Today was yet another early bird morning day, and I wasn’t at all sure what I was getting myself into getting onto the bus Thursday morning. As we departed all I could think of when I went to Nicaragua and we hiked a dormant volcano and it was an all day project. I seriously had never been more sore in my life until I woke up the next morning and realized that when I was walking to breakfast turtles on the beach were crawling faster than me. When we stepped off the bus for our first hike they told us it was simply to gauge where we stood as a group to see how we would size up for hike number two later. Plus it was to help us acclimate to the altitude because we were going to be at about 12,000+ feet above sea level.
When we began our mini hike I felt good but still a little nervous because in the back of my mind was THE hike right after this one. After our tour guide, Andre, gave us a rundown on what was gonna happen, we began walking. Once we got past the house at the entrance of the lake area, I was in awe of the abundant amounts of greens I could see, all right before my naive eyes. Along the hike we pasted a beautiful waterfall and we got to cross it over a covered bridge that made for a very popular picture stop for most of our group. After making it to the halfway point and the base of the lake, I felt like I was so captivated by the nature that I was snapping photos myself left and right. I just couldn’t believe that all of this was apart of mother nature, not man made, except the paths to help ensure a safe hike. My favorite part about this first hike was that we got to pass an abandoned brewery, too bad we couldn’t go in, but it also made for a perfect Instagram opportunity. We weren’t sure why exactly the brewery closed down, but I’m assuming due to prohibition is why it could be vacated.
We finally finished our first hike and then broke up into two groups to complete The hike for the day. My group took the route through the forest, with Cristian, and not around it like the other group had down. This route was a little more harder but definitely worth it because for one we basically went exploring literally through the trees because a huge tree blocked the path that we needed to be on. I’m not complaining it was pretty awesome, trying to find a new way to cross through and it was worth the group bonding we went through. When we made it out of a cave in the forest and to the other side of a cliff we settled for lunch, after zip lining, where we had lunch at Cajas was THE BEST PLACE IN THE WORLD. I wish the photos I took could do justice to what I had actually seen. Eating in such a peaceful spot was an amazing experience for me. Over looking the rest of Cajas National Park left me in awe at how beautiful this world really is, but how gorgeous Ecuador and everything that was Ecuadorian was. I just couldn’t believe it.
Waking up Friday morning was really difficult climbing all 30-some stairs because I was sore but every ounce of pain was satisfaction to me for being able to hike up and ascend Cajas National Park.
