↑ Spectacular hiking route on the Quilotoa loop.

Trekking on scenic Andean trails

One can never get tired of seeing soaring snowcapped peaks at the horizon under deep blue sky with wisps of white clouds and noisy streams of water flowing through a lush green mountain valley next to the hiking trail. That pretty much summarises the scenic four to six hour trek between the villages Isinlivi and Chugchilan.

I meet three other random travellers in my hostel and we decide to hike together. Our strength in numbers would be required to shoo away barking dogs who are quite aggressive in this area. However, I’m sortof a self-taught expert in the matter of Ecuadorean dogs after successfully avoiding any confrontation with them in Baños, Latacunga and Otavalo. We have a lavish breakfast and assemble outside an open-air church on a hillock.

↑ Sheep and open air church.

The Quilotoa loop is a circular trail offering truly spectacular views of the Andes in central Ecuador, and it connects numerous indigenous villages on the way to the star attraction – the Quilotoa Lake. Travellers can do this entire stretch in a day of non-stop driving, or split it into a minimum of three days of hiking-trekking-driving itinerary which is what I did. The loop can be visited in clockwise or an anti-clockwise manner, stopping on the way in little indescript villages that dot the landscape. This region is not a tourism hotspot however one shouldn’t fantasize an off-the-beaten-path illusion either because there is no such thing.

The scenery is spectacular, especially on a clear day, with plenty of sunshine and a gentle breeze. Walking on an irregular path that hops through streams and meanders around grasslands, there are no buildings, roads or factories in sight. I see unspoilt natural beauty for as long as my eyes could look, and such a setting automatically calls for a joyful session of introspection and reflection. We walk, for hours at stretch enjoying the scenery, without talking. It was a great group to hang out with.

↑ Terrain.

Five hours later, we are on the outskirts of this village of Chugchilan which had few huts and buildings alongside a single dirt road that ran further south and up the next mountain. Some of us want to continue to Quilotoa, while others want to stay here and acclimatize. Ultimately, while having a beer in front of the village church drawing much curiosity from the locals, we arrive at a consensus to either leave if we could get a pickup truck for under $25 or stay in the village otherwise.

I volunteer to negotiate with the two pickup truck drivers. One of them is loading stuff in his van and I imagine he’d be more willing to take few extra passengers. Within ten minutes the price is negotiated from $40 to $24 (since that’s divisible by 4) and we jump into the back of the pickup truck.

↑ Views of surrounding volcanoes from Quilotoa.

A wild thirty minute ride on bumpy and twisty dirt road ensues. The driver takes no efforts to avoid the potholes, neither did he brake on sharp curves. We land in Quilotoa with our bodies visibly shaken and dusty, minds charged up and thrilled.

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↑ Mojanda lake seen from the trail. It’s shaped like a heart, isn’t it?

The Otavalo region of Ecuador is surrounded by numerous interesting mountains, volcanoes and lakes, and presents exciting opportunities for hiking enthusiasts. Toronto, where I live, is on a very flat terrain and therefore I was looking forward to visit this part of Ecuador and hike as much as I could.

A volcano that exploded…

Approximately 165,000 years ago, this area would have been the site of two active volcanoes. A volcanic explosion marked the end of the activity and now we are left with three lakes and a handful of peaks, including Mt. Fuya Fuya, to hike. The mountainous Mohanda lake region is about 17km south of Otavalo and is part of a chain of mountain ranges, all of them with interesting names like Fuya Fuya, Cerro Negro, etc. and definitely hike-able if you have time, which was unfortunately I had little of.

↑ Trail markers at various points on the trek will point you in the right direction. Being well above the tree line, it’s hard to get lost. But there’s fog.

To get here from Otavalo, you’ll have to arrange a taxi to drop off in the morning and pickup at a pre-arranged time. I was staying in a hostel called La Luna up in the mountains south of Otavalo and met two interesting people from Australia who were looking for someone to split the cost of taxi. The taxi ride is along stone path, quite rough and I guess dizzying because one of the people in the car asked the driver to slowdown. Park your vehicle on the shores of Lake Mojanda which is at an elevation of 3,730m (12,250 ft) and the trail head.

Hike to the summit

The weather was interesting; I like hiking in foggy surroundings. Unfortunately it was an awful time for taking postcard pictures. It’s kinda unpleasant when it rains and your clothes get cold and damp, but that’s part of the fun, isn’t it? The weather gods were employing their classic ploy – it got sunny and briefly made us optimistic, but soon the clouds took over and then it rained for a couple of minutes.

