Chagras

On Sunday we headed off with Gabriel, John and Aeyoung to look around the markets in Machachi and to watch Guido and Rodrigo, the two chagras from the hacienda, compete in the local rodeo.

The market was immense, stall after stall of fruit and vegetables, potatoes, pastas, grains, flours, pigs heads, chickens, fish - if you could eat it, it was there.  There was also lots of ready to eat food, including cuy (guinea pig).

The roping competition was in the next door town of Aloasi and on the way across we could see chagras riding there, on the overpass that crosses the Panamerican.  We also saw horses loaded in the back of pickups, but sadly not when the camera was handy!

The competition was relatively simple - two chagras, one bull, 4 minutes to rope the bull, tie his back legs, then release him.  They could only try three times.

However, simple didn't mean easy!  When you are dealing with a loop that's got about 6m of rope in it there's a lot that can go not quite right.

Ideally the bull runs and you gallop up behind him and get the rope over the horns.  Some of the bulls had not read the script, however, and weren't particularly obliging.  There were a lot of helpers on the ground to try to get the bull moving the right way and then to get it back in the chute once it was done.  When the bull runs, everyone scatters and leaps for the railings.

Some of the bulls were rather fierce.

Below is the chagra of the year - he and his team member were very skillful and quickly had their bull under control.

We watched about 20 bulls before Guido and Rodrigo, the chagras from Hacienda La Alegria, made their appearance.  In that time there were only two successful teams; many of whom didn't even get one rope on their bull - it is extremely difficult.

After a slightly sticky start involving the two ropes tangling, Guido was on the job.  He successfully caught the bull on his first pass.

Rodrigo's horse wasn't too keen to start with, but then improved and he also roped the bull on his first attempt.  Both horses kept the tension on the lines while the ground person got the heel rope on.

Unfortunately they didn't quite get inside the time, but they did a very good job.

It was a very entertaining couple of hours, complete with la banda, playing right next to us, and plenty of cerveza.  Just as well as it was incredibly dusty - at times almost nothing could be seen due to the huge clouds of dust.  Everything was well coated by the time we returned to the car.

Longer rides and sore legs

Sabado dawned beautifully so a big group of us, including John and Aeyoung from Los Angeles, and Gabriel's family headed off to ride to Corazon, one of the nearby volcanoes.

It was another lovely day, very hot out of the wind.  We rode down past the little town of Aloag, then up and up and up the stone roads, til we left the road and rode through the paramo on the sides of Corazon.

Here is Aeyoung, followed by Simon and Ben, then Gabriel on the other side of the road.

Ben in the paramo

Picnic lunch

Ben and Gabriel  admiring the view

Then we rode back down a different way through the fields, before joining back to the road and riding through the little town of Aloag, past the main square and shops.

How to catch trains in Ecuador

Rodrigo and I waiting for Ben to take a photo of the train.

More at the hacienda

Thursday started with a two hour horse ride.  Ben was moderately keen (I really think he just didn't want to rake any more lawns!) and the horse he saddled up was very well behaved for him.  Most of the ride was a quiet walk over the stone roads, calling "buenos dias" to all the people we went past.

We did a big loop that nearly went back down to the highway.  I was a little disheartened at this as I could see la lluvia (the rain) coming and we were a long way from the hacienda.  Luckily Guido had a plan - we would canter home as the road had more of a verge.

The horses are incredibly well behaved - no racing for home, no trying to overtake each other.  Ben's horse did seem a little on the slow side, partly as he wanted to snack on every available plant.  I was a little concerned when we started cantering but no need, Ben figured out the most comfotable position - leaning back a little, cowboy style and as little trotting as possible - and on we went.

The horses are very unconcerned with the train (it's pretty slow and quiet), the odd car and the hordes of dogs that race out and greet you at every house.  One even latched on to Ben's horse's tail but the he just kept on walking.

The valley here is all dairy farms and looks a lot like dairy country at home, rich lush pastures, with shelter belts of eucalyptus.  There the similarity ends though - many of the fence posts are little live trees, all the trees have hundreds of bromeliads in them and much of the housing looks very different from home.  The people look a little more prosperous than in other places we've been, with fatter livestock, but most local people are very poor.  In spite of this and our obvious wealth, they always meet you with a smile and a cheerful welcome.

