We walked the few blocks from Joyce's house to the Solid Rock Restaurante. I loved the Boobie bird logo of the restaurant. I liked it so much I grabbed one of the business cards. We sat down at one of the tables and our waitress came by to ask us what we wanted to drink. I ordered an orange juice, which isn't the same as the US's orange juice by the way, their orange juice is way better. A few minutes later we received our drinks just as we were done perusing our menus. The French toast was calling me so I ordered it when she came back by. Mom ordered the exact thing as I did. We used their free WiFi as we ate our delicious food. We paid, thanked them for the wonderful food and headed out.
Since we were going back to Otavalo after the lake and boat ride, some of us needed some more cash. Joyce walked us over to the bank. She said this was the one she used so it was safe for us to use as well. I pulled out $150 so I could finish shopping for a few people, pay for food and taxis. I originally thought I had enough but we has some unplanned excursions and taxi rides and I didn't know we were paying the Quito hotel with cache. In the mean time Joyce arranged a taxi truck to come get us and take us to Laguna Cuicocha, which was about a 20 minute taxi ride northwest of Cotacachi.
The truck showed up and Josh and I climbed into the back while Joyce, mom and Amy sat inside. It was fun sitting in the back with Josh. We talked about various things while we drove up the hillside.
We got to the gate and had to sign in just so they knew who was in the park. Other than that entering the park was free. Our taxi dropped us off and Joyce told him to come back in about an hour and a half. If anyone is thinking of visiting this area make sure you have your taxi either wait for you or come back to pick you up. You will be stuck there for awhile waiting for a taxi.
Cuicocha is the site of a caldera and crater lake in the Reserva Ecologica Cotacachi-Cayapas. Some 3,100 years ago, Cotacachi volcano erupted and formed the enormous caldera at its foot. The Caldera de Cuicocha refers to the 2 mile by 10,650 feet wide caldera. Laguna de Cuicocha is the highly alkaline lake in the basin. Most people come here for the boat ride and the 7-8 mile hike around the ridge of the caldera. We didn't have time for the hike.
We walked to the building and wandered around for a while. The lodge housed a hotel, a restaurant and had several people selling their goods outside the building such as wooden carvings and woven bracelets. We actually watched a guy make Josh's bracelet he bought from him. It was quite the set up and quite the craft. Lots of patience and memorizing of what colors go where.
We walked down to the building where they sold tickets for the boat ride. We each bought a ticket for the next ride out to the islands. They were $3.50 for a 30 minute, tour guided boat ride.
We got on our life jackets and waited for our turn. In the meantime, Josh took a short nap and we all visited and took a couple pictures. It was a nice day and you could get sunburned in like two minutes. I still had my sunburn from Mexico that was starting to peel away and itch. That wasn't as bad as my itchy scabby no-see-um bites. My legs looked so awful.
It was finally our turn to get on the boat after the other group got off. We all sat in a group and enjoyed the ride out to the islands.
Our boat guide was Spanish so everything was in Spanish but we got the gist of what was being said. It was essentially what you could get off of Wikipedia page or a geology website. The one interesting thing I learned from this boat ride is that there were no aquatic creatures such as fish because of the bubbles of gas seeping up from the lake bed.
The lake was very clear and you could see the bottom in several places. At times you could see the bubbles coming up from the bottom.
Some say the lake is about 600-1000 feet deep but it depends on who you ask. We got back to shore and got off, returned the life jackets and headed up to the building to get our free warm drink that came with our ticket. Josh and I had ours and mom and Amy decided not to have theirs. It was called Canelazo, which is a warmed spice alcoholic drink made of sugar cane alcohol and cinnamon. It has long been consumed in the Andes Mountains. It was actually pretty good and I was glad I tried something new while I was here.
We still had about a half hour or so before our taxi arrived so we walked to the trail head that takes you around the lake. Obviously, we didn't have enough time or the gumption to walk around the lake. Josh did a few days ago by himself. We just walked about a quarter of a mile in, turned around and then waited for the taxi.
