The town of Cotacachi sits at about 8,000 ft. elevation and Leguna Cuicocha is up at 10,000 ft. on the side of Cotacachi Volcano, with and elevation of 17-18,000 ft. Needless to say, the air is a bit thinner than we are used to coming from sea level in Hawaii. Heavy exertion tends to make your chest hurt and you feel a bit light headed, resulting in frequent rest stops. As you can see the views were spectacular with Andean volcanoes in all directions. The lake is actually an extinct crater on the south side of Cotacachi volcano. There are two cinder cones that form islands in the middle of the lake. Although the trail is about 8 miles, it seemed like 20 or 30 as it meandered up and down and around all the valleys and ridges around the lake. If you look closely at some of the photos you can see parts of the trail. These photos are a pan from right to left around the lake, starting with the first photo through the 4th. In the background you will notice terraced farm lands and off in the distance some of the other Andean volcanoes. The final photo reminded us of the many hikes we took up Buster Brown, an old cider cone in Kamuela on the Big Island.
**Forgot to mention that you can click on the images to enlarge them
No comments:
Post a Comment