I am sitting here in the dark. waiting for first light.
Yesterday, we woke up a bit later than planned, picked quickly, had some breakfast with plantain and a nice spread and began hiking. the trail leaves the spa and climbs slowly in the rain forest. narrow trail, by a raging river, below massive green peaks. i was a bit fearful of hiking now, since i was dizzy the day before, but i feel ok now, a bit out of breath. the trail crosses the river a few times with narrow bridges where only a rope separates you from being fish food. I see a nice black bird with orange red beak and orange red eye socket, nice. we pass by Llamas and see cows grazing way up on the mountain, crazy hiking cows, they produce only 2% milk.
after an hour we returned to the hotel, short morning stroll only, our driver was waiting for the drive to Otavalo. we drive by Quito and head north, pass mountains. the high areas are foggy and the drive is slow. we pass by an accident site where this night a bus went off road to the ravine below > 100 meter drop. 3 unlucky souls.
the roads are mostly very good, but slow vehicles on it slow the progress. we stop in a place for souvenirs and view of a mountain/ lake combo. Alla gets some hideous snack which she likes. we keep on and reach Otavalo market. this is an indigenous market where the locals sell Alpaca ponchos , blankets, clothes, hats and souvenirs. the alpaca is probably not 100%, but we can't really tell.
i get a couple of tiny things and then go help carry the bags… after some heavy bargaining.
we drive to the a nearby town, i forget the name, where they specialize in leather. we have lunch of fish and potato soup while i dread the possible outcome of shopping in a leather district. but with restraints, the damage was minor and in 20 minutes we left town and headed for cuicocha crater lagoon.
Imagine a crater, perhaps 1, 1.5 mile in diameter. All beautiful green. in this crater is a lovely blue water lake, in its centers are 2-3 islands, same color green, and and all around the crater are agricultural fields, villages and huge mountains.
the start hiking up the stairs trail at over 10,000 feet. slowly on the rim of the crater. most of the trails is dirt/ rock and that is easier to walk on but the stair are deadly. lucky, not to many of those. on occasion we stop to catch our breaths and take photos of this amazing lake.
the altitude is affecting me and i almost fell into the crater, very steep here. caught my self in the last moment, the whole thing in on camera.
Alla, was struggling as well now. it takes 5 hours to surround the lake, but we have 1.5 hours, just enough to get to to the highest peak at around 3300 meters. the trail gets close the this peak then surrounds it. i make it to the other side, for a different 3 islands view point and see a hawk/ falcon flying above, using thermals and stays in place. got nice shot of it, then back down. 1 hour up and 40 minutes down.
when we got down, i didn't see the driver, perhaps the elevation did affect me more than i thought. we walked more down towards the point where boats sail the lake then back up to the agreed point and the driver was now there, he was there before i just didn't see him in his big white mini van, where only 2-3 cars were parked in the parking lot. i added maybe 0.5 to our trip, so not a big delay. now came the long ride to Quito, 2-3 hours. i napped some of it and enjoyed mountain views. Quito is very large and traffic at night but we finally reach the museum hotel. this is a 2 story building, converted to boutique hotel sucre. with Marble looking pillars, balconies, it is quite the fancy building with statues and large canvas art all around. this feels like a museum. this art can be easily placed in cleveland art museum, these images are much better then monet, manet and some other more famous but much less interesting photos.
and now i am sitting here in the light (dawn is here) , around all this art in the middle of Quito, need to go pack, last day of the trip awaits.
cheers from a night at the museum.
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