyard of a colonial building.  She joked that it was a cheap date - $5 for the two of us!   In the afternoon it rained a lot, so I took it easy and read.  Then in the evening I walked under sunset skies to Hosteria Oro Azul for a delicious birthday dinner with friends.

View from my walk:  fields on the side of Mount Imbabura in the late afternoon light.

Golden Sunset

Fun guys at Oro Azul:  me, Peter (a guest from Germany), Marcelo (friend and hotel manager, a native of Cotacachi) and Lars (friend and hotel volunteer from Germany)

The next morning, my friend Kristin and I took a bus to Ibarra, then another thru Urcuqui to San Blas and beyond, to the bus's last stop.   From there we walked about an hour on the paved but quiet road to the Timbuyacu aguas termales (warm springs) and continued on up the valley to the Cascada Conrrayaro.

A rainbow start to the day

View from the paved road.  Lantanas (in the foreground) grow like weeds here - but they're beautiful.

The warm springs.  We didn't bathe - I forgot my swimsuit, plus we really didn't have enough time.

Satyr butterfly on the trail

Kristin enjoying the view as we hiked up the valley toward the waterfall

  Me at the spectacular Conrrayaro waterfall, which shot out into the air and fell for about 82 feet.

Here's a short video of the waterfall:

On the way back out, we decided to check out the swing we had seen some kids playing on at the side of the trail.  It was fun!

(Photo by Kristin)

The hiking group I started had gone on several great group hikes, but there had been requests for an easier hike.  So on the 16th I led a group of 10 Cotacachi Hikers on a very pleasant 5-mile loop walk to the village of Chilcapamba and back, on relatively quiet country roads - the same hike I had taken by myself on the 13th.  Here's our group of happy hikers:

 

We had been having lots of cloudy days, so it was great to see the peak of Cotacachi again on the 18th:

Cotacachi - from my front yard

Also a good morning for viewing Cayambe - or, as I like to say, "my sliding hill"

It was such a beautiful morning that I had to take a walk in the country before going to the market.  I went with my friend Kristin and we tstopped at Hosteria Oro Azul so Kristin could see this lovely place and meet my friend Marcelo
 

Hosteria Oro Azul - with Mount Cotacachi in the background

We continued on to the village of La Calera and then took this country lane and some cow paths to return to Cotacachi .

From the lane wee saw a Vermilion Flycatcher - one of my favorite birds, and one that I often saw in Mexico last winter.

 

It had been a great day for viewing the mountains - and it lasted right up through sunset, when I enjoyed this view of Imbabura from my back window:

I've really been enjoying the local Anna apples here, which I buy at the market. They're very small, but crisp, a little tart - and delicious!  I think they're the best apples I've ever eaten.  And a bag of 10 only sets me back a dollar.

On the 20th, a local organic farm - close enough for me to walk to - hosted a Chili Cook-Off.  A large crowd of mostly ex-pats showed up to sample 16 different tasty chilies.  I enjoyed talking with lots of folks,  tasting a few of the chilies and trying some locally brewed craft beer.  It was a fun afternoon - even if I didn't win any of the raffles whose proceeds went to support several local non-profit groups.

Yesterday, the 22nd, I took a walk to the outskirts of Otavalo on cow paths and the old Otavalo road.

Cow path leading to the village of La Calera - with Mount Fuya Fuya in the distance.

Chochos growing in a field along the road.  They look like lupines, but they produce a delicious bean that is very popular around here.

Butterfly in a bush

Laundry day in the country

I walked all the way out the old Otavalo road to the new road - which was very busy, so after walking a ways on it I stopped on the outskirts of Otavalo and took a bus back to Cotacachi.

This morning I enjoyed a wonderful breakfast:  banana walnut blackberry pancakes with panela syrup, a big mug of Ecuadorian coffee, a view of Mount Cotacachi, and listening to early music on Vermont Public Radio. Life in retirement is good!

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