Cotacachi - Cuellaje. A road to remember. [EN]

It's Inti Raymi time in Cotacachi, Ecuador! Festival of the sun, but after 12 years, I try to escape the bad parts of it. I'll do a more detailed post on the festivities later. But as I left a little later than planned, I was stopped every 50m by dancing groups. I was able to take a video while they were dancing around me:

This time, as Lily is with her mom, I chose to get some needed vacation and drive to the other side of the mountain into the Intag Valley. It's located right behind mountain Cotacachi (which means West of my home). The drive is way up the mountain, and then again down the mountain - but the climate changes completely.

The first part of the drive is nice and easy (as soon as the Inti Raymi infused Stop&Go is done), on well asphalted roads with just a few potholes. Nothing to complain about, neither for me nor my car. There are packs and single dogs on that part of the trip, sitting on the road or next to it, waiting for tourists to drive by and throw food out of the window. I counted 16 this time. Record was 43.

The Intag Valley is more of a sub-tropical climate with cloud forests and rain forests. It's not easy to access, the roads are bumpy and the landslides don't make that better. The raining season was quite heavy this time, and hence there were a lot of those roadblocks. But they're cleaned up by now.

The region is also famous for the many, many waterfalls. Here you can see two in one place, uniting into one of the also many, many rivers. Water is the main subject against the mining companies as well, as the earth under the valley is rich with copper and other minerals. The struggle to preserve the unique nature has been going on for decades now.

This is very typical for Ecuador as well, maybe the whole of Latin America. You have a lot of shrines at the side of the road, everywhere. This one is my favorite, as it has the water falling down from the overhanging vines. Depending on the rain, this turns into a little waterfall flooding the road.

Some say that the mining and deforestation is one of the big culprits of the increase in landslides like this as well. Both are a problem to nature indeed, as is losing ancestral knowledge about the flora.

As the road got worse, I focused more on driving and didn't take any pictures until arriving at a friend's place, who has a little coffee farm and invited me for - guess what? - coffee.

He also grows some cacao, a plant that I always find fascinating due to the fact that the flowers grow directly out of the stem, not the small branches or leaves. Unfortunately, the picture I took didn't focus correctly, so I rather not post it.

Similar to Mindo (which is on the other side of the southern mountain ridge of the Intag Valley), many orchids grow in the Intag. They're so beautiful, and I remember my mom taking so much care of the one she had. And here? Orchids everywhere, just growing wild.

Back on the road, which now was pure dirt, I enjoyed the drive alongside the river for a couple of miles. Then I had to go up. Really up. I had been warned about that road, and that I shouldn't even try it with my brother's 2x4 truck. But the car had pristine new cross road tires and the other way was 1h longer. So, I went for it.

I learned quite a bit on that road.

1. First gear is underrated.
2. DO NOT STOP!
3. There is a perfect angle to approach cow-sized-potholes.
4. The car needs a new suspension.
5. You can have vertigo, fear for your life and enormous fun at the same time.
6. The road can always, ALWAYS get worse.

I was relieved when I finally made it. Sorry, when the car made it. I just sat and steered and sweat. And no, the road did not get better, but it was finally less steep.

One more landslide, but I got lucky and it had just been cleared. I talked to the driver for a second, he was on the other side taking pictures to proof he had done the job. People are friendly in the countryside.

I arrived very well at the coffee-farm/retreat, where I received free lodging and food (and beer!) in exchange for a 3h workshop on vegan cooking. It was a lot of fun, all experimental with ingredients from the area. Made my best black bean burger so far!

We were making German Red Cabbage among other things, and I told them that it's very important to try the wine before using it. And after.

I'm still in the Intag now. It's such a beautiful place. Thank you for reading, stay tuned for a couple of more posts as I'm farm-hopping and visiting several places - and nature here is so beautiful that even my cellphone camera can't ruin that. Thank you for reading, any feedback is welcome!