Rocks and water and people

Last weekend and this weekend I got to go see some pretty great local sights with some pretty great people (local and American). So, I don't think I need to say much other than in the captions of the pictures.

First, last weekend I went to Lake Cuicocha in Cotacachi with Kat and Janay! It was pretty cloudy at first but later we got some nice views. And it was an enjoyable 4-hour hike to circle the crater-lake! Apparently if you take a boat around in the middle you can see the bubbles from the volcanic gases escaping :)

We were lucky to see even this much with the clouds that were there for the first half of the hike!

Kat telling us about the plants! Her internship is with a tour guiding business so she goes on tours (like this one, twice) to help translate to foreign visitors. 

Janay, Kat and I!

Kat said we could eat this plant so we did! It was sour, and I love sour, so I ate a few little stalks of it :P 

Janay and I in a more rainforesty part of the trail. You definitely could not see the lake the whole time, but it was nice to have different things to see throughout.

Now it cleared up! There still wasn't quite enough sun for the water to be it's nice turquoise color that I read about, but it was still beautiful! 

We're pretty high up on this hike (remember, it's the crater of a volcano so it's already on top of a mountain...) and could see the clouds over our cities.

Clouds creeping in again.

All done! Afterwards, we walked for a while since the number we had gotten from our taxi driver was wrong. It was starting to get dark and cold and we were in the middle of nowhere so luckily a nice couple from Guayaquil stopped and drove us into the city! They were fun to chat with, until they started talking about how ugly all the indigenous people we live near are (which they are totally NOT) so that got a little uncomfortable.

I was fascinated with this grape juice I had afterwards... it actually tasted like grapes and not the grapey flavor that our juice has! Probably because they way Ecuadorians make juice is by putting fruit and water in a blender... not squeezing fruits. 

So then this weekend, I finally got to go see Peguche Falls. My host family has been telling me for weeks that they were going to take me there, and so because this is my last weekend in Otavalo, we finally got around to it! I went with my sister Karly, my brother Mateo, and my cousins Diego and Ariana. We walked for a little over an hour to get there, explored for a while, and walked back! I passed out for the rest of the day when we got home - it was so exhausting!

Took a mirror pic with Mari and Karly first... we're like the bars of cell-phone service ;) It's strange being the giant in this country! I'm taller than most people, which is definitely not something I'm used to! 

Diego on our walk to the falls.

We walked through a sort-of marshy area with water dripping everywhere!

In a little tunnel with the cousins!

The girls :)

Cave... had to get in it. You should know this if you've been following my blog :)

It was definitely an interesting walk... including crossing this irrigation thing over a ravine.

The boys! 

A little pool of volcanic water on the way.

The water was so clear... this is taken with my under-water camera, which was actually looking up from under the water.

The whole group! I hung my camera from a tree branch and used the timer :)

Just part of our interesting journey to the falls.

And here it is! There were a lot of tourists, so we took the path up to a little viewing area at the top of the waterfall, which turned out to be way cooler!

At the top, we saw where the water was coming from. There was this one waterfall on the left here, and far inside the cave on the right was another waterfall!

A tunnel that led to an opening inside the cave! So cool. It was pitch black before it turned and showed the light from the cave, so I periodically took flash pictures to figure out where we were going. I didn't quite have to crawl, but I was really crouched over. 

And we emerged from the tunnel!

A little later, we just decided to suck it up and get into the water. Karly and Mateo had done this a while ago, and a few other people got in, so we knew it was safe.

View looking up from inside the cave! Still, water dripping everywhere.

Diego and I in front of the cave-waterfall.

After that, we found a really steep path up the side of a hill, so Diego, Ariana and I climbed it. 

A tunnel/cave system built by the Inca people a long time ago in the side of the mountain. It was KILLING me that we couldn't go in and explore it!

Partway back on our walk home, relaxing (and doing gymnastics, I guess) in a nice grassy area.

And indigenous family hanging out at the side of the river. Up a little ways was a man leading his cows around, and a woman washing clothes in the river. I felt a combination of loving the seemingly peaceful lifestyle they had, while knowing from my classes the struggles they face being a part of the state of Ecuador.

I loved exploring these beautiful areas so close to home! Trying to go on a bigger trip over the weekend is exhausting for me, so these are especially nice. Despite that, we are trying to go to the coast next weekend so hopefully that will all work out and I'll have another cool piece of Ecuador to show you!