After lunch Gabriel showed us round more of the farm and we gave a hand with odds and ends of jobs.  The night was particularly cold and even with a big fire roaring it definitely felt like we were in the highlands.

Work and hummingbirds

After two days of cold and rain it was wonderful to draw the curtains to sunlight!  A gorgeous, clear mountian day with the stunning views across the valley to the volcano Pasachoa.  What this meant, however, was that everything that had been on hold with the rain needed to be done, especially as there were no guests.

All the lawns needed mowing and then raking - no catcher on the ride-on.  All the saddles needed to be taken out into the sun and the sheepskin saddle savers dried, then the whole lot cleaned.  Plus many other little bits and pieces of work that always need doing on any farm anywhere in the world.

This is the guest wing of the hacienda, our room is the top left one.

Some of our other jobs are to figure out how to make the hacienda come up quicker in google searches, keep the facebook page up to date and possibly refresh the main website too.

However, the lovely weather made light of the work, helped views of the volcanos Pasachoa, Corazon, Atacazo and, in the photo below, Riminahui with glimpses of the mighty Cotopaxi's snow covered peak in the distance.  Cotopaxi is one of the highest active volcanos in the world at 5,897m.

The gardens here are quite extensive and filled with an interesting array of birds.  At lunchtime you can see hummingbirds feeding on the flowers just outside the kitchen window.  We don't know the names of any of the birds here, but the plan is for Ben to photograph as many of them as he can so we can put together a guide for guests.


Every tree here is full to bursting with bromeliads.  It is rather funny that in New Zealand you buy these at a garden center and here they fall out of the trees at you!  Actually they can be a little dangerous as they get rather big and sometimes take a whole branch with them.

Plus there are gorgeous delicate orchids and little butterflies.  It is so lovely and peaceful, especially compared with our earlier travels.

 Haha, my typing was just interrupted by hoof beats on the stone yard.  I looked up to spot a bunch of horses on the lawn.  Whoops, somehow they'd left the yards and needed to be returned.

Hacienda La Alegria - the first day

Our first full day at the hacienda and we weren't sure what to expect.  Breakfast was a large affair with cereal, yoghurt, pineapple (yum!), croissants, bread, scrambled eggs, coffee, tea . . . Mindfull that lunch had been at 2pm the day before we ate a lot - and just as well.  The weather was again bitterly cold and on and off rainy.  Our minimalist selection of travel clothes did not seem up to the task . . .

First up - horse riding!  We were to be in the photos so the chagras (cowboys) saddled up the horses.  We were issued with ponchos, helmets and Ben had the priviledge of wearing Gabriel's chaps - seriously heavy leather with some kind of animal fur outer.  Ben looked a little concerned by the whole thing, but at least he looked the part, the horses were little and it wasn't far to fall :-)

We mounted in the little ring to have a quick practise.  The horses are well looked after and beautifully trained, though Ben's one quickly realised who was in charge.  After a short while we'd got the hang of neck reining, the chagras mounted up, complete with their own woolly chaps, and we set off to pose for photos.

An hour later we had posed, walked and trotted around the hacienda in the rain.  Ponchos are fantastic things - not only are they warm, but they keep the rain off most of you.

Then it was time for something new for me - vaulting!  I certainly didn't expect to be vaulting in South America. The horse was a lovely Percheron cross and it was all done at a slow trot.  Before I started Ben had a practise at riding on the lunge - with photographic evidence!

Vaulting (haha, not really sure that what I did could be termed that) was a total blast - I'm very keen to have another go at it.

After that we drove a couple of minutes down to the cave to pose for wine and cheese tasting.  This whole area is volcanic, hence the name The Avenue of Volcanos,so there are a number of natural caves, including one with bats.  This one is a combination of a natural cave with water flowing through it and a hand carved cheese  room.  It is quite beautiful with the layers of rock and pumice clearly visible.

Some quick photos then back to the horses - this time to watch the chagras demonstrating their skills with los toros (the bulls).  They are small but extremely feisty little animals.  The chagras use a rolled leather rope and it doesn't stay in an open loop like the rope the American cowboys use.  There is enormous skill involved to throw it round a quickly moving bull, then daly it round the horn and have the horse take the strain.  The speed with which they ride, handle the rope and know what the other rider is doing is truly impressive.

