ANOTHER HIKE WITH SUE

On Sunday, Dec 11, Sue sent out  plans for the Tuesday hike.  She was feeling a little sorry for what turned out to be a misunderstanding regarding last week’s hike, which turned out to be a long, all uphill jaunt.  So she wanted something easier.  She decided to take us up the “other side” of the same valley, an area we could see across the way during much of our hike last week.   It was to be “all” downhill, so even Rosie was interested in going.

We met at the usual time and place.  There were about 20 of us, at least half were people I knew from last week’s hike, the rest new to me.  So we piled into the 3 truck taxis and headed north.  At San Pedro we hung a right and in a mile were traveling next to the river which divides the mountains.  In about another mile we crossed the river on a bridge, and began the uphill trek.  We kept going and going and going up and up and up.  I think in about 3 miles or more the lead taxi stopped and some of the women got out saying that they did not want to walk any further downhill than we had already come, so that seemed to be the sentiment of the rest, so we all disembarked.  

                                                A BUDDING HIKER

The view was splendid!  We could see some rain high up to the east in Podocarpus, but it was still staying dry where we were.  We could also look across the valley to the area where we walked last week.  

ACROSS THIS CANYON WAS WHERE WE WALKED LAST WEEK. YOU CAN SEE THE SKY IS GRAY ABOVE THERE

This time there were 3 dogs along, and one young lady with her young boy, probably about 5 years old.  They were locals and did not speak English.  One really good thing for me right away were some small flocks of Scaly-Naped Parrots, a new one for this trip.  Once back home and doing my homework, this species turned out to be a lifer!  Wow.

 

I have to admit that it was nice going downhill after last week’s hike.  Plus, with no glaring sunshine, it was very pleasant weather for walking.  Due to a few birds here and there, I ended up bringing up the rear.  But that was OK.  I knew in a couple miles we’d be stopping at someone’s house for a break.  

I began hearing a certain bird.  I mimicked his called, but he did not show.  I recorded him, played it back,  but he still did not show himself.  At one point I was within 30 feet of one.  This type of thing bugged me as I simply was not able to put a label on him.  I had heard one across the canyon on last week’s hike also.  Finally, I had to leave as I was lagging far behind.  Once back home I decided to send the recording on to my birder guide friend in Mindo.  He responded in 5 minutes with an affirmative answer: “Chestnut-crowned Antpitta.”   No wonder I never saw him.  A skulker extraordinaire and rarely seen.  

It was probably about 45 minutes and we reached Halle’s house which she rents.  It was formerly some kind of retreat, and the view from here was wonderful.  By the time I got there I had caught up with some slowpokes, which were Annie (a wildlife artist) and the young mother and her boy.  We took about a half hour snack and hydration break at Halle’s.  Just downslope from the main house a Amazilia Hummer had his territory and I was able to show him to Rosie and Sue.

Soon enough we were back on the road.  But this portion would be steeper than where we’d been, so our knees would be put to the test.  I was worried about Rosie, but she actually did OK.  Her strategy was to not walk slow, but rather lope along quickly so as not to  use her knees so much as brakes  in holding herself back, so she was usually way ahead of me. 

In a half hour we were down off the hill, and now we’d be walking on the road along side  the river.  The road was flat and we were now in verdant surroundings - green everywhere.  The sun continued to be veiled by clouds, making the walk more inviting.  But even if the sun were shining we were now in the shade of many taller trees. Here and there one lane bridges crossed the river  to some lucky homeowner’s land.  

Eventually we began to see homes, and soon came to a small Tienda (store).  There was a sign above the door indicating the name of the place - “Rosita,”  so that being Rosie’s name, interested her and gave her something in common with the lady inside.  

A small place out here suggested to me the owners were probably poor, and as we were hanging out on her porch, under the overhang that provided shade now, I felt obligated to repay her, so asked her to unlock the glass door to her ice cream and pop cycle chest, and Rosie and I each bought something.  This then started a small stream of the others doing the same, which brought me (and the owner I’m sure) a sense of satisfaction.  

