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| Church on the main Plaza, Cotacachi, Ecuador |
I flew back to Ecuador on June 5th, and after a night at my friend Marcelo's beautiful Hosteria Oro Azul, I got settled into the same little house I rented last year. It sits in the back yard of Alfredo and Rosa Elena, a friendly and welcoming indigenous couple.
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| My casita is to the left, the animal shed (for pigs, chickens and guinea pigs) is straight ahead, behind me is the main house - and overhead is a rainbow (well, not all the time!) | |
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| 9 little piggies are among the shed's residents |
The one-room house has plenty of space for me and is fully equipped - and has volcano views out the front and back windows!
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| The couch becomes a queen-size bed when bolsters are removed. At the far end is the kitchen/dining area. Bathroom to the left, closet behind me. |
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| Mount Cotacachi (16, 220 ft.) at first light, visible from the front windows |
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| Mount Imbabura (15,190 ft.) from the rear window. |
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| And occasionally, when skies are really clear, I can see glacier capped Mount Cayambe (18,996 ft.) next to Imbabura: |
A couple days after I arrived, I went with Rosa Elena and Alfredo to the little farm Rosa's sister owns right on the rim of the Cuicocha crater lake. I helped them pick some corn, bought some cheese from the community "factory" just up the road - and enjoyed the view of Cuicocha:
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| The view from behind the finca gives a different perspective from the trails on the other side of the lake |
The next day I took a bus to the larger town of Otavalo to do some shopping at a supermarket - and passed by the famous craft market on the Plaza de Ponchos:
And at a little shop I bought myself a new t-shirt (because I only have 2 others like this - in different colors):
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| Logo: Ecuador - Ama la Vida (Ecuador - Love Life!) |
Of course I got back into taking lots of long walks as soon as I got settled in. And there are always lots of wonderful sights to see:
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| Cow under a pine tree - with Mount Imbabura |
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| Green canyon below Mount Cotacachi |
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| Corn stack with mountains |
And not wanting to always be hiking by myself, I got the hiking group going again after many months of inactivity:
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| Cotacachi Hikers Bonnie, Clare and me walking country roads |
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| Farmer we passed, plowing his field the old-fashioned way. |
And I got out hiking with old friends: the next day Dennis, Elin and I took buses to get to Zuleta, on the far side of Mount Imbabura. As we were waiting for the bus in Ibarra, we got this stunning view of the summit of Cotacachi:
And the views as we headed toward Zuleta weren't bad either:
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| View from the bus |
We checked out Hacienda Zuleta, which has lots of hiking trails on its extensive holdings. We found out, unfortunately, that the trails are only open to paying guest - at $250 and up per night!
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| Dennis and Elin in the courtyard of Hacienda Zuleta |
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We had been intrigued by the possibility of hiking into this valley that winds back into the mountains. Sadly, it lies within the "forbidden" Hacienda:
But the views - including the one above - from a town trail on the other side of the valley were beautiful - and we got to a viewpoint toward the Cayambe volcano just as the clouds parted enough to give us a glimpse of it's towering flank:
And we hope to get back to the area to walk the zig-zagging road up this slope to get to a trail that would take us to a lookout at 12,700 feet:
On the 12th there was a chagra (horse parade) through the town of Cotacachi. It was led off by colorful dancers:
Followed, of course , by cowboys on their horses:
The horses did fancy prancing steps as they paraded through town. I missed that part, however, because my landlady Rosa Elena had invited me to a baby shower at noon, so I had to hurry back home with the baby blanket I had bought. Showers aren't really a tradition here, but Rosa's sister wanted to have one.
At Rosa'a mother's house in the family compound about 30 people had gathered.
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| While silly shower games were played, refreshments were regularly passed around |
The focus of the shower was on fun and feasting, rather than on gifts. We were all served a tasty lunch - eaten with our fingers - centered on pork chops baked in a huge wood-fired oven:
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| Taking pork chops out of the oven |
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| Lovely Rosa Elena at the party |
Here in Cotacachi I volunteer to help out with a breakfast that is provided by expats for very poor, mostly indigenous local elders. We've been using a church hall and kitchen, but are moving to a new location. On June 18th the neighbors near the new site held a minga - a community work day - to clean up the area around the new site.
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| View as I walked to the site of the minga |
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| Locals cleaning up and weeding between the paving stones of the courtyard at the new location. Others were weeding gardens and cleaning inside the building. |
I ended up walking to town to buy cleaning supplies and then cleaning very
dirty windows. There's a grill over the windows on the outside, so
washing them was a challenge - but I had lots of help. Later in the
morning, food was provided for the hard-working volunteers.
The next day we had another Cotcachi Hikers event to a waterfall in the nearby village of Piava Chupa. We hiked out a dirt road - which we discovered was in the process of getting paved - and down into a deep gorge.
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| Jamie, Bonnie and Clare heading down into the gorge. |
Up a side gorge was the Sisa Faksha waterfall, where we enjoyed our lunch - and picked up several bags of trash that had been left there.