The first toro went well, but trouble started with the second one.  Firstly, he refused to come out of the yards and as there wasn't an easy chute and no-one was going to get in there with them it was quite a challenge.  Secondly, once he was finally out, he proceeded to show us all how unimpressed he was with the whole affair by repeatedly charging the horses.  Luckily he only had little stubby horns, so no damage was done.

The helpers on the ground had to get involved at different times and I'm afraid all of us found this incredibly entertaining as he would charge them as well.  When he was finally roped by both chagras the second rope then broke, so another entertaining interlude followed.  And all the time everyone was helped by a black and white heading dog, who also got charged on occasion.

I was a little sad when it was finished - not only had the speed and skill of the chagras been amazing to watch, but as entertainment on the farm it was quite unmatched :-)  (Neither horses, bulls nor people were harmed in the process :-))

The biggest news of the day - Ben declared that he actually liked riding!  Once he got the hang of the neck reining he thought it was quite easy, especially with a very well trained horse.  When in a group he could switch on autopilot and the horse would follow the others.  Of course he then proceeded to assure me that this did not mean he is going to take up horse riding when we return to NZ!

Banos to Hacienda La Alegria

After a very wet day in Banos on Saturday it finally cleared late in the afternoon.  We decided to go for a walk across the river, in the hopes that we'd see the volcano, clouds permitting.

Banos is built right to the edge of the river, with a series of waterfalls that reminded us both of a city in Star Wars (which one, Star Wars fans?).  It's a lovely effect, heightened by the lush vegetation all around.

This was supposed to be a gentle wander up the road a little way.  However, the hill beckoned and we kept climbing and climbing and climbing . . .

The ample reward was a fantastic veiw of the volcano behind it, steam puffing forth from the top.

In the picture below you can see, or try to see, where our previous walk to try to see the volcano went.  It started in the town, climbed the little ridge with lights on the far right hand side of town, traversed across the steep hillside to the buildings on the left (Runtun village), then climbed and traversed back to the right again, ending near the white building in the center of the picture.  The large white buildings are actually greenhouses, growing a variety of fruit and vegetables.

Of course there was a little snag with this veiw.  We were a long way up and it was now rather dark.  We'd come prepared with our headlamps, but somehow walking all the way down again just didn't appeal that much.

Fortunately, just when my legs were telling me that they'd done enough, a ute drove past.  The whole climb had been on a cobbled road with only a handful of cars, so I was rather glad when they obligingly stopped at our waving.

Perched on the back of the ute, cool mountain air whipping past, turning and turning down the switchbacks we had hardly noticed climbing up, finally coasting into town to leap out, call a hearfelt "muchas gracias" to the driver and be in the thick of roadside stalls with hot smoking grills - well this was what South America should be.

It was time to pack up and move again, this time for a month at Hacienda La Alegria (which seems to translate to The Joyful Hacienda).  It was not the most pleasant bus ride, neither Ben nor I was feeling well and there were a lot of roadworks to slow us down, plus downed powerlines at one stage.

Plus it was a little unnerving to think that we were headed somewhere for a month with so many unknowns - what would it be like?  What would the people be like?  We would like it?  Would we like a month there?

Off the bus and into a taxi, though this time it was a white ute, a change from the yellow taxis that inhabit the rest of Ecuador.  We quickly found out why - the roads here are all stones.

We left the main highway and bounced and juddered for what seemed like a long time.  It was really raining by now and quite a lot colder than Banos.  Finally the taxi turned one last corner and we could see the hacienda for the first time.  It looked beautiful, but not particularly populated - our only greeting was from two big dogs - who were extremely happy to see us, at least.

Finally we found the kitchen, and were greeted by Mauricio, one of the family.  He was extremely welcoming and showed us to our room, then showed us around the hacienda.  The main house is over 100 years old and was built out of adobe, which means the walls are extremely thick.  It is full of the family's history.

The hacienda is situated at 2,915m and this was very noticeable with the temperature - it was freezing.  The down jackets were extremely useful.

The owner of the hacienda, Gabriel Espinosa, turned up later in the evening.  Our first volunteering job was to be models in a series of pictures for promotional material!  It was all a bit last minute as the photographers were meant to be at another hacienda, but the owner had broken a rib.  We quickly decorated areas, then sat in them and tried to look natural.  Honestly, it wasn't easy - it was freezing outside, but we didn't think down jackets set quite the right tone so took them off for the pictures.  I still wasn't feeling that well and hadn't even had a shower or washed my hair - no-one told us we were going to be doing it, we thought we were just helping to get the rooms ready.

