Taita Donuts!

Friends,

Tuesday, I took the opportunity to go on a hike I’d been longing to enjoy with my daughter. It had been over a decade since I ventured up the seldom trekked eight mile, 2,500 ft. vertical gain route to 13,000 foot high lake Taita Chugo. The route starts innocently enough with a scenic drive down a stone-paved backcountry road which ends at lake Llaviuco. Walk through the natural vegetation tunnel, past the lake and you’re officially on the trail. The first couple of miles are a stroll up a gently sloping narrow river valley, framed by two rugged mountains. At 11,000 feet, the crisp early morning air and overnight dew soon prove the running shoes and jeans a poor choice of attire. By the time we reach the cliff-framed waterfall that marks the transition to the intermediate stage, we’re drenched from the waist down. Fortunately, the activity keeps us warm, so we venture into the cloud forest, up a thin black mud path that might pass for a game trail. If fairies and elves exist, they surely dwell amongst the thick moss, ferns, bromeliads and orchids growing on every tree and stump of that secluded wood. Sure it’s slippery and our pants are thick with mud by the time we reach the tree line, but the light beaming through the trees and the stream providing a steady backbeat to accompany the occasionally visible singing birds inspire us to move on to the advanced stage. Unlike Colorado fourteeners, at the equator, there is still vegetation at this elevation. Straw, agave-like plants and tiny mountain flowers cover any dirt that does not boast exposed boulders. As fate (and a wrong turn) would have it, the next stretch was close to a vertical climb, grasping on to cracks and any available foliage for leverage. Here breath was becoming a scarce commodity. We struggle over a mountain and rejoin the trail, nested deep in a 3 foot wide canyon, climb over the last hill and, release! The massive kidney-shaped lake poses for us, its sole visitors –it’s past noon and there is not a soul for miles. We gaze for a few minutes and backtrack our steps, making our way to the slightly less craggy “official” trail (no downhill rock climbing for us that day!). Now the trek back! Down. 60° slopes. 30° slopes. Sight downhill. Car. Then Cuenca, Guayaquil, Panama, San Francisco, Denver. It’s good to be back! Joyous and glorious as my visit home was, I missed the office. I missed the hallway conversations. I missed you! And of course, I missed the donuts. While this morning’s donuts don’t have syringes in them (refer photo 13 of an odd Ecuadorian donut shoppe), they should still taste great. Enjoy them while you look at a few pictures from my hike!

Happy Friday!