In the meantime, we chatted it up with this group of Americans from Indiana. They were here on a humanitarian trip just like us but they were given out free healthcare and immunizations. They were in a community a little north of here.
Our taxi showed up shortly after talking to the people from Indiana. We headed back to Cotacachi where he dropped us off in the town square and then as a group we walked to the bus station. We got on and traveled the short distance back to Otavalo, we each paid 35 cents. We all wandered around the market again so people could get some last minute shopping done. I finished up gifts for a few people including some people from work. We were there for a bit. Just before we got done we all went inside the grocery store. There, I brought some Pepsi, a couple of small Cokes, a bag of Doritos and chocolate wafer cookies.
We walked back to the bus station and waited for a bus that headed back towards Cotacachi. It took a little bit of time and Joyce had to check some of the busses to see where they were going. She finally found one that was heading that way so we boarded and took off a few minutes later. We only had to pay about 20 cents for this trip because we were getting off before Cotacachi.
As we neared our stop, Joyce got up and said this is where we were getting off. I wasn't sure where this hacienda was but what a weird place to be dropped off. We were literally being dropped off on the side of the highway by the torn up road by the village of Pinsaqui (the first clinic we were at) and then waited for the traffic until we all ran across the road.
We followed this dirt road to this beautiful building tucked behind some trees and a wall. I actually said wow out loud. This place was pretty cool. Joyce told us this is where we were going to have dinner as well.
Hacienda Pinsaqui is located on the Pan-American Highway about 4 miles north of Otavalo, perfectly situated for visiting the attractions in the area, with a spectacular view of the Imbabura volcano, visit San Pablo and Cuicocha lakes, the capital of Imabura Providence Ibarra, Otavalo and its handicraft marketplace and Cotacachi, the leather capital of Ecuador.
Hacienda Pinsaqui was first constructed in 1790, this uniquely restored colonial hacienda was originally a textile workshop, employing at one time 1000 local weavers and spinners. Fabrics woven in Pinsaqui were exported to the United States. During the government of Gabriel Garcia Moreno, an ideological political problem with Colombia was solved with the signing of the Pinsaqui Treaty in 1863, Juan Jose Flores for Ecuador and Antonio Gonzales Corazo for Colombia. One of the illustrious guests that had this house was The Liberator Simon Bolivar who during his trips back and forth from Bogota to Quito used to spend the night in this hacienda. It should be noted that Bolivar was present in a single battle for Ecuadorian independence and it was the Battle of Ibarra in 1823.
We wandered around the property, went outside in the garden and looked at the tack room that was on the lower level, the tack room is the only room in the house that has survived multiple earthquakes over the last 100 or so years.
We went back into the dining area and we were seated in and I felt like I stepped back into time. The décor, furniture and the dishes all looked like it would have been aboard the Titanic at the turn of the century. I felt truly underdressed to be here.
Our waiter came around and asked us what we wanted to drink and I ordered a Coke. We looked at our menus while we snacked on these crunchy what was sort of like corn nuts but they weren't. A little while later our waiter came by and we ordered our dinner. I ordered the steak, medium rare, it came with salad and streak fries. It was so good. We all enjoyed our food which I believe everyone ordered a steak.
We thanked our waiter and paid for our food. While we paid, we noticed the TV in the lounge area and it has soccer on it so we got distracted by it for a few minutes. We all used the restroom and headed back out to the road. We had to wait for another bus to come by. It did rain on it while we waited for the bus, which took about ten minutes to arrive.
We were dropped off at the square and mom and I walked with Joyce to the store while Josh and Amy headed back to Joyce's house...they did some shopping along the way. Joyce picked up more eggs and I bought some Ecuadorian candy to send to Kevin, Shannon and Willmarth in their care package. Mom bought dad some honey and some more wafer cookies. We walked back to her house, got cleaned up, watched Oregon beat UC-Irvine and did a load of laundry while we hung out. Joyce told us what we were going to do the next day, what time we had to be up and ready and how much money to have ready for our van driver.
Next Adventure: Las Lajas, Colombia and Tulcan, Ecuador
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