Hello hello hello hello hello…that’s the echoing sound I’m
making from the top of an Andean mountain! We have arrived to Otavalo, Ecuador
and it is awesome! Otavalo is a relatively well developed town of 30K people,
sitting at around 8400ft. elevation…we are surrounded on all sides by massive
volcanoes…ranging from 11,000ft. to over 15,000ft! You know me, being a
Colorado kid, I am in heaven here. Honestly, just the idea that I’ve been
hiking, biking and otherwise cruising around the Andes is just awesome.
Quick note about how we got here…after Bogota, Colombia…we
took a bus to Cali, Colombia…Cali is known as the Salsa dancing capital of
Colombia…so we took a salsa class! It was cool. Salsa is not super complicated,
so we definitely know all the steps now…just gotta practice making it look good
;) We also did a nice hike in Cali, up a hill just on the edge of town, where
they have built 3 giant crosses…turned out to be much more a workout than
expected, so that was cool. Besides
that, Cali was not my favorite town, it was very crowded, tons of traffic and
so much smog it would give me a headache. We did take a day trip to a village
called Pueblo Pance, along the Pance river and at the entrance to Reserva
Natura Anahuac…we hiked around in the park for a couple hours and at one point
came to a home-made bridge that we must use to cross the river…were talking
something right out of Indian Jones, basically bamboo tied together with wire…Sophia
almost didn’t make it…but after 3 tries, we were on the other side. You’ll have
to check out the video (I’ll get it up on the youtube channel asap). Being out
there in nature that day really reminded us that we have been visiting too many
big cities and need to get back out into nature…and so, now where here in
Otavalo.
Today is our third day full day here and we have definitely
been staying busy…our days are full with activity and our evenings have been
spent sitting around a real wood community fireplace here at the hostel. Our
first day was the mountain biking trip…mostly downhill, they drove us to
Cuicocha lake, an amazing crater lake with a big island in the middle, at 3800
meters. We rode downhill through 4 small indigenous villages, stopping for
historical lessons from our local guide and a bit of sampling of native foods
grown here. Only bummer was when the rear derailleur broke off my bike and
lodged itself in the back wheel…I came to a stop with a quickness…good thing it
was downhill at that point as the guide was able to nurse the bike to next town
and use the phone to call for a back up bike to be delivered. After about an
hour of r&r we were back on the road. The ride ended back in Otavalo at
around 2500 meters, covering a downhill decent of around 1300 meters (3.3
meters in a foot, in case you’re wondering).
The biking was great and were hoping to do another similar tour on Thursday,
but yesterdays hike definitely topped it…Sophia summited her first 14,000ft.
peak!! How cool is that! Actually 2 peaks, fuya fuya at 14,084 and it’s sister
peak at 14,150. I was so impressed. We had signed up for 14Kilometer relatively
easy hike around 3 lakes near the peak but as we drove closer to the trail head
the guide started explaining that how on a clear day like that, the views from
mountain tops would be incredible, once he told me they were 14ners, we were
in. Granted, they are good “beginner” 14ners, we started from about 12K ft, so
distance was not a huge factor, but thin air, steep terrain and rock scrambling
definitely were. The guide told us that everyone chooses to summit the smaller
peak but only half of the people choose to summit the taller one, mainly because
of one completely vertical rock wall that must be overcome. So, as a confidence
builder I suggested we do the smaller one first, although some clouds had
rolled in by this point the views were spectacular. We then, descended the peak
and hiked across the ridge line to the larger one. Here we found a group of
German hikers making there way 1 x 1 through the difficult part, these guys
were even using a rope (which we did not have)…rather than waiting for them,
the guide took us around the long way up other side. We scrambled up some steep terrain and
arrived right at the top of the difficult rock face…a short climb from there
and we were at the 2nd summit! The way
down was nice a nice adrenaline rush as we did climb down the challenging rock
face (again check out the video on youtube).
So…that pretty much leads me to right now, laying in bed,
writing this blog and trying not to think about the activity that waits for us
in the next 2 hours…bungee jumping off a bridge! I don’t know how many of you
have tried bungee jumping…but man, it looks terrifying! I thought I might wait
to say anything until after we did it, but, I suppose this way, we will be less
likely to chicken out…lol. I’m planning on jumping with the camera in my hand
so I can film a nice video…assuming I don’t drop it in the river, you should
have another nice video to watch soon.
Wish me luck!
Brett
