Adrenaline rush in El Cajas part 1

On the trail, breathtaking views I could never tire of

On the trail, breathtaking views I could never tire of

The main attraction in El Cajas National Park is its 275 plus Andean lakes. That is something I really wanted to see first-hand. There is also a special high altitude grass lands that I have not seen before. The type of ecosystem is called páramos. In the west there is a cloud forest that must also be a great place to hike, however I have not gone that far. The weather itself is a challenge as well: "A typical day often begins cloud-free, cold, crisp, and occasionally windy until mid-morning; then increased cloud cover from lower elevations, caused by convectional and orographic uplift, brings rain, sleet, fog, and drizzle for much of the afternoon; clearing often occurs in the late afternoon or early evening.  Nights are always cold and usually clear with stars filling the skies; however, frost is frequent in the high páramos and snow is common at the highest altitudes. 

The waterfall valley, I called it that because there were waterfalls coming at me from all directions.

During any given day of the year rain, ice, snow, and fog may alternate abruptly with clear sunny skies and elevated temperatures; in one moment the wet cold necessitates heavy clothing, raincoats, and gloves, while in the next moment, lotion is needed to protect against sunburn. " So that is the kind of setting I was getting myself into. Not to mention the elevation of course. 
Check out this little chart with list of all trails and their parameters:

Trail list - http://www.parque-nacional-cajas.org

http://www.parque-nacional-cajas.org/tracks.html

The elevation profile of my trail. Actually I went higher, as I went off the trail to hike the tallest mountain near by. 

http://www.parque-nacional-cajas.org/maps/Patul.pdf My trail of choice, Parada Patul is in blue on the map.

The Park is easily accessible from the North and from the South, there are park office stations at each entry where you can get basic information and sign up for a trek. Do not get your hopes high though, maps and trail info/guides are not available - none of this fancy stuff you know.. If you want, you can take a photo of a picture map on the wall and use it as a guideline while on a trail. And yes, it is only a guideline, now that I have been there and have experienced it.

I could never tire of spectacular beauty of the Earth.

I don't even know where to start with telling you how may day went. So much has happened. Adventures all the way! Let's start from the beginning for those who want to prepare or take this trek. 

I planned a trip to El Cajas National Park because I wanted to go into the wild and see all the wonderful things I had read about. I'm sure you all have been on hiking trails in national parks before. How difficult could this be, right? I chose El Cajas also for the larger number of accessible trails to chose from, and for its almost legendary ambience. In a way it is remote and wild, but easily accessible from Cuenca. I thought I had prepared myself relatively well, having done my research and having additional map resources that normally are not available to tourists. But I did not have a GPS, which many people do take with them and now I understand why. I could not find as good maps with marked trails as I wished, and I paid the price for that later on. The maps that are posted were the only ones I could find.

Another attempt to capture an many details as possible for El Cajas trekking day. I took the trail number 3, called "Parada Patul".

I started off from Cuenca hoping to follow the trip directions by Lonely Planet bible. The already knew the southern bus station so I figured it will not be a big of a deal. I took a city bus from the the nearest bus stop, which was only two blocks away and easy to find. The ticket system in public transportation in Ecuadorian cities is interesting. A queue is formed as soon as a bus arrives and people are nicely getting on the bus one by one; each person put $0.25 coin in the machine at the entrance. Every ride cost the same, twenty five cents will get you anywhere as long as you don't change the bus ;). To get off the bus you go to to the second doors, so the traffic of people getting in and out is routed through different doors. I was pleasantly surprised how neatly organized people were. I took public city buses and trolleybuses, and it was a great experience every time. If you are like me and you don't speak local language very well, you can announce which stop you want to get off at the either the driver or the passengers will let you know when your time comes. It is better to ask as they make stops at random places as much as designated bus stops. With trolleybuses it is much easier as they have to follow tracks. Some city buses have announcements about upcoming stops, some do not. But fear not, people are so friendly that as soon as you look lost or anxious someone will come to your rescue!

Anyway, beginning of my day was looking promising. Easy ride to the major bus station an from there I was supposed to try and catch inter-city bus that was supposed to be making courtesy stop around that bus station. After asking around I went over to a bus stop that seemed to have majority of traffic. I had asked the ticket office at the main hall of the station and they confirmed that I should head outside and wait for my bus to arrive. After 10-15 minutes I knew something was wrong. There were no multi-city buses passing buy, only tens of local buses. Every minute a bus would come and spill some passengers while swallowing new ones, but they were all local buses. I started making further inquiries at the bus stop and finally I was told that the buses do not stop here anymore. Great news. 
I walked another short while to the nearest traffic officer. They are the ones who should know. When I started explaining to her what I needed a taxi driver appeared out of nowhere and started helping with translation. I was able to get from them that due to roadworks the city re-routed big buses to different streets and that it would take a short cab driver to drop me off to the new point where surely the buses would be passing by. It was true that the whole main intersection was blocked in one direction and the traffic officer was there to help with re-routing all the buses and cars.
Not having any better ideas and calculating that walking all the way to the new point, without actually knowing about it or having it mapped out, was going to be a waste of time. I got on the cab and after few short minutes and $2 I was dropped off at a roundabout where the bus I needed to take was surely stopping by. I asked another traffic controller and he seemed to be confirming the story. The only issue was that after another 15 minutes only a couple of buses passed and none of them was going my direction. I decided to start walking up the street to see if I could get a better view on the oncoming traffic. I have already spent almost an hour looking for a bus, instead of being on the bus and almost at the Park. The taxi driver offered a ride for 30-40$ (yeah right!) when I knew a bus ride would be around $5. That option went our of the window.

