We woke to a partly cloudy sky and knew we might have a window of weather to head up to 13,000 ft and Cajas National Park, 40 minutes outside of Cuenca, Ecuador. Our prior two trips through Cajas had been overcast, raining, windy and damn cold! Our packs loaded with our warmest clothes and rain gear, we boarded the local bus for the winding road arriba. We headed out for a three and one half hour hike on ruta 2, el ruta rojo. No map, said the park official, just follow the red markers.

Fortunately the trail was mostly abajo (down) con arriba pequeno (small ups). We were fairly well acclimated to the elevation as we had been living at 8200 ft for six weeks, but still had to take the up hills slowly.

The trail wandered through forests, wetlands, and wide open spaces. It traversed streams and meandered around small glacial lakes. And we sighted our first llama.

Fortunately we did not need our rain gear, but did wear our down jackets!

We were rewarded by a small 60 year old restaurant at trails end that served up wonderful trucha fresco (fresh trout) from the mountain rivers. As we were the only guests, our host and cook joined us for some local conversation.

Buen provecho!