Following the market we were taken to an area where indigenous Ecuadoreans live and we were invited into one of their homes.
This is only 4 of a family of 10 that live in this tiny house high up in the Andean mountains.
The small children wrapped up against the fierce winds and cold.
The hut has some not well defined areas, here is where the guinea-pigs live otherwise called the pantry.
Storage of cooking equipment.
The bedroom........
....... the kitchen.
As Kenny demonstrates the people here are much shorter than we are as his head sticks well into the storage space in the roof.
The huts were no bigger than a standard bathroom in the UK but they were happy folk (especially after the 2$ we gave them).
They live off the land up here and grow most vegetables and keep the odd cow, sheep & chicken for meat and eggs. They commonly have over 10 children although I am not sure if this is intentional or not!
As we drove on through the incredible countryside you could clearly see evidence of agriculture in every possible space including halfway up mountains.
How they farm this as it is on a very steep slope I have no idea.
The roads were slow going.
We finally arrived at Quilotoa an inactive volcano famous for its lake in the crater.
Which we had to walk down to get to.
And further down............
Kenny taking a rest.
And even further down the narrow sandy paths.
Part way down was a perfect viewpoint for this amazing crater lake. To walk the ridge all the way round would take 5 hours.
Nearly there!
Finally on the shore.
Of course what comes down must go up!!!
However thankfully for me after 5 days acclimatising and this at only 3800 meters I was able to zip up, it was lovely to be out of breath only due to exhaustion not altitude.
We got back up just before the clouds came in.
At the top once again - feeling very proud as we were the first ones up there. (Of the ones that did not ride a mule back up that is). Ready for a sleep on the way back and PapaGayo's famous chocolate cake!
The following day Kenny agreed to a 2 day pony trek, but not until he had been fitted with the full kit. Here he tries on some full length sheep skin chaps under the watchful eye of Arron the lodge owner.
Unfortunately the chaps were made for Ecuadorean leg lengths not Kenny leg length!
It also seems the horses & saddles are made for Ecuadorean leg length!
Or maybe they just fit everyone with a horse a few sizes too small, here am I on my 13.2hh pony!
We were off on a 22 km journey up local roads ..............
............ and dirt tracks.
My lovely little pony, who was also ancient and as he had previously lived on a farm knew only 2 paces walk & gallop.
Along our ride we had to cross the Pan-American Highway, which we crossed using a railway track! Luckily there are very few trains here.
Upon arriving at the end location 22 km or so away from the lodge it became evident that only 4 horses were needed for day 2 not the 6 we had ridden over and I was asked if I would like to ride mine back along with one of the guides. It took nearly 5 hours to get there and we got back in under 1 and a half! As I say my pony had only 2 paces and so we galloped the whole way back. Here he is looking absolutely knackered and dripping with sweat but we both loved every minute. (Thank you Pinto!)
Day 2, me and my new horse (Pinto had a much needed day off).
Today we headed off up the track to the national park and the volcanoes!
3 horses wistfully looking out over the valley!
The terrain was quite tricky, I was glad of a sure-footed horse, Minstrel would have had no chance!
Up in the volcanoes and clouds Kenny points to the top in disbelief that we can go up there on horse back.
But yes on we go ..................
...........higher & higher. We were going so steep that my saddle slipped right back and I was nearly sitting on his haunches at the top!
We made it to the top! The horse got a rest and we got lunch.
Stood so perfectly.
Then the long route down back to the lodge.
Through wonderful forests. It was at about this time that we joked about how we were going to cross the Pan-American Highway as we were going back along a different route. We kidded that we would simply ride them across it and how Ecuadorean that would be. I reassured the group that they would surely not do that and that we would use another underpass surely.........
.......... and then we arrived at the side of the Pan-American. A highway that holds traffic going from Alaska to Argentina! (Pretty busy road). We were assured by our guide that someone was stopping the traffic for us!? Imagine running out onto the M6 to hold up the traffic for 4 horses to cross. That is exactly what they did, men ran out arms waving madly and the traffic stopped long enough for our horses to shoot out, turn right down the road for 100 yrds, at gallop, swerving into our turn off as if they did it everyday (which they probably did).
The Pan-American shot later from our taxi just because I still cannot believe what we did!
