Another month in Cotacachi

Morning sun on the summit of  Mount Cotacachi

Well, another month has flown by and I head back to the States soon, so I guess it's time to let folks know what I've been up to here in the amazing Andes.

One thing I of course have been doing is eating - and I love that I can go to the mercado here in Cotacachi and get wonderful fresh fruits and vegetables for wonderfully low prices.  Here, for example, is what I bought on one trip to the market, for a grand total of about $7.25:  6 tomatoes, 3 avocados, 7 bananas, 4 limes, a bunch of green beans, 3 yellow peppers, 7 red onions, a package of freshly-diced mixed veggies (for soup), a bowl of strawberries and a bowl of blueberries!

 There are quite a few stalls selling produce and grains in the mercado, but of course I have my favorites - who have what I want for prices I like.

My favorite vegetable vendor

My favorite fruit vendor

I'm able to take a pleasant country lane to get there to do my shopping - and I get to enjoy views like this along the way:

Mount Cotacachi and a cow

My last post featured a pic of Cotacachi's grand church which overlooks the main plaza.  Here are some more of the towns colonial buildings:

This seems to be the oldest building bordering the plaza

Elegant buildings near the church, housing a hotel and the town museum

Simpler colonial buildings on a side street

Colorful mural on the municipal building (which is not at all colonial)

I don't really spend much time in town, though.  I'm usually out walking through the countryside.  Sometimes I have a destination in mind - and sometimes I just wander, deciding at each intersection which way to head.  Sometimes it's just a short walk in a nearby community - and sometimes its a good long hike, like they day I walked to the town of Imantag and decided to keep on going to Atuntaqui - about 12 miles in all:

New corn, old wall and the Imantag church

Church on the plaza in Atuntaqui

On my walks I often see interesting people - and if I'm lucky I get to take a photo.  On the way to Imantag I came upon this woman sitting on the side of the road, working on her embroidery as she waited for a bus:

On another walk I came up behind this woman herding her sheep down a dusty road while carrying firewood on her back:

And I got a photo of this lovely indigenous woman carrying a milk pail, with corn stalks for her cows strapped to her back:

It turns out this is Isabel, the mother-in-law of my landlady Rosa Elena's brother.   Small world!  After I posted this pic on FaceBook I got a message from Isabel's granddaughter Tamy telling me how much she liked it. and we had a nice long online conversation.  I got to practice my Spanish and Tamy got to practice her English.

Of course out in the countryside I see lots of animals, too.

Burro - up close ad personal

Cow - with cattle egrets

Horses and mountain ridges

Not all the animals are this big, though.  Occasionally I get to see some nice birds - though I'm a bit disappointed with the variety seen around here.

Scarlet-bellied Mountain Tanager.

Hummingbird

Yellow Grosbeak

This one is a real catch: a kestrel with a mouse in its talons!

One of my favorite hikes around here is on the trail around the Cuicocha crater lake.  Several times this year I've been up to the lake - either being dropped off there and then walking back or walking there and back down.  Here's a pic I like from when Alfredo dropped me off on the 4th of July and I ate lunch up on the ridge overlooking the lake - and then walked home:

And an orchid backed by mossy twigs along the trai

 The time that I walked up to the lake and back, I ate a second breakfast at the El Mirador restaurant overlooking the lake - and was rewarded with the only sighting I've ever had of the peak of Cotacachi rising over the lake:

The peak's appearance was very brief, but I managed to catch it through the restaurant window (sorry about the reflection)

On July 11 I finally went around the lake this year - on a trail that in places is very well worn:

 It was a beautiful day for the hike, and the lake was a gorgeous blue:

Island in the blue, blue lake, with Mount Imbabura in the background.

At the end of the Cuicocha trail, I met up with a young couple from California who are traveling around the world - great conversation as we walked together down the road.  Then I walked back to my casita in El Ejido - for a total of about 14 miles in 6 3/4 hours, with lots of pauses for photos.

Andean Buckeye on the trail

Colorful flower spike

Blueberry-like flowers

While walking back down to El Ejido, I came upon a group of teens working on a project to build a new water cistern for a local community. We chatted (I think they were grateful for a reason to take a break from carrying boulders up to the cistern site) and it turns out they're volunteers through a program based in Putney VT!  Small world....

