Today i had the great idea of hiring a taxi to go to the national park Chimborazzo. It is cheaper than renting a car and you can admire the view while someone else drives. Sebastan, my driver, was awfully nice. First he took me to a nice viewpoint from where you can see Chimborazo from here in Guaranda.
Chimborazo is Ecuador's highest volcano with 6310 m. Its last eruption is believed to have ocurred around 550 AD. Chimborazo's summit rises 2,500 m above the surrounding highlands (~3,500 to 4,000 m) with a ~20 km wide base. I was extremely lucky that there were not so many clouds in the morning, so I got to see Chimborazo from different angles. Sebastian, my driver, was awfully nice. He took me to the most beautiful places. Notice the tiny looking vicunas in the bottom of the picture.
There are lots of vicunas in this area. They rae such beautiful, gracious animals.
can't decide which foto to add to my blog, I just love them all.
OK, I'll stop. Here is Chimborazo from another angle.
as you might have noticed, I am in love with this mountain.
and here the summit with my zoom. Feel like going up? I don't.
although it must really be beautiful up there!
The taxi driver drove up to the first refugio which is at a height of 4800 m. From there we started hiking up to the next refugio, 5000 m. high. Sebastian enjoyed humself at least as much as I did. He told me had been there twice before with other tourists but none of them wanted to hike up and he was just as eager as I to do it. On the way, we saw a lot of memorial stones for mountain climbers who had tried to reach the summit of Chimborazo and died on the way. It looks like a graveyard here, so many!
There were already lots of clouds when we walked up to the second refugio, we were lucky to get to see a bit of the summit.
here still from farther down.
From there we hiked up to a lagoon at 5100 m., there was a sign that it was forbidden to go any further.
well, Sebastian could not resist and insisted that I also come to where there was more snow, so we went up a bit more.
here back at the lagoon
Then more and more clouds came. I was hoping to see the summit reflecting in the lagoon, but no chance.
I find the colours of the earth here so fascinating
When we went down, we met a lot of vicunas on our way. They are so sweet. They are less shy than those in Peru and Chile, they seem to be more used to cars passing and people.
Look at this very soft fur they have at the bottom . In Chile people catch them, cut this bit of fur and let them free again. it is the most expensive wool. 2 years ago they told me it sells for 500 Dollars a kilo, it is exported, you cannot get it in Chile.
just let me know when you get tired of vicunas.
When we came down we stopped for lunch at a very cute restaurant. I found out that the cheaper the restaurant, the better the food here in Ecuador. This is not only a restaurant, they also have 2 very cute rooms for rent upstairs, and the food is delicious.
Isn't this an interesting construction?
this is one of the rooms for rent.
At the end we went to Salinas, a little very interesting indigenous town. When an Italian Salesian missionary named Antonio Polo rode into town one July day in 1971, Salinas was still a town of chozas (thatch-roofed huts). For generations, salineri- tos (people of Salinas) had lived in dire poverty, unable to demand a fair price for their production of milk, vegetables and wool; half of all Salinas children died before the age of five. Polo saw a better future for local families making and selling dairy-based products. He helped the campesinos (peasants) set up a credit cooperative, buy equipment and bring in technical expertise. Emphasizing high standards of freshness and sanitation, the cooperative eventually opened more than 20 queserías (cheese factories) around Salinas and branched out into other provinces. It has also created new cooperatives that produce chocolate, dried mushrooms, wool clothing, salamis, candies and buttons, and it has even started a community tourism project. Here is the little church of Salinas:
a pretty house on the main place:
We visited a chocolate factory and I was amazed at what wonderful chocolate they make. Better than the swiss chocolates I know. And they even export it to Japan. Isn't it fantastic?
It was already very clouded and foggy, otherwise the landscape here must be gorgeous
Well, that's it for today. Have a good night.
