Parque Nacional Cajas

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For Sunday, I booked a day drip to Parque Nacional Cajas. For 35 USD I was provided with an English speaking guide, transportation and lunch.

I met the guide in the city at 8am and collected the other two members of the group, one Ecuadorian and an American.

After 30 mins drive mainly uphill, we arrived at the park entrance. After a further 15 mins drive we reached our starting point for the day´s walk and where we had to pay the 10 USD entrance fee. The height here was 3950m (Cars can go a further 1000m).

A brief tour of the information centre told us that there were 235 lakes in the Parque information centre overlooked one lake, Laguna Toreadora which is at an altitude of 3960m. The park is also home to many different animals eg the Spectacled Bear which is a very shy animal, birds eg toucan, and plants some of which can be used for medicinal purposes.

Although the weather was bright, it was quite windy making it feel a bit cold. After about 20mins walk, we were sheltered from the wind by a mountain. Due the shelter, a micro-climate had developed which allowed a small forest of Polylepis trees (paper trees) to grow. The trees were called this because the bark peels off from the trunk of the tree like paper, it's very smooth and as soft and delicate as tissue. These trees, we were told, only grow at high altitude - we were still at about 3800m.

We walked up one mountain and down another for about 2 hours. Our guide, pointed out various plants which the indiginious people use for medicinal purposes eg ´flower of the Andes´- which can be used to treat typhoid or prostate problems.

At one point, around 4000m, we were shown some marble which had been formed over millions of years and our guide told us that the valley we were in was once under water. This was the case for many of the lakes which had dried up.

After a break of an hour for lunch, we drove down to another part of the park which was at a lower altitude of about 3000m.

Here there was a forest which our guide described as tropical and also open grassland. These surrounded a massive lake. In the ´tropical forest´there are supposed to be toucans and other birds nest, but we didn´t see any!

This was the end of our walk afterwhich were driven back to Cuenca. A good day made even better by the good weather.

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Photos

Cactus on the mountain
this plant, flowers and dies each year. It´s in the process of dying

Polylepis (paper tree)
Grows inside the forest on the side of the mountain