Sunday 25th January 2026: El Cajas National Park


So today we took a minibus trip up to PN El Cajas, one of the wildest and ruggedest parts of Ecuador. It's not that far from Cuenca but the change in elevation is massive.  Cuenca sits at about 2550m asl and the highest part we reached was 4161m asl.  That's a massive 1.5 up!


The landscape is of glacial origin and there are hundreds of small lakes or cajas (boxes).  Our first stop was at Laguna Torreador.  One of the disadvantages of taking a tour is you have to go where the guide says and stick to their schedule.

The National Park is full of wildlife but we didn't see much today.  We particularly wanted to see the fishing mouse that catches and eats the local trout.





Laguna Torreador reflecting the hills.


The rapid change in altitude left us both breathless so we just took our time.







The landscape was very rugged.  Seemingly it's easy to get lost here and the nights are very cold.





Our next stop was Tres Cruces, one of the highest passes in Ecuador.  You could just about make out one of the old Inca roads which crosses the park.




Inca road



Can you see the face of a resting man?


That was the highest point.  We then descended to a a shrine to Madre Maria, Guardiana de la Fe, a place of pilgrimage. She is alleged to have performed many miracles.




There was a simple church there where people were praying for Our Lady's intercession.



Votive candles.







Wherever you go in Ecuador, there are food stalls.  This is a machine for extracting syrup from sugar cane.



We stopped at a restaurant to buy lunch (optional).






Instructions on how to cope with altitude sickness.

The journey was very jolly with our Ecuadorian friends singing and clapping.

Once back at home, we grabbed a taxi to the Terminal Terrestre and bought our tickets for tomorrow's bus to Quito.



Then it was back home to catch up with the blog.  What we didn't realise was that many restaurants close on a Sunday night so we ended up going to a place nearby that was more of a pub.  We ordered veggie burgers, one lactose free, and some wine.  We'd already had some wine when the waiter returned to say the burger had cheese in it.  Stuck, Kevin had the beetroot burger and Joan had a salad.







It was nice, sitting out in San Fransisco plaza and watching the skies darken.


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