Horseback Riding Adventure Through The Ecuador Andes

Rest day in Loja. Healing and shoeing day for the horses. Planning the ride for the next days for the riders. Gabriel is back to La Alegria this afternoon. 

If we don’t have daily descriptions and photos for the next few days, don’t worry, we will have them after the riders finish this section (Loja-Macara)

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I feel like new and full of energy to ride on my last day. Asuncion Saca is a certified guide. We are so lucky to have him with us for this last day. While troting at fast speed, he tells us the sacred hills, the culture of Saraguro, the traditions, and the high level of education that this indigenous communities have. Later, we understand why he was on such a rush. We had to go up hill through a clay and muddy trail (cangahua). We dismounted and pulled our horses. When we arrived to the top the  downhill was as tricky as the downhill so we kept walking on our feet.

We arrived to Capacnan or Inca road. Passed through Ingapirca (called the same as the Caniar ruins) but this ones are all covered with vegetation. This is on of the parts of Ecuador yet to be discovered. We can see rocks that are perfectly cut and covering the narrow trail. At this point we can see 2paths, one called Endierezo and the other Camino del Inca. We keep going through the Enderiezo, the roots and trunks are a torture for both, horses and riders.

We notice that in the southern part towards the Loja province the forest is being cut with no control. We descend towards Ciudadela, a small village. For the first time we don’t see horses as means of tranportation for the people, we see mules very authentic of the area. This are animals are very agile, perfect for this difficult terrains and and winter landslides.

We arrived to Vinoyacu, we stopped for some oritos (small bananas) and say goodbye to Asuncion and promising keeping in touch with him.  After that, we ride along the  Juntas River, this river takes us to Loja. We arrive to Loja at the evening and from the Hacienda Salapa of owner Jorge Paez we can see the city lights. The horses enjoyed the bath with presurized water. This great spring weather at 2,000 mts above sea level in Loja lets the horses cool off and enjoy the pastures that belongs the dairy cattle.

Tomorrow we will take the day to take care of our horses, healing and shoeing. Also we have the interview with the local TVchannel ECTV.

Steve Brown picked us up  and took us to his farm, to recuperate and make the riding plans for the next few days (Loja-Macara) for the riders that will continue.

Unfortunately, this amazing adventure has finished. Tomorrow I take a plane back to Quito and then back to La Alegria to start a ride.

Steep hills (these hills are part of the Virgen del Cisne processions)

Amaro de Cuenca

Our guide

Saraguro

50 km in a long day of 11 hours.  With us, is Holguer a local guy that works in the Oriente, he knows the roads and trails of the area. Some of this trails are used ever september for the Cisne Virgin procession.

We rode down towards the Udushapa River, the horses refreshed themselves and we were very tempted to jump in the water, but we had to keep going. We went up the rocky hills, very difficult for the horses, but at least the rocks were not slippery.

We arrive to a place called Loma La Punta from where we can see Ona at 500 mts below us. It tooks an hour to figure out the way down, and getting in contact with another guide (Augusto) who will takes to Saraguro.  We we got to the paramo we could see Saraguro.  Then at 7:30 pm and 2 hours riding from  Saraguro, the support truck had to pick me up because I’ve been ill to my stomach all day and I can’t handle it anymore. The truck takes me to Achic Wasi hostal were I teh rest of the group meets me 2 hours later. Plenty of medicines, including oregano water helped me recover for teh next day.

Rio Leon

Loja’s mountain chain

50.6 km, 5.5 km/h (9 hours) 

This morning is really cold at Jima, it is 6 am and we have to take the horses out from the school facilities. We still have a long ride through the Azuay Province, but the adventure is almost over and I have to plan my return to La Alegria  on the 14 to continue with my rides.

We rode through beautiful small villages, Charqui in a pretty valley with a lot of dairy farms. Cochapata, precious style very unique to the southern region of Ecuador. We would love to stay and learn the history of this village, a narrow street with two floor homes made of wood and very few people. We have to keep going and use the last sun rays. We arrive to the village of Ninamarin, everyone offer their “chacras” for our horses to spend the night. We leave them at Jose’s. Then Juan Heredia  arrives to pick up our guide Carlos Machuca and also Mariana (Igancio’s wife) wrrives, which made us miss our wives. We fed the horses and went down to Nabon to stay overnight at La Posada Dona Elvira.

A delicious chicken soup, rice, meat and plantains is our reward for a long day. We need to start early tomorrow to be able to arrive to Saraguro at night.

35 km (7.5 hours) 5Km/hr

We said our farewells and thanked Juan Heredia and Adriana at Hacienda Totorillas for their kindness and wonderful atention and started our day. With us, we have Carlos Machuca as guide.

