Cajas National Park: 07/05 - 09/05

We followed the road to the start of the trail which turned south to climb into the hills. The valley was breathtaking - grey and army green crags of montañitas (small mountains) above of smattering of lakes and lagoons of varying sizes. Cloud forest clothed sheltered mountainsides while the highland grassland and paramo swamps that I had grown so used to was the dominant vegetation.

Cajas is a small park but hosts a range of rarer plants and animals including most of the usual high Andean suspects but also Quichua Hairy Dwarf Porcupine, Striped Hog-nosed Skunk and Grey-bellied Shrew Opossum. The paramo seemed different from my previous hikes - less fungii but more varieties and habits of plants.

Our first days hike was easy being mostly downhill on well-defined trails. Each pass seemed to reveal a more beautiful scene of lakes, mountains and waterfalls. At lunch we took tea cooked on the Brits jet-engine of a cooker - how civilised! Thanks guys :) After our short hike (during which the sun finally defeated the evil clouds and we were treated to a gorgeously warm afternoon) we set camp in an amazing valley surrounded by mountains and waterfalls. It was my first afternoon of decent weather while hiking in Ecuador, and we sat and ate quinoa soup outside while enjoying the evening stars.

Of course the weather didn`t last though with overnight and morning rain. We set out on a day hike down the valley, past magnificent Lake Mamamag, through monkey hippy cloud forest (now with bonus extra Mud!!) to a windy pass to enjoy lunch. Then Niall and Anna returned to camping spotting a brocket deer in the process.

I continued down the hill into the warmer cloud forest with an abundance of bromeliads and more spectacular scenery of high peaks and rushing cascades. It was a slippery, slippery, slippery slope of a descent and actually would have been quite dangerous if I`d had a cumbersome backpack. I eventually arrived at a weed-fest where there were two llamas, saw from afar Lake Lluviaco and tourist cabins and turned back.

I entered training as a professional limbo dancer passing as quickly as possible through the aforementioned muddy cloud forest and managing to really piss myself off by getting calf-deep in sludgery in the process. Later around dinner time it was just a great big sausage-fest.

Again it rained overnight. We packed and set off not knowing what the weather and therefore we would do. I was determined to see Osohuaycu and Luspa, two of the great lakes of the park before I left. So after a morning of hiking through the horizontal spit-fire (or spit-ice, one might say) of the rain, Anna and Niall oriented themselves towards the park exit and Cuenca and I towards the south for the 7hr hike into the heart of the park, promising to return that evening to our hostel.

The well-marked trail and lessening wind lifted my spirits soon after setting off. But then the trail seemed to peter out to drivel and the rain increased from drivel to a strong, sideways near-sleet. Combined with the wind-chill it was icy-cold. Frosty cloud blew by but didn`t dissipate and I was becoming disoriented, drunk and mad with frustration. I knew right then I needed precisely two things - to know where I was and to re-energise with food. But I could not stop anywhere as the rain was omnipresent. As I cursed unknown pre-Colombian gods for lack of shelter, I experienced the full force of Cajas and understood exactly why people had died of exposure there in a park of about 12km diameter. The ground had reached complete saturation meaning that basically the entire place was either rock, river, swamp or lake. It also made trekking with Captain Heavy Pack more treacherous than usual as seemingly solid ground just gave up on life and relocated underfoot. At one point I literally headbutted the ground and ate mud. It`s good for you.

So there I was getting more and more scared and angry by the minute when I finally found it - a sheer cliff of 5m facing south. It provided just enough cover to permit me a rain-free rest, wolfing down chocolate and salami and generally trying to get it together. I checked the map realising I hadn`t gone far astray and when the fog dissipated briefly I saw the path across the valley. I waited a little more to give the weather one more chance to improve but it did not - I defintely had to turn back. I retraced my steps - into the rain this time.

This was a prudent choice as I was very cold and wet and starting to become hypothermic and delirious. At this point dehydration was also a factor because I did not wish to lower my core temperature anymore by drinking ice-cold water and was constantly in a state of expectorating from my nose and mouth, therefore losing a lot of water. I pushed on into the insistent rain and wind on adrenaline autopilot. By the time I finally reached the road I was a stumbling, spitting mud zombie.