We woke up to a beautiful and clear morning. Great news for hiking. We had a great breakfast at Llullu Llama's before we began trekking. I love that they serve so much fruit every morning.
For breakfast we had the best juice I have ever tasted . . . blackberry juice with molasses. Seriously so good. I loved it. Fresh fruit/juice gets me every time.
After breakfast we started trekking. It was so hot! When the sun is out it is roasting. It was so interesting to see what the temperature was like at such a high elevation even with the sun out. We quickly learned that hiking in Ecuador is straight up and straight down. They don't believe in switchbacks. The views were amazing and the occasional cloud cover was a welcome break from the heat.
There were some signs along the way to point us in the right direction.
There were so many beautiful overlooks. It was such an amazing morning.
It was easy to fall in love with this beautiful country while hiking in the green countryside. We went down one canyon and then up and then down and up another canyon. They seemed pretty high up but you hike them pretty quick because there are no switchback. Definitely a cardio burner on the way up. I was glad Amber and I make it a point to hike on Saturdays in the winter. It made it so my calves survived the week.
I love taking pictures of the signs along my trekking routes. They are all unique and so cool.
And we can't forget my cute colorful pack.
While hiking through the canyons we traveled through little villages. Farmers living off the land in the most amazing surroundings. They have a tree they grow as a fence post. We got to see numerous little farms with fences built like the one below as we trekked this day.
Our little group made it through the first canyon. Ready to descend into canyon #2.
We took a little break. I think Paul was a little shocked we didn't want to sit long . . . . story of our trip.
We were stopping for lunch at the bottom of the next canyon. We hiked down pretty quickly, mainly because it is actually straight down, and got to cross the river on a cool bridge.
We traveled with the company Adventure Journey. They hired a driver to come prepare a picnic lunch in the canyon. It was nice to have the food all prepared for us. He prepared chicken fajitas. They were delicious. Again there was a lot of fresh fruit to try. Ecuador is also know for their avocados. We got to have so many on this trio and they were all so good.
The big piece of fruit in the picture below is sour-sup. It is a very nutritious fruit that Ecuadorians claim can sure some cancers and generate stem cell growth. It was unlike any fruit I had tasted before but I liked it a lot.
Heal my body!!!
Another unique to Ecuador fruit I enjoyed.
Our guide Paul and the nice man who made us lunch, I can't remember his name.
Lunch was a nice break. Afterwards we got to hike out of the canyon and head to Chugchilan, where we stayed for the night.
Just out of the canyon and looking back to where we started.
There have not been a lot of tourists in Ecuador because of COVID. Typically the little villages along the way would sell items for trekkers to buy. We got to the top of the canyon and there was the sweetest little girl selling frech oranges. I was not hungry but I couldn't say no. The bonus was she let me take her picture. I love this picture from my trip. I love capturing the poeple in a different country but it is hard to do because you do not want to be rude.
The landscape was very unique where we hiked. There ground was all formed from volcanoes and so there were so many distinct layers made up of different minerals. It was truly fascinating.
They never have to rests their crops because of the way their soil is. They can grow four crops a year in the same field. So fascinating. There are also things they can't grow because they ripen so fast due to the climate.
The layers on this hill are amazing.
We covered a lot of ground on this trekking day. It ended with a walk on the street, which is fine but my feet were not thrilled to end that way. I was definitely tired when we finally got to Mama Hilda's, our accommodations for the night.
We got our own rooms because no one else was staying at the hostal that night.
Dinner was a delicious Talapia and broccoli dish. It was sooo good.
Dessert was fig and some cheese, not as good:)
Amber and I also had hot chocolate with every single meal. They wanted us to have tea so we had chocolate instead. It was all a little different but really good. They made it by melting the chocolate so it was a better quality chocolate than what I am used to.
Mama Hilda's was a very cute place to stay. My only complaint was that I found multiple spiders in my room and shower. YUCK! This made me nervous and so I didn't sleep as well that night. I am not normally worried about spiders but there were a couple I did not recognize and I was in a foreign country so . . . . . I didn't sleep great. I loved this trekking day. Most the day was spent on the trail which is just how I like it!
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