Up towards the Portete knot, an untouched beautiful primary forest.  This forests are not seen in the near surroundings. A lot of erosion caused by agriculture, tons of clay soils that washes off with the rains causing more damage and danger.

We started at 10 am, we could see new mountains showing up and new deep valleys, this creates a more complicated and slower ride. The first part we were riding at only 4 km/h and then a bit faster to a 5km/h when we reached a narrow road. Through the mountains we can see Cumbe and the highway that takes you to Loja .

The common questions we get: Where are you going? Where are you coming from? Do you sell a horse? (”vende un caballito?”) When we tell  them we come from Carchi with disbelief they tell us good luck.

Going down towards Jima in the late afternon we enjoy the beautiful view and the lack of population due to the migration. More than half of the houses are closed and empty, but the construction of new and bigger houses doesn’t stop. A huge non-productive investement of houses with imported arquitecture.

The dairy is very important in the valleys, a lot of cattle grazing at the ages of the  canals and streams. Very poor genetics but the pastures are good quality. They sell at 25 cents per liter of milk.

We arrived to the Hacienda of  the Alvarez sisters at 2630 mts. but they tell us they didnt have enough grass for our 14 horses. Our guide bought a soda bottle full of wine produced at their farm. The agriculture university offer us accomodations and while we wait for the support car with the feed the horses we can hear the desperate grazing of the horses that will probbably won’t stop until tomorrow.

We have the confirmation from our friend Koppel that the guide Klemer Ordonez will wait for us at the end of Charqui to guide us to Saraguro and will provide us a place for horses and riders. This is very comforting because this region is difficult to get oriented and easy to get lost due to the  numerous clifs and trails.

Our support truck arrives with 10 loads of grass from Tarqui. This secures the food for the horses for teh next stop.  We had dinner at a small local place, coffe, humitas & tamales.

We have finished the 3rd part of the adventure. Days are shorter now. I have only 5 more days left before I return back to La Alegria to ride for 10 more days with my tourists.  We are sad and nostalgic that this adventure is coming to an end. We are also proud of ourselves  when we think that we made this dream possible. This dream of riding through the Andes, through the trails that the Incas rode, the Spaniards, conquerors, and the liberators. Trails and horses that were the only methods of conection between towns for many many years. In our adventure, people ask us where are you going?? and when we tell them, they think is a joke and smile.

Riding in Cuenca….

Today we are resting in Cuenca, touring around the beautiful city and getting ready for the last section of our adventure.

7 hours. 38 km.

Our friends Oswaldo Kopel and Diego Collar arrived with trailer and horses to meet us and accompany us to the Hacienda Santa Marta de Totorillas. We crossed two mountain chain all of yellowish clay. We could observe nice small and large forests, but low agriculture productivity. This makes me think that everything should be reforested, and subsidies should be implemented for this purpose. Farmes should be relocated so 20 year from now we could have a great wood production and jobs in the area.

Amazing views closer to the Cuenca valley. Riding through the royal trails (Incas) brought me memories of my childhood riding through the Inca trail that was in my Hacienda , this trail used to conect with El Cuzco during Inca times. Growing up that was our favorite trail ride.

We could see GIma in the province of Loja. This was our goal fro Monday. We went downwards on a beautiful forest then entered to the Hacienda’s pastures. We arrived at 4 pm at beautiful Hacienda Tortorillas.  We bath the horses and give them some Vitamin B and buta. Fed them  and left them grazing in such green and pastures to our powerful and strong companions.

 Our horses resting and eating.

New horse (Jorge Condo),  getting shoes for the first time.

 48 Km. 12 hours. We left Lazul toward Guarongo at 9:30 am. Crossed the Paute Valley and up towards the old road of Herradura until we could se teh Cuenca Valley. This view will accompany us for teh next couple of days. We rode through the trails that the smugglers used years ago to bring merchandise from Peru and Loja.

It is suprising the amount of vegetation with such clay soils. After many extra hours of riding that were originally not planned because we didn’t expect such difficult terrain, we arrived to the Aguarongo Reserve. With funds from Spain and the collaboration of the community the primary forest in this reserve is well preserved. They also educate the local rural communities and offer accomodations and turism.

All the Electric and water system works with solar panels. The reserve has 2 thousan hectares at 3,200 mts above the sea level.

A nice hot shower and the serenity of the paramo helped us recuperate teh energy. I rode my new horse (Jorge Condo) to Paute then switched to Pinto.

Hacienda Tortorillas

We stayed at Gualaceo last night near Paute at the  Paso horse breading farm. Beautiful home, great dinner and they took care of us. We saw a show of the Paso horses.  They send us a bottle of Cognac today when we left. Tomorrow we should be arriving to Tortorillas, I think they will receive us with a party.