↑ Above the clouds. The trail is 1.92 km long and gains an elevation of about 550m from the lake.

The region is quite barren (being above the tree line) and with the exception of small cacti, grass and shrubs, there is no vegetation. I suspect volcanic ash and being too windy next to the lake might be contributing factors. Thankfully, as a result of this, we didn’t get lost on the trail to the summit. The path climbed around the side of the mountain, then wound to the front and after about ninety minutes of hours of hiking we were either above or at the same elevation as the other peaks around us.

Laguna Mojanda looked fabulous from here and its colour changed depending on the amount of cloud cover and direct sunlight. At one point, it appeared light turquoise, blending with the surrounding topography, while at other times it changed into a shiny blue, standing out distinctly. Wild grass and short plants bearing little bright flowers grew at strategic places on the trail, offering support while hiking on slippery surfaces while wearing inappropriate shoes.

The last hundred meters were the toughest – not technically, just endurance-wise. It also got cold, windy and damp because we were walking through a thick cloud. Little more push and the summit was right there. It appeared before us in a typically unceremonious fashion – if you have hiked to a mountain summit before, you know what I mean.

↑ Scribbling messages at the summit for the loved ones. This was the highest elevation I had ever climbed to, the other places were in the Himalayas and quite snowy too.

The view from the top (4,281m or 14,045 ft) was beautiful since we were above the cloud cover at one instant and below it the next. I defiled the soft soil there by scratching a message for my loved ones and asking my hiking buddies to take cheesy pictures in front of it. I am sure it got washed out by the end of the day.

Return hike to the base of the mountain was more fun, as it usually is. Hope you enjoyed reading.

Priyank

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Lake Cuicocha is a caldera lake formed inside a collapsed volcanic crater with an island that looks like a guinea pig.

It took me a while to visualize the guinea pig, or “cuy” as it is locally called (hence the name cuy-cocha), that they talk about. However, if you notice the two humps on the big island inside the lake, it does allude to the shape of a cuy.

↑ The Guinea Pig Lake about 30 minutes into the trail.

Hitchhiking to Cuicocha lake

I took a bus from Otavalo to a village called Quiroga, near Cotacachi. The Cuicocha lake and the Cotacachi Cayapas natural reserve are closest from this village. A taxi costs $3-$4 and takes about 20 minutes to the start of the trail about 15km away.

Tip: If you hang out at Quiroga for a while, especially on weekends, you’ll find more tourists arriving which is great for splitting a taxi.

I got off the bus, circumvented all taxi drivers who approached me, and started walking towards the lake as I heard them drop the taxi price from $7 to $3. But I wasn’t trying to negotiate so it was irrelevant. In no time, I flagged down a pickup truck and the guy gestured me to get in along with three other villagers. He dropped me at the park entrance where you pay a $2 fee. Sweet.

↑ $2 entrance fee for the park. Helps keep the trail and the park.

From the park entrance, one can choose to go either clockwise or anticlockwise around the lake and I turned left looking for the trail head. The road winds around the lake and I missed the trail head, ending up at a village that was a further hour away. A park ranger drove me back and showed me where the trail start was.

Tip: The trail entrance is near a thick patch of pine trees, very easy to miss, about 20 minutes from the park entrance. You can see this patch from the entrance. If the dirt road from the park entrance to the trail head start’s turning to the left, you have gone too far (like I did!)

Trek along the rim of this crater lake

I spent the next 4 hours waling along the edge of the crater on this scenic trail. This lake had formed inside a collapsed volcanic crater nearly 3,000 years ago. Starting at an elevation of 3,246 m (10,650 ft) from the sea level, the trail passes through a thick forest of native pine and non-native eucalyptus trees that have adapted to high altitudes. There are lots of blueberry and redberry bushes on the way, not to mention the large number of flowers and colourful butterflies that flutter from one flower to the next.

↑ Refuges on two highest points on the trail.

The trail gains and loses elevation rapidly on the initial part of the circumnavigation, if you are doing it clockwise, which I recommend. During the middle portion, it climbs quite high, to two refuges in on the way that could provide bare minimum protection if it starts raining, which it did when i was hiking. There are numerous locations “miradors” with excellent panoramic views of the lake, to stop, catch a breath, hydrate and snack. I met like half a dozen fellow travellers, none of them were Ecuadoreans, around this middle section and we collectively marveled at the sight of the lake and the fact that we were above (or maybe inside) some rapidly moving clouds.

