Cuenca Travels: Cajas National Park II

Greetings, all. This is Becky. As I went on the trip to the Cajas park, I guess I need to write the blog. I had a great day. Beautiful weather and just me and my guide, Gustovo.
We started out at the same area that Phil and I saw with Edgar about a month ago. This time, the sun was shining. Plus, Gustovo is a biologist and shared his extensive knowledge of the flora and fauna.
As we drove through the country side, the farmers were finishing up the morning milking and the trucks were picking up the milk cans. We may have mentioned before that they milk the cows by hand, in the pastures. The milk cans are carried, usually by donkey, to the side of the road. It made for a tight squeeze on a small, rocky road with no shoulders.
While we were walking around the park, we noticed some smoke fairly high up the mountain outside the park. Gustovo explained that the Indigenous people believe that the smoke will bring rain. They started one last week, close to Paute, that got away from them and burned a house, along with many acres of trees.
From there we drove to the highest peak in the western Andian range in this region. We were at about 14,000 feet, well above the tree line. You will see a picture of three crosses. The Incan people would build the small pyramids of rocks along the old trails, calling on the sun to protect their passage. The Canaris would do the same, only calling on the moon. They both had ties to the land. The three small pyramids represent the worship of the sun, moon and earth. The crosses were added by the Spanish.
Our next stop was back down the mountain to a park entrance, at about 12,500 feet. We hiked around this area for over 2 hours. It was interesting to see plants like sage and asters that become small trees in this climate. Moss circles the entire tree here due to the position of the sun, directly overhead. Gustovo pointed out many interesting medicinal plants that are native to the Cajas area. Although we were at a high altitude, the ground was spongy. The water comes from underground springs and, of course, rain. There were several lakes and small rivers. Over 60% of Cuenca's water comes from these lakes. It is clear and so far, pollution free.
Our hike ended with a small forest tucked away behind and below the mountain. On the way, we passed "paper" trees (called that due to the bark, not because they are used to make paper) that were over 600 years old.
Our last stop was at a hotel/restaurant for lunch. It is a lovely hotel and I had a great meal of trout. As in North America, the Spanish brought the rainbow trout to South America. According to Gustovo, they ruined the ecology for the native fish and so there are no restrictions on fishing. I don't know if they hope to eliminate them - there is an industry here dedicated to providing trout to the restaurants. It seems to have become a "native dish" in Cuenca.

The road we took to the park goes on to Guayaquil. That means Phil will be able to see some of the park from the van window when we leave Mon for the Galapagos trip. Better than nothing...

Speaking of Phil, he had a good guitar lesson. His maestro and the other staff want him to come back when we return from Galapagos. He might as well as I will need to work some of those mornings.

We ended the day with dinner at a new restaurant very close to the apartment. We walk by this building every day and talked to the owner last Wed. She told us she was opening Fri. I think we were her first customers. We were total North Americans and ordered hamburgers and fries. The owner lived in Florida for many years and has two daughters still in the US. Her restaurant is very comfortable. It is probably a good thing she wasn't open all this time - we would have been there every evening!

Phil trusted me with his camera today. He tells me there are some potential paintings in the mix, so I guess I did ok. I hope you enjoy this little slice of Ecuador heaven.