| Oct 16, 2005 - Cajas National Park
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 | | show all 11 | | The start of the day | | 13,000+ feet | | Bizarre forest | | |
| On Sunday I went to Cajas National Park, a short drive outside of Cuenca, for my first real nature experience. And it was unreal.
Part of my Full Immersion Program with Cedei includes one free trip per week with a local tour company, and we can choose the destinations from a list. So I went to Cajas with Melissa, another American student here from Minnesota, and a tour guide. Cajas is a medium-sized National Park here, most of which is above the treeline and over 13,000 feet. It has many peaks that jut out well beyond that as well. It is known for being rainy and wet, and forms one of the two rivers that eventually feed into the Tomebamba River here in Cuenca. Due to this park and its fresh water, Cuenca has the cleanest drinking water in Ecuador. Ecuador relies heavily on hydro-electric power, and over 60% of the nation's electricity comes solely from this one National Park.
Our guide, Javier, has been guiding around Ecuador for years and knew just about everything there was to know about the local plants, animal, and ecology of where we were. He also happens to be the lead singer and guitar player of a semi-popular heavy metal band here in Ecaudor, a BMX rider, and an overall very cool guy. The day started at 8:30 with him driving us about 30 minutes out to the park, and parking at the highest point on the road that leads through the park and connects Cuenca to Guayaquil. From there we started our 3-hour hike.
I am fairly acclimated to the altitude by now, so I did not have any headaches or anything. Still, just walking up even the slightest hill took a lot more energy and wore me out a lot quicker than it normally would have. Cajas has over 200 laguns (tiny lakes), and throughout our hike we were walking by gorgeous pools of water, little streams which connect the laguns, and some small waterfalls. Also, the ground in Cajas is very unique. There is actually a good amount of vegetation throughout the park, which is unexpected at such altitude. However, this plantlife is able to thrive since the ground is made up of a very strong but spongey moss-type thing, which can withstand the cold and retains water well. It then releases the vapor throughout the day when it receieves sunlight. This serves not only to water the plants, but also to make the temperature within a couple feet of the ground significantly warmer than the surrounding air. To us, it just meant that the ground was very bouncy and unlike anything we had seen or experienced before. This same phenomenon even allows for a strange forrest to appear on the side of a mountain, where it is very sheltered from the weather and so even though it is above the supposed treeline, this unique type of "paper-tree" is able to grow. The trees are all twisted and curved to remain closer to the warm and wet ground, and it looked like something straight out of Lord Of The Rings.
We were told by eveyone that Cajas can get deceptively cold and to bring lots of warm cothing. Well, we had fantastic weather. Unlike most of the days recently it did not rain at all, was pretty sunny most of the day, and was warm enough that I did not even need my jacket. By the end of the 3 hours I was pretty tired, and we drove back down the road to this restaurant still within the park for lunch. We ate and rested for a while, and then continued down to a completely different section of the park which is about 1,000 meters (roughly 3,000 feet) lower in altitude.
We went to this one lake that has a trail looping around it which takes about an hour to walk. Since Ecuador is on the equator and should be really hot, even a small change in altitude can change the climate drastically. Here there were flowers and trees and tall grass growing in the valley. We even saw some llamas, which were brought into the park but are now wild, and horses that are used by the park rangers when they need to make a rescue. The trail winds through some woods filled with many different birds including toucans, although we did not see any. At one point there was a neat walkway constructed solely out of branches, which lead us over ground that would have been too uneven and steep to hold a trail. There was a small dock leading out to the lake where we saw a local family fishing, and on one corner of the lake is an old abandoned brewery. Yes, very out of context. Apparently around the time of the second World War a group of Germans moved into Cuenca and purchased this land before it was a National Park. And then, very stereotypically, they built a brewery and used the water from the lake for their beer. It only lasted a short time though and they just left it as is. It has since become decrepid and is falling apart, and the park authorities are trying to figure out a constructive way to use the remains. We finished our loop around the lake, got into the car, and drove back.
I got home around 4:30 in the afternoon, and took a long nap. If the rest of the parks and hikes that I will be doing over the next few months are anything like this, I'm in for quite a treat. |
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