Semana Santa 1 - Of Amazing Experiences

Alllllrighty! This was what my spring break was like... and there were about 10 days of it so it may be long... and I'm splitting it into 2 very distinct halves...

Thursday (April 9th): First day of break! I got my new Censo that had been stolen from me along with my debit card and $90 (oh yeah, i never told that story... basically when my brother, dad, and I were going to the Brazil vs. Ecuador game a long time ago to buy tickets, someone slashed my bag on the bus (Ecovía) and took a little black change purse with all that stuff in it). So later that night we all went to my friend Elizabeth's to hang out. This is the 4 of us who are going on a trip for the first half of break: Me, Elizabeth, Pierce, and Zack.

Good Friday: We made a sweet breakfast of pancakes and piña eggs - an invention of Pierce's - and then we went off to Terminal Terrestre to catch a bus to Cuenca. At first we thought the only one left at 5pm and we would have to sit there for the whole afternoon, but we went to some other companies and found one that left at 1pm. We arrived in Cuenca pretty late, and we had picked out a hostel, but the taxi driver told us it was dangerous, so we had him take us to a nicer (and more expensive...oh well) one.

Saturday (Sábado de la Gloria...aparentemente): We did a bit of wandering around Cuenca, and it's just BEAUTIFUL! We said we even like it a little better than Quito. Much cleaner, calmer, and just a simple, quaint, city. All of us stocked up on food for the next 2 days, which we would be spending at Parque Nacional Cajas. Pierce also bought some materials for fishing, everything but the pole, because he didn't want to hike around with that.

At noon we left for the park, which was just about an hour bus ride away, which took a little longer because of construction.When we got there it was not-so-gorgeous weather, so the ranger guy suggested we stay in the Refugio (refuge/ranger station) that night. We agreed, and left most of our stuff there whle we went out hiking for the afternoon.

The views were gorgeous, we went up and down some hills and by some lakes.
On the way back, Pierce thought it appropriate to claim an island. It was really shallow water and the island was close to the shore of the lake, so he waded through the cold water to get to it. Pierce was also wearing all khaki that day (and a few other days later in the week) so he ran around claiming the island in the name of 'Khaki Man!' Eventually he invited us to his island, and we reluctantly walked through the water to get to it... but it was well worth it :)

That night, we used the kitchen at the refugio to make pasta with lentils, and some popcorn. We also danced around the kitchen (thanks to my handy-dandy portable iHome, again) and probably kept the ranger-guy awake, but hopefully not too late. Pierce also read us all the bible stories about Easter... with intermittent pop quizzes :) It was a lot of fun.

EASTER Sunday!: On Easter morning, me, Zack, and Elizabeth slept in while Pierce went out to the lake next to the refugio to try to catch some trout. He came in to wake us up at 10:30 or so with no success. Oh well, I guess we'll have to go eat at the restaurant for lunch... no fishies to cook. The weather was no better, but after lunch we set out to another part of the park on the other side of the highway, planning on camping the night and then leaving the park a different way the next day. Oh, also, that morning I woke up to find my camera broken :( I can still take pictures but the screen broke so I can't see anything. I think I either had dropped it or it froze at night (it was reeeaaally cold). Anyways, we hiked for a while, but while we were walking down a muddy slope I fell a little and thought I heard a crack in my ankle. I totally freaked out, as did everyone else, but I turned out to be just fine, it was just a little twist. At one point we came up over a hill and saw the most gorgeous view ever... the park is SO big!

Then we kept hiking and got fairly confused as to which lakes were which on the map, and if we were even on a trail at all. The paramo (ecological area that the park is in) consists of a lot of lakes, little streams, no trees, bushy plants, and lots of mud. Some of the streams are actually underground and they have these little green plants growing over them, that you can sometimes step on and sometimes not... Well, it was hard to tell where the trails were because 1. there were no signs and 2. the little streams were easy to walk along, and there were lots of them, so any of them could have been trails.