It was quite funny, sitting on the deck, freezing cold, sipping coke out of wine glasses and trying to look like we were having a wonderful time . . . what would we have been doing on a Monday evening at home in New Zealand?

We left Cuenca on Sunday morning on the bus for Ambato, hoping that the bus change to Baños would be relatively straightforward.

The road from Cuenca to Ambato was beautiful and rather scarey in places.  The driver was pretty sedate (helped somewhat by an underpowered bus) but the road itself travels high up the sheer mountainsides.

It is quite amazing how the local people farm the land here - it seems no slope is too steep if there is some soil on it.  Many plots look impossibly dangerous for the farmers in their gumboots - one slip and there would be no stopping.  But the farmer we met on our walk last night seemed cheerful and happy to share the tiny muddy path with us gringos.

Baños is a little lower in altitude at 1800m.  It is on a small area of flat valley bottom, surrounded by nearly sheer hillsides, climbing hundreds of meters above the town.  The volcano Tungurahua is behind, but not visible from the town, rising over 3000m!  No volcano climbing though, it is active and potentially dangerous.

We started off at a lovely hostal 30min walk from the town center - La Casa Verde.  It is run by a Kiwi-Aussie couple.  Sitting in the dining room one afternoon, working diligently on our Spanish, we spotted 3 hummingbirds feeding on flowers right outside the windows.

Sadly our stay at La Casa Verde was only for 4 nights as they had a big group booking.  We did get a free upgrade to one of their best rooms the first night!

Our first proper walk took us up the nearly vertical hillside behind the hostal, up, up and up.  It was not a climb for the fainthearted; the track was just the farmers' path, muddy and slippery and ridiculously exposed in places.  There were some excellent veiws on the way up, including across a side valley to las cascadas de chamana.

After a lung popping hour up it we made the BellaVista lookout.  We made the descent back into Baños on the established trail, nearly meeting some crazy downhill mountain bikers a little too closely.

Just before the trail ended in town we saw two beautiful big butterflies.  They had about a 20cm wingspan and flittered around us for a couple of minutes - just beautiful.

Sadly our stay at La Casa Verde was only for 4 nights as they had a big group booking.  We did get a free upgrade to one of their best rooms the first night!

We are now staying at Hostal Princesa Maria, located in town (so we´ve exchanged hummingbirds for more roosters).  However, it is less than half the price and we still have a nice room.  It´s the big blue building with the red roof - we´re in the room with the lower right hand window.  There is quite a nice veiw over town too.

On Thursday it was cloudy and not the greatest weather after our classes finished, but I was determined that we should do some more climbing, hopefully rewarded with a stunning view of the volcano.  The inital trail led up some 650 steps to a large statue of the Virgin Mary, looking proudly over Baños.  Then an easy traverse before another lung popping effort, fortunately on a much safer path.

We climbed a total of 650m, according to Ben's altimeter.  It felt like a looooong way up, and boy, it felt like  a long way down too.  Here I am at the Mirador del Vulcan (lookout of the volcano).  Sadly the clouds did not clear, so I´m holding up a pictorial representation . . .

The whole trip took up 3.5hrs, the guidebooks say 4-5hrs, so we didn´t feel we´d done too badly.

The Friday morning español lessons were greatly enlivened by the small childrens´ school downstairs putting on a show for their parents.  Quite hilarious with games and even with our basic Spanish we could follow along.

Friday afternoon the weather was really good for Baños, ie actual sunshine.  I really wanted to see the darn mountain top, which you can´t see from town, so we hired a moto.

This seemed like a great idea in the relative safety of the Baños streets, but the guy who rented it to us persuaded us to take it down the highway on the Ruta de Las Cascadas.  There were rough bypasses for all tunnels except the first (long, dark) tunnel.  Ben drove and reports that the brakes were somewhat lacking and there was a lot of play in the steering.  Plus it was as noisy as all get out, especially coming back up the hill.  However, it was pretty fun, and an easy way to have a look down the valley.