Another ten minutes down the road and we came to a mini park area where locals come, right on the river.  Rosie and I had our lunch now, as did some others. A few waded in the water.  A German lady’s dog was also enjoying the water, and if a stick was thrown in, she would retrieve it.  

Little by little the road veered away from the river, and we were now walking a side street back toward San Pedro.  Most of the homeowners along this stretch had small farms, and banana trees were very common.  So were their dogs.  In about 20 minutes were reached the town proper, and caught a taxi back to Vilcabamba.  

                            HERE WE ARE ON A STREET IN SAN PEDRO

Rosie and I needed a few supplies, so went shopping, and then we took a taxi home.  We figured we’d walked enough.  My pedometer says 6.5 miles, and for some strange reason registered 16 flights of stairs.   We did not eat the 2 bananas we’d brought, and now, in the bottom of my day pack, they looked and felt ready to add to a banana cream pie.  Oh well,  I suppose my day pack needed a good cleaning anyway.  

THE TRIP TO LOJA

                                                         A TRIP TO LOJA

Dec 7:  Our landlord invited us along on a jaunt to Loja, the biggest city nearby.  Tis a 45 minute drive by car, up “over the hill” to the north.  You mainly pass disconnected farmland, some scattered forest,  two towns and a few small hamlets.  The city is a short distance down the same hill, and you soon come into the city proper of 200K.  Our landlord Richard said it is one of the cleanest cities in Ecuador, and that became obvious as we passed along the main drag.  The only trash we saw was in the river which flowed through the park we walked. Too bad for the eyesore of an otherwise great day. 

We let Richard off so he could take care of his chores, and Hernan took us to the “Mercado Centro.”  This was a place we had heard of where there was lots of produce.  Hernan parked in the basement, and took us upstairs to where we needed to go.  

The first floor where we explored was quite full of produce, chickens and cheese.  It was amazing to see so much fresh produce and chickens in one place.  If we lived nearby we’d certainly shop there.  Prices were a little cheaper than Vilcabamba.  Not sure why the chickens are more expensive here: a plucked, uncooked one is usually $8.00 or more, whereas in our local Costco a baked on is under $6.00.  Here are a few pictures:

                                                        BANANA CENTRAL

                                THERE WERE BOOTHS LIKE THIS, WHERE ONE PERSON 

                                CONTROLLED IT FROM A SMALL OPEN DOOR OF SORTS.

                                                            THE CHICKEN ISLE

                                                            CHEESE ANYONE?

                                                        LOTS OF FRUIT HERE

                                                    THE LEGUME AND GRAIN BINS

We next went across to the adjacent area on the same floor.  This is where the bulk of the meat was - hogs,  beef, and even donkey, goat and sheep meat.  I think there was some fish somewhere, but I did not see any. Our meandering was quicker here because the smell was just too offensive. 

                                FLOWERS WERE ANOTHER BIG SALE ITEM

We next went upstairs where there was all sorts of merchandise.  Shoes, clothes, belts, and etc.   I tried to find a kind of slip in sandal for a friend without success.  I did find some nice T shirts which I needed.  Here’s the young lady I bought them from, and some other shots:

                                                            EGGS ANYONE?

                                                                PURSES ANYONE?

                                                                    SHOES ANYONE?

                                                                BELTS ANYONE?

A JUICE BAR

After about a half hour we left there, heading north to a popular park Richard told us about.  There were not really that many people there today, but on weekends families apparently flock to it.   I did pick up 3 new birds for the trip.  Andean Teal, Fulvous Whistling Duck and a Greater Ani.  I see from the field guide none of them are supposed to be in this area.  I can accept that the ducks may have been domesticated, but not the Ani.  We walked around, sat for a while, then walked one final lap.  