We did know which direction we were going, and we knew which way the highway was, so we went that way. But, the way we went led us to a big ridge of mountains that we would have to get over to get to the highway, and possibly to some cabins that we saw on the map. Pierce went up first (being the daring, experienced hiker that he is) to find a way for us to go. It was getting a little late, and we saw Pierce go over the mountains in a way that looked super-scary, so we were planning on camping up in one of the only flat areas we could find, which was already windy and cold.

If you look closely, you can see Pierce up there:
Luckily, from way up on the mountain Pierce found us another way that was safer to come up, and he said that from the top of the mountain he could see a bunch of cabins and the highway on the other side. With that motivation... the rest of us climbed up the mountain... which was quite strenuous, but worth it. When we got to the top, the sun was just starting to go down... but luckily we could see the cabins, so we got to them before dark.

Top o' the mountain:

Yeah, so since my camera broke, i didn't notice that I was taking pictures with the shutter half-closed, but i think this looks cool anyways:

When we got to the cabins it had just gotten dark, so we broke out our headlamps and yelled "buenas noches!" a few times. No answer... Zack and Pierce went to check out some cabins on the other side of the little lake they were by, but nobody was there either. We all thought... hmm... this is how scary movies start...

Determined as ever, Pierce kept checking every window on the cabin that we had put our stuff by. Just when we're ready to put up the tents in the 'yard' next to a cabin, we hear "I'm in!". Pierce had gotten a small window open... just big enough for us to fit through... barely. Also, when he went into the abandoned cabin he realized the electricity worked! Which was a big surprise. We passed all our stuff in and climbed in through the window, then we made some bacon 'n' beans for dinner, and Pierce tried to start a fire. The fire however, ended up smoking up the whole cabin, because the chimney was only half-open. We all sat on the ground or by windows for a while, trying to fan out all the smoke, which worked out okay after a while. After that failed-attempt we were too scared to try again, so we lit a candle and roasted some marshmallows over it to have s'mores. Overall, probably one of my most interesting and memorable Easters ever.

Monday: We woke up and walked just a few feet to the highway, and we were waiting for a bus to take us back to Cuenca, but none came for quite a long while. So we hitched a ride in the back of a pick-up with some bananas and a stack of chairs... hah. There was the same construction on the way back, so we were sitting for a long while in a line of cars, but we eventually got back to Cuenca. We went straight to the bus terminal and caught a bus to Loja right away. It's not too far away, so we arrived in Loja in the late afternoon and wanted to get to Zamora (about 2 hours away) so we could stay there for the night and hike in Parque Nacional Podocarpus in the morning. While we were waiting for a bus in Loja we checked the internet quickly and grabbed some dinner. When we got to Zamora we found a pretty sweet hostel for just $4 a night (the one we stayed at in Cuenca was $10... super-caro! hah)

Tuesday: We woke up and took a taxi to Parque Nacional Podocarpus... and it was nice and warm out :) much different than the nights spent in Cajas.

We hiked aroudn for a while, and saw some great waterfalls. This one is 'La Poderosa':

Again, Pierce made the decision to go ahead of all of us... and we, as always, thought he was crazy at first. But then, we all finally went swimming in the huge waterfall, and it was one of the most amazing experiences ever. Pierce liked swimming so much that he went in another waterfall later in the day along with Zack.

At the end of the day, we had to leave the guys so that Elizabeth and I could meet a group for a field trip in another city about 9 hours away. We took a bus from Zamora back to Loja, and in Loja I realized that for some reason my ATM card wouldn't work at the bus terminal. I went to try 2 more ATMs but they didn't work either. This was a big problem, because Elizabeth and I needed to buy enough food for our field trip to last 2 to 3 days. Luckily, Zack loaned us some money so that we wouldn't starve, and we went off to meet our field trip in Alausi at 6 am the next day...