Safely Amusing Myself During These Tumultuous Times
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Ecuador has been rated #2 in total deaths by the John Hopkins University. This rating is largely due to the deadly surge in Quito (capital city) and Guayaquil (largest port city) in March and April of 2020. Since April, Ecuador has fared well and it's hospitals are no longer overwhelmed with critical Covid patients. Ken and I continue to feel safe and we eagerly await our vaccinations (an unknown date at this time but Lojano first responders and medical teams have had their first shots.)
Hiking has become my saviour; el senderismo es mi salvador.
My social interactions are kept outdoors enjoying the fresh air and exploring the local areas of Loja and Vilcabamba. Once or twice a week, I meet up with a Lojano for a conversational language trade. We walk and talk (caminar y hablar), or sometimes sing because I'm helping a singer with his pronunciation of English pop songs by non other than, Michael Buble. We walk in a local picturesque park along the Zamora River (Bioparque Orillas del Zamora) that has horses, llamas, cows, and donkeys.
Here are my Sunday hiking pals. We call ourselves The Chicken Drama Jungle Club since we've had a few interesting encounters with local chickens and Marion's three dogs. We now have that drama under control. (Yes, I was reprimanded by Ken for the lack of social distancing in this photo)
Left to right: me, Marion and Camille who are from France and teach for the French Alliance school (Alianza Frances) in Loja, and Bladimir, a Lojano who teaches English for a local school. All education is currently online. The government had planned to have schools operating in person (clases presenciales) this past January but decided against this for the foreseeable future.
We usually hail a cab from city centre (one that takes dogs) for 2 - 3$ to get to a local trail head and hike to a waterfall (cascada) or walk along the water canal system in the mountains for a few hours then share a picnic in the slopes of bonita Loja.
On Thursdays, I often join a hiking group from Vilcabamba, The Vilca Hikers.
This group is mostly expats from around the world. While hiking, I hear Polish, Arabic, German, Spanish and American. So far, I'm the only one who speaks fluent Canadian!
(I've yet to rid myself of the "ehs")
The climate and terrain is quite different in the Vilcabamba area which is 40 km south of Loja. In parts, it feels like a desert compared to Loja. (Above and left) This is the Cerro Mandango hike ('The Sleeping Inca'), rated difficult and often an initiation hike because of the elevation gain of 1700 ft. in less than 2 km. There are amazing views once one reaches the nose and then you can continue trekking carefully up a narrow trail, at times using all fours, to climb higher for the best views of the Valley of Longevity and surrounding mountains.
At first I was a little hesitant to continue to the highest elevation because there had been a hiker who had fallen to her death the previous month on this particular section of the climb. Obviously I overcame this hesitancy and I can happily report - no injuries nor deaths!
We see birds of prey (hawks and eagles) and hear song birds in the canopies of the trees (I need more patience to capture them by camera). Once in awhile we'll see an opossum, red squirrels, and kinkajous. The best sighting so far, and captured by camera, was the South American coati in Podocarpus National Park (see Oct post 2020; We Interrupt Our Serial)
And, lots of colourful insects, moths and butterflies. I have also seen tarantulas, but nothing too scary or dangerous (yet?)
This is a glass-winged butterfly; mariposa transparente.
They are common in Ecuador but often hard to spot let alone capture a photo of one. I got lucky this day.
One never knows who, or what, you will meet along a trail...
This fellow escorted us along the trail for a couple of kilometers.
This was last Sunday's hike. Following a river up to a cascada,
a popular trail for the local cattle as well.
And! Carol Lepine (fellow Canadian) popped up a few times during a recent hike too.
This cartoon perfectly expresses my, and probably everyone's, feelings about Covid 19 and the restrictions it has placed on all of us. I can only be thankful that Ken and I are in a place where we can still get outside on a regular basis to enjoy nature. All the rest of the things we came to Ecuador for will return in due course. And when they do this blog will be a much more interesting visit for you.
