We took a day trip to PN Cajas (Cajas National Park) which is about an hour west of Cuenca toward the Pacific coast. We had a private guide and did some hiking at the lower elevations in the park. Still we are at nearly 4,000 meters (around 13,000').
The park gets its name from the box-like rock formations throughout. The weather was not our friend the day we visited but we managed to get a few photos. The trees with the interesting bark are Polylepis trees and there are several clusters of them in and near the park.
Also during our visit to Cuenca, Isabel took some beautiful photos from the flower market and the central park between the new and the old cathedral.
Besides the churches, many buildings in Cuenca have beautiful architecture. Also, the Tomebamba River flows right through.
Loja and Vilcabamba.
On our way to visit two birding lodges in southern Ecuador, we used Loja as our base. Loja is another relatively large Andean city, cold and windy without much else to offer.
We also took a disappointing weekend trip to Vilcabamba. I had heard about the small town that was famous because so many of its residents lived long lives. What we did not expect was that now the pueblo was overrun with expats seeking to regain their youthful vigor which, from the looks of most of them, they never had in the first place. Hard to find a decent restaurant and harder to find good coffee. If we had it to do over again, we would not have wasted our time there. We decided that neither of these two spots should get any more attention in is the blog.
Coming up: two posts from birding lodges in the far southern reaches of Ecuador near the border with Peru; Casa Simpson and Copalinga are birding lodges operated by Jocotoco Conservation Foundation. The Foundation and its booking arm maintain several reserves and lodges throughout Ecuador.
Beautiful buildings. The mist and cool looks pretty good to this old lady tired of triple digit temps.