Lechero, El Parque Condor y Lake Cuicocha

---

During our last couple of weeks in Otavalo, two volunteers joined our group; Jackie and Jessie. We took advantage of our mornings off, before teaching in the afternoon, to go on short hikes to places close to Otavalo. That week, we went to visit a tree called Lechero that used to be a site for shamans to perform rituals, with Pablo as our guide. It took us a little less than two hours to get to the tree, trekking through farm fields, forest, and cobblestone roads. Alex, Daylin, and I attempted to converse with Pablo in Spanish, and we were successful, although he spent most of the hike snickering at us. As we approached the tree, we automatically understood why it was chosen by the shamans- it stood magnificently on top of a hill, amongst dry trees and wheat fields.
After Lechero, we decided to continue on to the Condor Park, where owls, eagles, vultures and other birds native to the area can be found. The most impressive birds, although it's hard to pick, were the owls and vultures that were exotic compared to the ones I had seen before.
Towards the end of the week, we went on a hike around Lake Cuicocha, which is known for its animal reserve and famous for its bears. The hike around the lake was intense but well worth it. It's a three-hour walk to get around the whole lake but because we had to get back in time to teach we only hiked a little under half of the lake. We were mostly stopped by a hive of bumblebees blocking the path. On our way back, we stopped at a restaurant by the lake that served cuy a dish of fried guinea-pig. We ordered one for the four of us to share, and the waiter's eyes opened wide when we made the order. He definitely did not expect a bunch of tourists to order it. When it came, it was not the fact that it was guinea pig that disturbed us. It was the fact that they did not cut the animal in pieces but serve it whole with ears, claws, and random peaces of hair. We finally worked the nerve up to taste it (not Jackie since she's a vegetarian). When we did it tasted a little like uncooked chicken buy the taste was really not as bad as I had imagined it. Needless to say, we didn't finish the whole thing but packed it to go so that we could share it later with the rest of the volunteers and the Cifuentes family.

---

Photos

Lechero
Ancient site for Shaman rituals

Mount Cotopaxi
Becoming more visible as the clouds cleared up

Cuy (fried guinea pig)
A delicacy in the Sierra region