Yes, I know
what you are thinking. How can they possibly call this a mini vacation when
they are in retirement and permanently on vacation! LOL
So we
decided to spend a night and a couple of days at a hotel that we had heard lots about from friends at the foot of the
Cajas National Park . The Cajas are
part of the Andes Mountain Range that goes through Ecuador. One of the many
things on my bucket list during our month in Cuenca was hiking in the Cajas and
this we could definitely do at the Dos Chorrerras Hotel- http://www.hosteriadoschorreras.com/index.php/en/home-site-frontpage
The hotel
was beautiful, lots of wood, many different sitting/eating areas amid
incredible scenery.
Our room was
on the lower floor and overlooked a green meadow, grazing horses and ponds
reflecting the amazing Cajas mountains.
After an
excellent lunch of trout- I had fried and Uwe had smoked- we took a hike up the
mountain. We were lucking out on the weather so far- no rain or fog and intermittent
sunshine. We were maybe 20 minutes up the trail when we decided to try the turn
to the right.
A rather
rickety bridge awaited us at the bottom across the river.
Hmm, no, I
don’t think so, let’s try this way instead.
This very
narrow, overgrown, rarely used trail followed the river. It felt much like the
jungle trails we had explored during our stay in Panama ( check BLOG during
March-April 2012).
We saw
waterfalls
Exotic trees
and plants
And after
some time we came upon this strange hut- I assume built to look like an old
Indian place including a pretend corpse with a llama skull.
After the
trail became so overgrown that even a short person like me had trouble getting
through, we decided to turn back and go up to the old mining camp that we had
been told about.
This camp had
been built and used in the 1920’s
Lots of old
buildings & artifacts
Including
the first electrical plant run by this man-made chute of water.
This huge
stuffed anaconda was in one of the huts.
Nice teeth,
eh??
After the
camp, the scenery became awesome. Our path up was bordered by pine trees- who
would think pine trees only a few degrees south of the equator.
And more eye
candy
When we came
back from our hike we checked out the trout ponds. There are many many ponds
starting with thousands of tiny tiny trout.
At each pond
the fish became bigger, until at the last they were eating size. The hotel
offered fishing at the ponds and would clean the fish you caught for you so
that you could take them home for your own trout feast.
We also came
upon a cute tame deer- very curious.
That evening
our dinner was wonderful. We ate in at another section of the hotel dining room
with a very romantic setting.
Our chef was
from Spain- working in Ecuador because of the very bad economy at home.
Our meal was
pan-fried trout with red peppers and potatoes with a side of rice and vegetables-
very tasty!
Two very
satisfied customers
The next
morning the clouds had come down and covered the mountain tops- more amazing
scenery.
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