Monday June 9, 2008 (Day#20)
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.