April 28, 2011 - Laguna de Cuicocha

The internet and hot water were cranky at the hotel, but the water at least could be addressed with an auxiliary pump. I did mention that the hotel was rustic and this was just part of its old world charm.

Breakfast

Breakfast was yummy and was always a multi-course meal at The Land of the Sun Inn. I always enjoyed a hot cup of aromatica and was told that they grow the lemongrass there and use it fresh for the tea. Even yummier! A small plate of fruit was served to each person along with a glass of freshly squeezed fruit juice. The fruit and fruit juice were whatever kind they prepared that day. Then a small bowl of granola and yogurt or amaranth and milk or quinoa and milk, and then fried or scrambled eggs (your choice) and a piece of either bacon or ham, whatever they were having that day. Breakfast was quickly becoming a favorite meal! It sure beats the Chex cereal I usually eat at my desk at work anyway.

Lake Cuicocha
Our excursion was a visit to Laguna de Cuicocha – Lake Cuicocha. We took a boat ride around the lake with a guide, but he spoke in rapid fire Spanish and I missed a lot. Some was translated by fellow passengers, but I know that the guide knew and said much more than I understood. It's a shame, I'm sure it was incredibly interesting. However, I will tell you what I gleaned from him and from the fellow tour-goers…

Around 3100 years ago, the lake was formed as a result of a volcanic eruption. There are two islands in the middle of the lake with over 400 varieties of vegetation. The lake is important to the indigenous people there and there are ceremonies 4 times a year. It is called the "Lake of the gods". At equinox, there is a big celebration of the Sun to honor Pachamama (Mother Earth). There is a thank you to all the elements – and our guide went through them, but I'm not sure if I caught it all, basically it's something like a thank you to the water because without water there are no plants and a thank you to the plants because without plants there are no animals and a thank you to the sun because without the sun there is no life. I may not have caught all of that, though, but that's at least part of it.

The lake is now an ecological preserve and is protected. The lake has no fish. They put trout in the lake at one time, but the fish did not reproduce. Our group speculated that there may be an oxygen issue. There were other forms of life around the lake – plenty of birds, for instance. There were gas bubbles coming up that our guide stopped to show us. He also stopped to show us a waterfall and I imagine he explained a lot about the waterfall that I had no way of understanding.

Waterfall at Lake Cuicocha

Lake Cuicocha - the picture does NOT do it justice!

The two islands have caves. There are condors there – even though they are near extinction, they can be seen near Lake Cuicocha at this preserve. Between the islands is a canal that we boated through called the "Canal of Dreams".

The water was clear and very cold and on the boat, it was cool. We were properly outfitted in life jackets, though they did have to widen the girth on many of them because the Ecuadorian people are very small – the Americans, not so much.

After the boat ride, we stopped at the welcome center and were served what tasted a lot like apple cider. I have no clue what it actually was, but it was good. Then, we took a short hike up the trail to see the lake from a different vantage point. We not only could see the lake, but also some surrounding farmlands and volcanoes and/or mountains. The pictures here don't do the views justice. You absolutely must see them for yourself.

Farms and mountains/volcanoes we could see from the
 outlook point where we hiked at Lake Cuicocha

The Views
After the trek up the hill (and a huffing and a puffing we all went with most of us not used to the altitude), we got back on the bus to go to La Mirador (English translation: The Viewpoint), and it did have an awesome view of the lake and the island, and pretty good food to boot. I had trout which was served with corn, a "salad" which was cold cooked broccoli and carrots, rice and potatoes. Several juices were offered including pina (pineapple), naranja (orange) and naranjilla (kind of a cross between orange and kiwi). The juice was fresh as it was everywhere. Chicken and vegetable soup was served (no noodles, so I could eat it – yay!) with popcorn. It was quite good. There were fresh flowers at the tables. It was a lovely little restaurant with a lovely view.

Back to the Land of the Sun Inn
On our way back to the hotel, we saw horses grazing on the side of the road, laundry drying on rooftops. The sun was shining and it was warmer than it had been previously. On our arrival back at the hotel, we had coffee, or for those, like me, who preferred, aromatic, and a quinoa cake snack with jam. It's been so long since I've had jam, served with a little bit of raspberry sorbet. I could eat in Ecuador at this hotel for the rest of my life and be happy, I'm telling you, it was amazing! And to have a snack like that gluten free. Yummy!

One of the meeting rooms at The Land of the Sun with its
hide covered bar area

That night, at the hotel, there were artisans that came bringing their lovely wares. There was silver jewelry, ponchos, scarves, alpaca blankets, watercolor paintings, masks, knitted animal hats that were adorable. The rain had hurt some of the vendors and they were able to show us their things at the hotel and our group contributed greatly to the Ecuadorian economy that night, but they were so thankful and grateful for our business. It made us feel good to help these people – plus we are coming home with beautiful items for ourselves and our loved ones.

Dinner

For dinner at the hotel, we started with quinoa soup, which was delicious. I actually make a quinoa chicken soup at home that is quite tasty and this one reminded me of that, but I think the hotel's was better. I had camarones – shrimp, quinoa vegetables – kind of like a quinoa cake (like a crab cake but with quinoa and vegetables). That wasn't my favorite, but it wasn't bad and potatoes. For dessert, we were served "tree tomato" – very good, said Consuela. She was right, it was good – not great, maybe not my favorite fruit ever, but not bad. It was kind of like a pear, but not quite as good as a pear. And it was cooked and served in a little bowl. It was a new culinary experience, though, and I enjoyed trying it.

The internet at the hotel was better, and they had a VOIP phone where we could call back to the States for free, so I took the opportunity to call one of the kids and tell them a little about my experience so far. It was good to hear from home, but I was still enjoying my trip.
I did discover that night that I am not a fan of noise machines. Cotacachi is a busy little city and it is noisy, so the hotel provides noise machines to help their guests sleep better. I hate bathroom fans, too. To me, it wasn't much different – even though there were different choices of noises. Still made me grind my teeth. And the water noises made me want to pee. I wasn't bothered by the city noise – a good thing since I am defective when it comes to noise machines – instead of soothing me, they apparently annoy me.

Figures, I've always been a little weird.