↑ Trail winding down through the barren side of the crater.

After this semi-strenuous hike, the reward is not far. Last hour of the trail is pretty smooth as it descends gently back to the park entrance. That’s the reason several people prefer to trek counter-clockwise, its easier, but then you won’t feel the same sense of achievement of hiking to the refuges. On the other hand, if you do this clockwise, the end point of this spectacular trail is very ordinary, an observation that some other bloggers also note.

Waiting for a ride back, cold, wet and drenched

My next task was to find a ride back to either Quiroga or Cotacachi. Since it appeared dangerously close to a thundershower, I weighed my risks and decided to wait for a taxi. Unfortunately, none showed up in the next half-hour and the park ranger expressed his unhappiness at me for not booking in advance. Well, I just have to deal with it, I thought, and started walking back on the paved road to Cotacachi.

Tip: If you don’t want to be stranded, especially during rainy season, book a return ride in advance.

It didn’t rain for the 30 minutes I spent waiting for a taxi. But, as these things typically work, it started raining within minutes of me starting to walk. Also, in full accordance with Murphy’s law, I had also forgotten to pack my rain jacket that day. So by the time I ran towards the edge of the road to hide under a huge boulder sticking out from the hill, I was somewhat soaked. The wind did rest of the job of giving me a free cold shower in the middle of nowhere.

After I was sufficiently cold, wet and had hurled enough curses at Indra the god of rain, it stopped raining. (Try saying, “Stop messing around with the ladies, don’t you have anything else to do?”) And a car appeared, giving me a sympathetic look. Thus, the conditions of making me miserable had been satisfied and I got a ride back to the town of Cotacachi by late afternoon. My next task was to find a place to sleep.

Significance

Guinea pigs reproduce rapidly and need a minimum of food and care to survive. They make for a high protein meal especially for populations living in high altitude. It’s quite popular food in most Andean regions. The indigenous cultures have always respected animals and nature and when they discovered this lake, they immediately thought that the guinea pig shaped islands are a message from the gods. During the second day of Inti Raymi (or Sun Festival) every summer solstice, indigenous shaman use lake Cuicocha as a bath for ritual cleansing and purification.

↑ Circumnavigating the lake on a scenic trail on a not-so clear day.

Hitchhiking is like guaranteed fun and memorable experiences, isn’t it?

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When I was traveling in Peru, I went on a 3 day trek in the Colca canyon with a group of 4 travellers. Besides seeing the Andean Condors from close proximity it was an exhausting 2 day hike to the bottom of world’s largest canyon.

While we were crossing a bridge at the floor of the canyon, someone was shooting a commercial for promoting tourism in this region of the Andes mountain ranges. They were delighted to see few foreigners and insisted that we participate in their video.

That’s how I became famous…

More in pictures of Colca canyon…

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Start of our trekking. Towards the right side on the picture, you can see another tall mountain. This is on the other side of the valley

“[...] Colca Canyon is more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon in the United States. Over a span of 100km, it averages 3.4km vertical depth. However, the canyon’s walls are not as vertical as those of the Grand Canyon. Since it is such major features of the landscape, the Colca canyon is easily recognizable in even low-resolution satellite photos of the region. The Colca Valley is a colorful Andean valley with towns founded in Spanish Colonial times and formerly inhabited by the Collaguas and the Cabanas. The local people still maintain ancestral traditions and continue to cultivate the pre-Inca stepped terraces. [...]” (Read more on Wikipedia)

Walking down… slowly

We started our 3km descent into the valley at around 9. The plan was to reach the bottommost point by noon, have lunch at 13, relax for a bit and then start the ascent till 1km, then descend again into the oasis at the bottom of the valley. The southern mountain of the valley is very barren and had wild shrubs and cacti. The northern side, however, feels like very tropical green. The vegetation, the red soil and the smells reminded me so much about our own Sahyadri range and for a moment I thought I was hiking to one of Shivaji’s forts.

Colca Canyon

Lunch was simple – based on potatoes, vegetables and bread. The family that served us lunches also let us relax in one of their guest rooms and that 30 minute nap was the most beautiful one I had in a long time. It usually happens that way, doesn’t it? We city people love the countryside, and sleeping on earthen floor inside a hut made of straw, at least I do.

