2550m
This morning saw Guayaquil overcast yet again with a mist and slate grey skies. Breakfast done and our driver and guide arrived to take us to Cajas National Park and on to Cuenca. It turns out that the guide and driver are husband and wife and just got back in from Utah last night and live in Cuenca. We left the city and drove along some of the wetlands spying herons, egrets, spoonbills, buzzards and even a lonely kingfisher.
The sides of the road became crowded with stalls selling mangoes, bananas, coconuts and other goods while the fields became covered by rows of bananas, rice, sugarcane and cacao.
After an hour of driving at this altitude we took a left turn (literally) and headed into the foothills of the Andes. This continued, and after the foothills came the real mountains, and we eventually reached 4200m. At this point we crossed the continental divide, with the water from the lakes in front heading to the Atlantic Ocean, and behind us to the Pacific. We entered Cajas and took a walk around the lakes, trying to spot any of the wildlife on offer. Unfortunately there wasn’t much on offer and apart from a couple of swifts and a local little brown bird, the only wildlife we saw was a rabbit. There are supposed to be weasels, foxes, wolves, bears, hummingbirds and condors but nothing today.
We had lunch provided today at a local restaurant where the specialty just happened to be trout. Again. It was a wooden building in the style of the lodges in some US national parks like Yellowstone, and upon entering were greeted by the sound of Kenny Rogers. Slightly surreal. From the lunch break it was only a short trip to the town of Cuenca which we get a chance to explore tomorrow.