El Cajas National Park, it makes me want to cry when I looks at the pictures, it is so beautiful, isn't it?

El Cajas National Park, it makes me want to cry when I looks at the pictures, it is so beautiful, isn't it?

After another desperate 15 minutes I started formulating my plan C. A hitchhike. Since I was already in the direction out of the city and it looked like it was the right direction, I thought it would be easy to get a local hitchhike. Especially that I happened to be around a small kindergarten and there was a lot of morning traffic with parents and grandparents dropping their little ones.
As soon as I decided about my plan and started looking for a ride an old VW stopped not too far from me and someone was getting off it. It looked like a courtesy ride. The driver was a young guy, the car was old and looked in a relatively drive-able condition, at least enough to drive me 20 km out of the city. I run over and with my broken Spanish asked him for a ride and he agreed. 
$20 hitchhike ride and I was back in my adventure.
As soon as we hit the highway we saw sign posts for El Cajas, so everything seemed under control again. Until we took a wrong turn...Instead of following the road to laguna Toreadora we took a turn to a small local road because a signpost said laguna and touristic office. Unfortunately the little road was long, curvy and to call it a cobblestone would be a compliment. It was going through creeks and pastures, with sheep and cows curiously watching as we were slowly rolling down. Enough said, I thought the car was going to fall apart and that we were not going to make it. To make things worse when we arrived at the touristic office it turned out I was in a wrong place again, and it was not possible to hike from there to where I wanted to be. Thankfully I asked my driver to wait for me until I spoke to the officers. He did stay and wait. We drove all the way back up to the motorway, stopping and waiting for some milk-trucks to load their morning milk carriage and trying to have a small talk without me speaking Spanish and him speaking English. I managed to get from him that he was going to start college after vacation and that he has never been to El Cahas (duh, not hard to guess since he did not know the road!).
30 minutes after joining the main road again I was all happy because we climbed up into the mountains and all the signs of El Cajas were there. He stopped at the turn to the correct Park office and as I was getting off I noticed a hiker waiting at the bus stop across the street. It was 9:30 am and she was waiting for a bus to Cuenca, with her backpack and cute warm hat. I waved at her and offered to get "my'' driver to give her a lift. I had paid him already so I figured he may not take much money from her or maybe even do it for free.

Front of the one of the main Park Offices, basic information and general rules and regulations. The surroundings however are very nice, there are few smaller lakes around the park office and most of day hikers take a small trail around the surrounding lakes - for example smooth, flat route around the Toreadora lake can be run in 23 minutes, but is mostly walked in 2 hours.

If I understood the Ecuadorian crew at the visitors center, the trails from 4-8 were not open to tourists. I am not sure why was that. It is possible there is an additional registration to enter the park to hike those, potentially one has to have a local guide with them as well. I chose trail 3 because it was a good distance, 10K, it had a nice climb up as a challenge to begin with and lots of lakes around to discover. I was also hoping not have any tourists with me on the trail, as great majority of hikers sticks to the easier trails 1 and 2. 

This is an example of a trail marking. After going up the road for approximately an hour, I figured that one of the side roads must have been a start of my trail. After further exploration I found it, confirmation of the trail starts on this rock. The trails 1 and 2 are well marked, you can see them immediately from the road and from the visitors’ center. The trail number 3 not so much, but also easy to find.

This is an example of a trail marking. After going up the road for approximately an hour, I figured that one of the side roads must have been a start of my trail. After further exploration I found it, confirmation of the trail starts on this rock. The trails 1 and 2 are well marked, you can see them immediately from the road and from the visitors’ center. The trail number 3 not so much, but also easy to find.

Here is the trail 3 description: 'This is a long day hike which will offer you unique panorama views (when the weather is good). It will bring you above the 4200 meters and down to 3650 where the "el Virgen" is, the trout restaurant and the police station, a good place to catch the bus back to Cuenca (or up in the direction of the coast). It will not bring you to laguna Toreadora. This hiking trail starts at the stop for the village named Patul. This is mostly known by the bus or taxi drivers as "parada Patul". [...]. The first part of your track will be the same as their track. At the highest point, the gate to Patul, your routes will separate. They will go (north) down to Patul, you stay at the same side and will go down (south-east direction) to "el Virgen". Of course you can pay a visit to the village of Patul. From the gate of Patul you may have a good view. You see the valley split in two valleys, take the right one for Patul. This is outside the park (limit of the park is the saddle).[...]After this climb you will mainly go down and pass the "perro" lakes, laguna Unidas and laguna Totoras and Patoquinuas. When you pass laguna Unidas you have the possibility to cut of your hike and go to Laguna Toreadora. There you have the ranger station and the restaurant (sometimes open). This shortcut will not save you much time. Only when you have problems going down (for example knee problems) it is a good choice as you end at 3960 meters instead of 3650. The trail down from laguna Unidas is pretty straight forward. Down, with some little climbing. Not much chance of getting lost, possibility of small detours.' Well, it did not work out like that for me (!). 

More to come in the next post.