We've continued with Cotacachi Hikers events.  On the 16th, Clare led a hike up above the town:

Clare and John

Cobbled road and Imbabura

Country lane and Cotacachi

 One of the great benefits of living in my casita has been becoming friends with the indigenous Vinueza/Quilumbaqui family and and observing their lifestyle.  They dry their corn and bean crops out on the terrace:

Drying corn - for the family and their animals

One evening Alfredo came to my door with a pile of freshly-cooked little corn tortillas for me - and invited me out to where they were making them:

Rosa Elena and Alfredo cooking tortillas and a pot of beans over an open fire

On the 18th of July I joined my friends Elin and Dennis for a pleasant walk in the neighborhood.  Along the way we checked out this cool old abandoned house made of packed earth - with a balcony and a large veranda:

Elin and this old house

View from the veranda

The next day my friend Kristin and I took a bus out to Imantag and hired a truck to take us to Loma Negra (Black Hill).  The hike to the summit afforded beautiful views of the area.

View of mountainside fields from Loma Negra

When we descended the hill, we hiked down into the valley below these fields and over to the village of El Cercado. 

Kristin on the road to El Cercado

Me on the same road

After a meeting of the community breakfast volunteers on the morning of the 22nd, I walked back to El Ejido with Panchita, one of the 2 Ecuadorian cooks for the breakfast. Turns out she lives just up the road from me. She enjoyed showing me her home, introducing me to multiple generations of her family, and giving me a tour of her large and varied garden, which included lots of medicinal plants. We conversed pretty well in Spanish - I understood most of what she and her family said.
Before I left, Panchita sat me down for a glass of tree tomato juice and then sent me home with some uvillas (goldenberries) and a sweet, ripe jicama (very different from the crunchy veggies I've tried in the States - I suspect it's actually a different plant).  What a treat!

I've enjoyed helping to serve the community breakfasts here. The elderly indigenous folks who come are a delight to be with and so appreciative.

Olga, one if the breakfast cooks, often leads the attendees in a bit of exercise and dancing before we serve breakfast.  It can be especially appreciated on a chilly morning.  Note the fresh snow on the summit of Mount Cotacachi.

 On the 23rd I lead an easy hike for the Cotacachi Hikers group - and we had our largest turnout of the year!

There were 10 of us for the hike that looped through the countryside around Cotacachi.

I've posted many photos of Mount Cayambe, the 19,896-foot glacier-capped volcano that I can see from my back window.  But from my window I can only see the top of the mountain.  On July 24th it was a bright, clear morning, so after a breakfast of whole wheat pancakes with wild mountain blueberries, I set out at 7:00, heading to higher ground on the old Cuicocha road to see how much of Mount Cayambe I could get to see before the clouds moved in.

Cayambe from my window on a cloudier morning

This is the most of Cayambe I got to see before the clouds moved in

Mount Cayambe, with clouds encroaching,  from the abandoned restaurant up near Laguna Cuicocha

It has taken me a while to complete this much - especially since the wifi often is uncooperative - so with a couple of photos of lovely butterflies, Ill come to a stop for now:

Member of the Catasticta genus

 

Andean Silverspot

Coming up next:  Climbing Mount Fuya Fuya and the Imbabura volcano!


Parting Shot - Mount Cotacachi at sunset:

Back in Cotacachi, Ecuador - June 2016

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.

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!)

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!

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.

Mount Cotacachi (16, 220 ft.) at first light, visible from the front windows

Mount Imbabura (15,190 ft.) from the rear window.

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:

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):

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:

Cow under a pine tree - with Mount Imbabura

Green canyon below Mount Cotacachi

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:

Cotacachi Hikers Bonnie, Clare and me walking country roads

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:

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!

Dennis and Elin in the courtyard of Hacienda Zuleta

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.

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:

Taking  pork chops out of the oven

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.

View as I walked to the site of the minga

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.

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.

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

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.

An enthusiastic crowd gathers for the festivities

An indigenous elder makes her way through the plaza

Flutists accompany the dancing

Exuberant dancing marchers enter the main square on the men's big day

Exercising a bit of crowd control

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.

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:

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:

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:    

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.

View over a field of waving grain to Mount Imbabura

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:

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:

Cooks Olga and Panchita enjoying the 1st breakfast in the new dining room

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 -

Me in a meadow

 We hiked through woods -

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):

Actinote butterfly

A tiger Moth

Western Lady Butterfly

A different tiger moth

Orange-patched Crescent Butterfly

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:

Mount Imbabura - with fresh snow in the morning