I meet up with Lisa, the Austrian girl, at breakfast and we plan to save time for a local hike to the sacred "Lechero" tree, somewhere just outside of town (in Ecuador, that means up) and perhaps to the Parque del Condor. Supposedly the whole hike is is two hours one way and you can get a taxi or a bus back to town - maybe.
I have been holding off on purchases to keep my bags from getting heavier, but now is the time, since I am leaving on Tuesday. Everyone in Otavalo warns about pickpockets on market day, so the camera was placed deeper in the mix and came out less frequently. I plan to do a post on dressing for antitheft, so stay tuned because I have been able to feel reasonably secure throughout the trip.
Threre are those squirmy guisanos again, to cure all your ills.
Thos pig is all dressed up with no place to go!
Must have bought that chicken at the animal market...
Views over vendor tents in "Poncho Square"
Offer low because the goal is to dicker for about 30% off the "asking price". Plan to walk away before buying.Maybe I'll add pictures of the haul. It was pretty sick.
2pm was the meeting time for the hike. It goes up and up out of the back side of tow over old railroad tracks and up some more with very little signage. Just keep asking the locals the way to "El Lechero"
Basically we are climbing the hill that separates Otavalo from San Pablo del Lago, but we don't know that because maps are flat.
We see more dogs and sheep than people, except for a delightful child excited to share her sheep.
There are signs to El Parque del Condor, but nothing to El lechero, the sacred tree. Finally, we see a tour group going up a path between two fields and figure that must be it. Indeed...
You can feel the tree reaching out to you with its soul. I think the legend has it that the tree is the love child of the two volcanoes, Imbabura and Cotacachi back when they had the hot lava for each other!
View of San Pablo Lake from El Lechero
And Imbabura to its left
Again there are no signs to the Condor Park. Keep asking whenever you actually see a person.
I believe this is quinoa
We arrive just in time for the flight of the birds show.
Many of these bids have been shot. All are in some kind of rehab. Some will be released. Some will never be ready for the wild.
The birds are flown twice a day, and fed as part of the show. The bald eagles are Gringo and Gringa. The female does not yet have her full adult pkumage at 3 years of age. They did not fly the Condors for us, but there were some. See below: (might take a while to load)
We thought we would take a taxi, but there was only one and someone else got it. So we start walking again toward San Pablo, which you can see at the bottom of the hill. But what is the best way to go down?? There is about an hour and a half of daylight left...no problemo!
Must have been the wrong road, but is still the right direction. Pickup volleyball anyone! We get re-directed more than once. The path becomes just that, between two fields, and the hill quite steep...
It is very dust and slippery
And we seem to be heading into the back yard of dog heaven...
But...then there is a bus that says Otavalo on the front and all is well.
Time for one of those shitty Ecuadorian beers!
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