Rock scales

After lunch and relaxation, we were too lazy to go further, but we had a schedule to keep. The route climbed up, up and up until it hit two tiny hamlets. They hold a huge annual festival at this square outside the Church in which hundreds of people from neighbouring villages participate. This village reminded me so much of the village called Datmir somewhere in Himachal during my trek to Har-ki-doon. The guide informed us that the religious practises of these people were hardcore Incan, but the only difference the Spanish imposed was to worship Christ instead of the Inca deities. But the locals still revere the earth, water, wind, and other elements of nature.

Bridge

Finally we reached another village called Oasis because it was really one (literally). My friends thought that this name was funny because tomorrow someone might name their village ‘Beautiful’ or ‘Peaceful forest’. But then there are Indian villages called ‘Sundar nagar’ (beautiful city) or ‘Shantivan’ (abode of peace) and they found this interesting.

Local women dancing

Alpaca, the local sheep

There was no electricity. We slept in tents; with mosquitoes. My mosquito repellent emptied into my bag mysteriously and my clothes for the next day got soaked in it completely. I get the feeling that the leader of mosquitoes did that on purpose so that the repellent that blocked their feast would be gone the next night. Alas, we had no intention to be there for long.

Campfire at night

The next day we woke up at 3 AM and started climbing the mountain with our torch lights. After a while, my eyes rivaled that of an old owl and moonlight was enough. We got spread over a distance because everyone was hiking at their own speeds. Four hours of climbing got us to the top. Thanks to my friend who gifted me an iPod before this trip, it became easy to sustain.

Church

The Colca Canyon is an interesting place. Imagine yourself are standing on a huge block of cheese. Now imagine that a sharp knife being plunged into the block, forming a slit. There you go, that’s a Colca canyon. Last night we were at the bottom of that crack. It was a relieving feeling to be on the surface again, after four hours of climbing, my shirt was totally dripping sweat. Now I had a choice – sweat drenched and smelly shirt or mosquito repellent drenched but fragrant shirt (I carried only a tiny backpack on this excursion).

Farm terrace. Football field during summer. Looks like a UFO landing site to me!

So in the last two days, we started with a body ache from the Condor watch point, went up and down the Colca canyon and emerged all sore and smelly on the second day. By evening we reached Arequipa by bus, signed off from the trek, exchanged email addresses with others and finally parted ways. I didn’t know what I was doing next, there were a number of options but that will be my next post.

Early morning

For the complete photo set, slideshow and comments, please see my Colca Canyon Photo Gallery

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Picture taken: May 2005, about 10,000ft in Garhwal Himalayas. Here is the travelogue of my trip.

One of the interesting things about high altitude camping is the unique taste of the food. Above the tree line, water becomes more-or-less tasteless. Since Indian cooking involves generous use of water (from stewing vegetables to preparing dough), food cooked here does tastes funny. जेवणात चव उतरत नाही (the taste doesn’t sink into the food). Even before you hit the tree-line, cooking yummy food becomes increasingly difficult.

There are other operational issues:

• Due to low atmospheric pressure, boiling point of water reduces. So, water boils at a much lower temperature, for example, at the place where this picture was taken the BP would be approximately 90° (Rambodoc would say: “Its cool to boil water”)
• The only source of ignition is firewood. The three basic factors required for a fire are – (1) source of ignition, (2) Oxygen and (3) heat. The last two being less available, it takes long time to light a fire.
• More water needs to be used to compensate faster losses (moisture in the air is very low).
• Finally, food needs to be cooked for a longer time.

Why??

Consider boiling an egg. In the plains, water boils at 100° and it takes 5 minutes for an egg to boil (assume). At 10,000 ft however, water boils at 90°, and in order to equalize the heat (calories) gained by the egg, it has to absorb heat for a longer time. The cooks that I spoke to told me that it takes 25 minutes to boil one egg (boy! thats a hard-shelled egg).

Turning up heat will not make a difference. Figure out why

Baking food needs even more care, such as leavening gases in breads and cakes expand more, or an extra egg may be required to enhance bonding and strength. I have no knowledge about cooking meat though.

Can I cook the same taste food somewhere else? I tried using Distilled water once, but thats just one factor. Perhaps in a laboratory simulation, cooking few grams of high-altitude tasting food would be possible!

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