                                   THOSE ARE REAL FLAMINGOS ACROSS THE WATER

                                        THIS HORNERO GOT QUITE CLOSE TO US

                            LOTS OF SAFFRON FINCHES ON THE LAWN AT THE PARK

                                                 HERE WE ARE TAKING A REST

Then we took a taxi to the “Super Maxi,” basically a mall of sorts, where we were to meet Richard. As Rosie’s watch battery had stopped, we noticed a small vendor selling watches, so we stopped to have a chat.  The lady soon figured out that she did not have any batteries for that particular watch.  Rosie thought she’d just buy a cheap watch, so asked the price of a certain one behind the glass casing.  $150 was the reply.  I asked her if they had any for less than $20, but she did not.  About then Richard came by, telling us he was able to take care of “all” his chores.  The way he said it I think it was something that does not happen always.  If that happened he would say something like, “Remember, this is Ecuador.”

So we went to the food court where I had some coffee.  I was now starting to drag due to the work-out of yesterday’s hike with Sue.  While sipping that, Rosie went to the clothing store, but came back empty (a relief?). We then went to the supermarket, where we had an interesting time.  

        THERE WAS A HEALTHY SELECTION OF CHOCHOLATE BARS TO CHOOSE FROM

                                               

                                                            THE BEER ZONE

One wonders why OJ is so expensive here since there are plenty of oranges? Back at the house Rosie was looking at the grocery receipt and the 2.5 liter bottle of OJ cost over $9.  I probably would have left it on the shelf had I realized that.    Same with non dairy milk.  Farmed Salmon from Chile was $30/lb.  Chocholate bars were about the same, even though it is grown here.  I searched for coffee creamer and came up empty.  I then happened to see a man with light colored hair, and asked him if he spoke English, and he said, “Yes.”  I asked him about coffee creamer and he said Ecuadorians don’t use it, and so don’t know anything about it.  

When we went to check out,  I saw a VISA card device, so asked about using my credit card, to which he said yes.  So in the process of doing that, I thought he wanted the PIN # punched in, which I’ve never used for that card.  Luckily the woman behind us was an American who told me that for the foreign transactions he needed my Passport #.   Our passport copies were in my day pack, which was in a far corner of the store where you leave them with guy behind a desk.  So I went and got that, came back and handed him my copy, and in less than a minute the transaction was final.  Nice to be able to use such here.  

Richard had arranged for another taxi to return us to Vilcabamba, the driver of which was a long time friend of his.  The trip back was the usual offensive drive along windy roads.  I suppose that because the roads are mostly all windy, everyone cannot go very fast, so accidents are not all as common as you would assume by the way they drive. Once again, it was nice to be home.  We are just not city folks.  We’d rather be where it is green and quiet. 

A HIKE WITH SUE

Dec 6, 2022:  Not long after we arrived I met another tenet of our landlord named Cedar.  After learning we were adventurous he mentioned there is a hiking group that meets every Tuesday,  and gave me the contact info of a person named Sue, and I got in touch with her.  She explained that the hikes vary widely from strenuous to easy, and she tried to make the first Tuesday of each month the easy one.  I was interested in going for the chance to explore new places and meet new people, but it turned out that the dentist I was using was only in town on Tuesdays, so that delayed any hikes.  She has a list of those who hike and emails them with the weekly plans.  By Sunday, Dec 4, she mailed out the plans for the hike in 2 days, which sounded not too hard and not too far away.  But on Monday our landlord Richard said he needed to go to Loja to make a bank deposit, and offered to show us around a bit, so we accepted.  So another Tuesday hike got called off for me.

But by mid-day on Monday RIchard’s plans changed because his trusted Taxi driver Hernan had other commitments, so the Loja trip got delayed a day, which meant the hike was back on.  Sue sent me the meeting place and time, and I left our house at 8:30, and walked to town.  We met at the Coconut Coffee shop, and little by little the hikers showed up.  I think there were 22 today, plus 4 dogs.  I talked with some, finding out where they were from, if they were here permanently or just visiting.  I learned that of the nations represented, there were hikers from 7 of them: USA, Canada, Germany, Austria, Vietnam, Italy, and Sue was from Sweden. 