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| Sisa Faksha. When we arrived, the water was flowing brown - perhaps from a landslide somewhere above - but it mostly cleared by the time we finished lunch |
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| Me - after hiking up out of the canyon. |
Toward the end of June, right after the summer solstice, there's a huge celebration of Inti Raymi - the Festival of the Sun - in Cotacachi and all along the Andes. Festivities started on the 23rd and lasted through the 30th, with lots of dancing around the town plaza as well as in people's homes.
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| An enthusiastic crowd gathers for the festivities |
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| An indigenous elder makes her way through the plaza |
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| Flutists accompany the dancing |
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| Exuberant dancing marchers enter the main square on the men's big day |
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| Exercising a bit of crowd control |
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| A sea of traditional Inti Raymi hats |
Sometimes the festivities came right to my front door, in Rosa Elena's and Alfredo's courtyard. One night boisterous dancing celebrants showed up at about 11:30, shouting and blowing conch shells. There was no way to sleep through that, so I went out and joined them - and drank a bit a chicha (fermented corn beverage). They all moved on after about a half hour, so I was able to go back to sleep.
Another day Alfredo invited me to join a celebration in the house with about 18 other guests. They were eating, but I had already had lunch
- so to be sociable I had to join in the drinking. After a glass of
chicha and little shots of cane liquor flavored
with vanilla and panela (unrefined brown sugar), dancing was a lot less
boring than it had appeared.
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Folks took turns going around to each guest and offering little shots of home-made liquor. When this lady was handed this bottle to share, there was lots of joking and laughing about its shape and size.
Here's some of the dancing in Rosa & Alfredo's living room: |
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In between Inti Raymi events there was of course lots else going on. On the 24th I took a bus to the city of Ibarra to see a dentist.who's repairing a tooth that broke while I was still in Vermont. I'm happy to be paying $276 for an inlay that in the States would have cost about $900!
While in the city I stopped by the main plaza to enjoy its beauty:
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| Church at Parque Mancayo |
I then went shopping at the SuperMaxi. Racked up a $64 bill there for
things harder to find or more expensive in Cotacachi. Bust of the day:
the Seagrams Tonic Water 6-pack (I like Rum & Tonics) that I thought
was such a deal at $1.88 turned out to be $1.88 per can! Guess I'll
really savor each sip. On the bright side, back in Cotacachi I had a
tasty lunch of corn-based soup with potatoes followed by chicken, rice,
fries, beet salad and a naranjilla juice for $2.75.
With a (happily brief) cold, the trip to Ibarra and a lot rain, I didn't get out hiking for a while - so I was eager to go on the beautiful
morning of the 25th. I headed out on an unknown lane - past this lovely scene:
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| Cows and the Church of the Matriz |
And then 3 nasty little dogs came
after me. Just ignoring them didn't work this time and they came right
up to me, barking and snarling, and my only defense was to kick at them.
To my relief, they retreated - and then I
realized that in kicking toward them I pulled a muscle in my quads.
And as I backed away from them up against the hedgerow, something
punctured my water bottle. So, hurting and waterless, I walked slowly
into town and got a cinnamon roll and cup of coffee as compensation. Luckily after just one day of rest - and a bit of ibuprofen - I was pain-free. So a couple days later I walked up the cobbled road to the little village of San Pedro, on the
slopes of Mount Cotacachi, then continued on dirt roads and through
fields to loop back down to El Ejido.
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| View over a field of waving grain to Mount Imbabura |
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| Grassy lane and mountain fields |
That evening there was wonderful alpenglow on the glaciers of Mount Cayambe:
I love buying fresh fruits and vegetables at the Cotacachi mercado. And once a week there's an alternative little market by Plaza San Francisco where I usually score some great produce:
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| Fresh lettuce, basil and 2 artichokes - all for $1.25 |
Speaking of food: On the morning of the 29th a group of volunteers moved
the community breakfast site to the new, light-filled room several
blocks away, on Calle Esmeraldas:
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| Cooks Olga and Panchita enjoying the 1st breakfast in the new dining room |
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| Volunteer Kim with Olga and Panchita in the new kitchen |
And on the 30th five of us went by bus to the village of Imantag and then hired a truck
to take us way up into the Peribuela Reserve. Including a stop for lunch, we
hiked about 7 hours.
We hiked through meadows -
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| Me in a meadow |
We hiked through woods -
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| Clare, Kristin, Elin and Dennis in the woods |
And way way up in the paramo, above the tree line, we enjoyed lunch with a fabulous view -
And that pretty much brings things up to date - but of course no blog post of mine would be complete without a few pics of local wildflowers......
.....and a few pics of butterflies and moths (with thanks to friend Dour Taron for identifying them):
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| Actinote butterfly |
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| A tiger Moth |
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| Western Lady Butterfly |
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| A different tiger moth |
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| Orange-patched Crescent Butterfly |
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| Orange Mapwing Butterfly |
The 4th of July weekend has started and a local hotel that caters mostly to gringos is hosting a free barbecue and fireworks on Monday, so it will be just like being back in Vermont - only very different!
Parting shot:
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| Mount Imbabura - with fresh snow in the morning |
