Taking the Good with the Bad in Cajas

I cannot describe adequately the beauty that exists in Cajas National Park, it was truly a soul stirring and mind bogglingly amazing natural wonder. I have seen so much natural beauty in my life which is so difficult to compare. I would easily line up Cajas with Zion and Glacier and the others that are tied for top places to be stunned into awe. As usual, none of the pictures come close to capturing the eye popping beauty.

I traveled with a tour group out of Cuenca for a multi-hour hike through Cajas. The group was fun, lots of Americans, there was a couple from South America who didn't really speak English, it was truly ironic how out of place they felt. We got up there and the guide, Pablo, had to change his plan from two shorter hikes to one big hike. I don't know what we were supposed to do but the 3 and half hour hike held nothing but constant and impressive views of the park. We covered so little of what Cajas is made up of but we were all in shock of the beauty. I had brought up stuff to camp over night, I was just going to stay up there as the bus left. It started to rain as we ended our hike so I joined the group for the included lunch as much as for the free food as to stay dry. Luck helped me out and the rain more or less stopped when they dropped me back off in the park. I headed towad the nearest trailhead which the map showed a camping stop next to a trail. As I had read, Cajas offers difficult trails to follow, this is TRUE! I lost the trail almost immediately and with my "F-it" attitude proceeded to hike through tall wet grass to get to where I really believed was the designated camping area. In great spirits, I found an area that was closely located to the map's indicated spot, it was all spongy marsh. Imagine walking on nerf balls soaked in water, this is where I set up my tent. Luckily I had a heavy tarp and my friend Jason's new tent, no issues at all. I ate dinner and got in, rain started immediately. I stripped off my soaked pants, soaked socks and soaked shoes and hunkered down into my warm dry sleeping bag. The only issue in the night was collections of strange, momentary whipping sounds like someone cleaning the dust out of a blanket. The sounds would be on my left, right, far away and really close but no other sounds no chirping or barking or actual contact with the tent. I knew there were rabbits in the area but I had no clue how they'd make that sound. I yelled at the mysterious sound multiple time, asking kindly for it to stop. I figured out the next day it was humming birds, scary huh?

So after a reasonable night's sleep I woke up ready to hike to a really large lake a good 2 hour walk from my tent site. I was strongly entertaining another night out there, I had enough supplies and no specific schedule to meet. The morning was foggy and damp, as expected. I had my cup of hot, strong coffee, looked at the soaked tent (assuming the inevitable sun would dry it), though mostly dry on the inside and started off to find this trail I had not seen the day before. Well the Gods just didn't want two perfect days in a row for me. Rain fell, fog rolled in and out, I would find the trail then lose it. My pants and shoes were still soaked from the day before, though it really wouldn't have matter, they just got soaked more and more. Luckily I had a pair of low gators which made a mild dent in the soaking. After hours of being rained on, seeing nothing but fog covering up what I knew where awe inspiring views and stuggling to follow my trail I gave up, disheartened and headed back. A few things popped up to worsen the sting. I bag I had used from a store to keep my daypack items dry lost all the paint and covered all my food, camera, hands and everything in yellow and blue specks of paint. I also got used to stepping on certain patches of moss to get through particulary wet patches, one patch turned out to be the secret quick mud of Cajas, I fell through up to my mid thigh in mud! When I returned to see my tent drenched the rain picked up just as I was putting everything away, nothing worse then packing a wet tent into a wet backpack full of wet stuff in the rain. Luck stuck for me as I exited the park, a small goup of Americans were driving by and picked me up, took me for soup and got me back to Cuenca all for free, I couldn´t thank them enough, just for getting me out of the rain.

In the end I don't regret a bit of this weekend. I have now camped in Ecuador and 1 great day out of two is pretty dang good. I am now in Puerto Lopez where the beach is spendid, my clothes are all dry and it's not raining.

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