Due to the number of hikers we needed 3 taxis.  Many of the taxis here are Toyota Pick-Up trucks with a king cab, so each took 7-8 people.  We drove north to the next town San Pedro and hung a right, the same way we went to Bowens a couple of weeks ago for Thanksgiving.   But instead of turning left to the Bowens we turned right, and for the next 15 minutes zig-zagged up the hill.  Good thing the drivers had high clearance and 4 wheel drive trucks, because there were some steep places and once in a while they needed to switch to low gear then.  If you were scared of heights you probably would not have cared to look over the side.

We finally made it to the trail, and our guide showed us where we’d be headed.  But first, it was time for a group picture, and our guide did those honors for the owners of 4-5 cell phones.  Here’s mine:

The way Sue described the hike, it was supposed to be about 45 minutes up to the highest point, after which we’d descend to an alpine lake.  That sounded doable for me.  I figured I could take a rest as needed.  We all assumed this was how Sue understood it as told to her by our guide.  

So we merrily struck out “up” the trail.  After about 100 meters I was huffing and puffing, needing a rest already.  I guess I felt obligated to keep up with everyone else.  So I did my best, trying to not overdo it.  But after not too long up the trail I could feel my heart pounding in my head with a mild headache coming on.   Sometimes after stopping to catch my breath I’d get a little nauseated.   So fairly soon I determined  I simply needed to ascend at my own pace regardless of how the others were doing.  

The higher up we went the better the view got.  Malacatos was gleaming in the sunshine way below us.  A German lady was pointing out some landmarks of that town to me.  

                        THE TOWN OF MALACATOS WAY DOWN THERE.

Vilcabamba was easily visible as well, and we were now looking down on Cerro Mandango for a change.  At one point higher up I was actually able to see our landlord’s dwelling because he has a large blue metal fence just to the right of the entrance gate.  

HERE IS THE TOWN OF VILCABAMBA. CERRO MANDANGO IS JUST RIGHT OF CENTER.

The elevation where near where we started was 7,250 feet.   When we stopped to eat we were at 9,275 feet, so the air was getting thin, which did not help us as you would imagine.  I kept to my slow pace and was able to get over the light-headedness and nausea.  Eventually it was my legs that were getting sore, which was more of

 concern than the slow pace and thin air.  

Not too far up the trail we began seeing short plants, very similar to aloe vera plants, but they had backward pointing spines.  I made the mistake of feeling one and got two of them imbedded in my fingers.   The father up we hiked the more of them there were, often hanging over the trail.  I remembered there were a few ladies who wore shorts………..not a good idea.  Once down the bottom I counted 4 ladies with shorts, and each one had numerous pinpoint marks on their ankles and calves, some were busy itching them as well. Carl was wishing he had a pair of tweezers.

                        THIS IS ONE OF THE THOUSANDS OF SUCH PRICKLY PLANTS

We kept wondering when we’d reach the high point of our hike and descend to the lake.  After about 4 false summits I no longer worried about it and decided to just enjoy the view and camaraderie.  There were occasions when we had to traverse a gully and then back up the other side.  

                        HERE’S CARL HEADING DOWN INTO ONE OF THOSE GULLIES.

There was one point where we walked for about 50 meters along a ridge, and one step either way might not end well.  At another point the trail dropped off precipitously to our left and you certainly did not want to lose your footing there.  