As the name of the route states, there are a lot of waterfalls to look at.  Along the way you can go rafting (no thanks, the water of the main rivers is none too clean), ziplining across the gorge (definitely no thanks, who knows when the gear was last checked), bridge swinging (ditto) and also on a tarabita - a sedate cable car type affair that crosses the gorge.  I rather wanted to go on one, but we ran out of time.

At the turn around point is Rio Verde, where a major tributary joins the river.  The waterfall there is truly spectacular, even to somewhat waterfall-spoilt Kiwi eyes.

We left the moto at the top, passed lots of little stalls selling trinkets and one where you could have your picture taken with a live boa.  I declined, based on the fact we had no idea what condition the snake was kept in - it was shut in a box when no-one was having photos done . . .

After walking downhill for 10min we paid $1.50 to get up close and personal with El Pailon del Diablo.  I crawled up another 20m (all safely enclosed) to a little cave behind the waterfall.

It was incredible and even a little scary - the enormous speed, volume and force of all that water roaring down into a boiling pool.  I was pretty wet by the time I rejoined Ben for the swing bridge.

You can just make out people at two of the viewing points here; the little pale dots about a third of the way down the inital fall, slightly to the right, and the red dots two thirds down, right next to it.

The swing bridge:

Even though Rio Verde is not much lower than Baños it feels slightly more tropical and we saw a few variety of lovely butterflies.  It´s too busy for any interesting birds unfortunately.

From here, the highway continues roughly east, dropping down to Puyo, in the Amazon basin, only 1.5hrs on the bus.  We contemplated doing a tour down there, but it´s not exactly pristine jungle - when the tour operators talk about walks to see medicinal plants, not even birds, much less animals, well . . .

We came back up the highway and were rewarded with glimpses of the top of  Tungurahua.

Today, Saturday, has been very wet - like Baños can often be.  A lazy day in town with a long blog update was on the cards.  Now it's 4:45 and the sun has come out.  We´re planning a decent hike tomorrow, weather dependant.

 Today dawned extremely damply, much to our disappointment as we´d planned another day up at Cajas.  We had breakfast looking out over the river in the rain, spotted a hummingbird, and ummed and ahhed about what to do.

Luckily by the time we´d mucked around and bought bread for lunch the sun had come out in Cuenca.  The weather still looked a bit grim up towards the mountains, but we decided it was worth the risk.  It didn´t seem like the greatest idea in the organised chaos of the Cuenca bus terminal - all the buses heading to Guayquil that we wanted were full.  But luckily another friendly Ecuadorian pointed us in the right direction and off we went on the bus.

Ecuadorian buses have a strange feature - salesmen.  Not just with food and drinks at stops, but the full on infomercial style sales pitch.  We happened to have the same salesman as last Saturday - selling some kind of magical herbal remedy, for what we were unsure . . . (though it seemed aimed at men . . .)

Cajas rewarded our efforts with a stunning day.  It wasn´t quite blue skies, instead patches of sun and shade rolling across the paramo.  For Cajas this is particularly good weather.  Deciding that whilst some of the peaks looked very tempting for summiting we should play it safe, so chose a 5 hour loop, that had the option of an easy out onto the road if one didn´t fancy walking back uphill.

The trail started round Largo Torreador, where we walked last Saturday.  The pace was considerably faster, until we branched off into the Paper Forest.  It is a truly beautiful place, covered in mosses and the bark of the trees peeling slowly away.  The trees are very smooth and almost soft to touch, quite unlike how they look.  The photo below is a little deceptive, it was quite steep, rocky and slippery.

The trail left the forest, climbed past more lakes and then crossed a beautiful stream, complete with trout.  Back into the paramo proper, we thought it time for a photo proving that Ben is actually on this trip . . .

Stopped for a quick snack of cheesy rolls (delicious!) Ben was sidetracked by sunlight and flowers.  Cajas constantly reminds you that in amongst the vastness of sweeping veiws and towering crags is a delicate world of grasses, trees, flowers and birds.

Shortly before this we saw another humming bird flitting along a rock face - far too quick to be caught on camera.  Some things are just for looking at . . .

This is the view from the balcony of the Hostal del Barranco.  The Southern Cross was clearly visible, reminding us that we´re still just in the southern hemisphere.   

We've found the best bed in Cuenca - kingsized, firm, and best of all there are no roosters!   It´s a less of a hostel and more of a boutique hotel.  Also with fabulous high pressure hot water in the shower.  Funny what makes you happy when you´re travelling . . .