                        HERE’S WHERE THE GUIDE HAD US STOP FOR A BREATHER

After about an hour the guide had us all stop for a breather.  I asked him “How much farther?”  He said about a half hour.  I think some of us then assumed his estimates were based on his past hikes, and as he was probably in his 30s, he could hike faster then many of the rest of us.  So we resumed our trek, surmounting each false summit.  We eventually made it to the top of one of those and were told the next one was the last one.  It looked somewhat formidable, steeper than anything we’d been up so far.  And to top that off, one of our group by the name of John, who was in excellent shape was now coming down from that hillside, having been to our destination.  He said he could not find any “lake”, only a wet meadow, and that the goal was basically “anti-climactic.”  So with that report, about half of us decided the rest was not worth it, sat down and ate our lunch, while the more ambitious continued on.  Due to lack of rain, the “lake” was not formed yet for the rainy season. 

HERE IS CARL WITH HIS DOG LEO.  CARL WAS FROM PORTLAND, OREGON, AND HAD BEEN IN VILCABAMBA FOR ALMOST 2 YEARS, SO WE HAD LOTS TO CHAT ABOUT.  HIS DOG HAS BEEN  QUITE ABUSED BY OTHER DOGS, SO DID NOT ALLOW ANYONE BUT CARL TO PET HIM. 

                        HERE’S A SELFIE OF ME, WITH VILCABAMBA WAY DOWN BELOW

                                HERE’S A FEW OF US ENJOYING LUNCH.

We took about 25 minutes to eat our lunches, and then it was time for the trip back down.  At least I would not be huffing and puffing anymore. Now my knees would be put to the test, so once again I’d have to pace myself.  My knees just ain’t what they used to be and don’t hold me up like when I was younger.  I’d have to pick my footing at times pretty seriously.   By now the clouds had come over and the sky was darkening overhead, something fairly normal for afternoons this time of year.  One expat who’d been here for some years said the rainy season was late this year, and that we needed it now.  

The trip down was uneventful and we all arrived in ones and twos at the field where the group pic was taken.  By then my knees were starting to feel it.  Plus, one of my legs began to cramp up.  Someone gave me some salt to eat, but it did not do the trick.  After a half hour I decided I’d start walking down the hill, mainly to find some birds, which had been in short supply so far. I walked maybe a half mile before the first taxi/pick-up came along and I hopped in.  But while riding back down in the back of a pick up the cramp decided to act out, and I had a hard time finding a comfortable position,  so was glad when we reached Vilcabamba where I got out to walk and stretch my legs.  

Some of the group were in the habit of going to a coconut bar after hikes and invited me along.  So I joined them.  It cost $1.50 for a topped off coconut with a straw, which I think held about 2/3 of a quart.  Sue was there and said this was the hardest hike they’ve done, and if I could do that one, the others would not be as difficult. 

Soon Rosie showed up and we were next headed to the small grocery store we like.  It was then that I really started feeling my legs.  We had to walk much slower than usual, and I told Rosie we’d be taking a taxi back regardless of how many groceries we bought.  While at the store I noticed a woman there checking things out.  She had a shawl-like sweater. She talked to the clerk who went and got some olive oil for her.  It was then that she knelt down and used her teeth to open her purse.  Then that I realized she had no hands.  I was interested in how she was going to get money out and what not, and then she looked at me, probably assuming I was staring at her (which I was).  So I figured I’d better smile, and she returned that gesture.  

After she left I asked the clerk about her having “no monos” (no hands).  She rattled off a few words in Spanish, ending with the word “Sola.”  I looked it up on my Google Translate App which said it meant “Alone,”  which I assumed meant she lived alone. I saw a dog in the store, which I had seen there previously, so asked the clerk if it was hers.  She said yes.  I told her I have 3 cats at home, and then began showing her pics of Buster,  one of them.  She just laughed and laughed.  Buster often lays flat on his back with his paws up in the air, so I take pics of such occasionally.

                                SO HERE IS BUSTER, IN ANOTHER UNUSUAL POSITION.

Right after that we headed back to the town square and took the taxi home.  I should sleep well tonight.  Oh, and by the way, my pedometer app indicates I walked 5.5 miles and went up 82 flights of stairs!