Welcome
In less than a month our adventure riding from North to South through the Ecuadorian Andes will start!
The adventure will take place from May 17 through June 17. We will be riding without boundaries through 12,500 km2 of “high lands” at 3,600 mts. of altitude. We will cover more than 1,000 km of this magnificent open land called “Paramo“. The paramo encompasses an outstanding variety of microenvironments, fauna, flora, valleys, marshes, clefts, mountains and volcanoes. The paramo is considered an enormous sponge that retains and liberates water towards the foothills (the cloud forests), filling watersheds that fall into both the coast and the rainforest. For this reason we believe in the importance of protecting and managing the paramo in a sustainable manner, and we hope that with this riding adventure we can gather some information to educate people about the Ecuadorian paramos.
Cold nights and clear sunrises will uncover the horizon and an infinity of new mountains that await us. Also waiting for us are thousands of dangerous trails and the Capacnan or royal road, which is known to be the Incas’ road. The pucaras (Inca fortress) and tambos (Inca stops) guide us to the south toward the capital of the Inca empire as they did for the conquerors, religious men, treasure hunters, and smugglers centuries ago.
Some nights we will nestle in old Haciendas and indigenous communities that lie in the cold paramos. There we will share our experiences and anecdotes with our countrymen and learn more about their traditions and needs. Our objectives are to gather this information and share it with you through a blog as soon as we have access to technology during our tip.
As you can see our riding adventure will take place in a scenery and habitat that belongs to the chagra. Who are the chagras? Chagras are horsemen that originated during the Colony epoch: men, product of the miscegenation, characterized by tough features and strong and skilled hands for lassoing with the longest lassoes used around the world (40mts) made of cattle skin.
We will travel through this majestic environment where the chagra ride his criollo horse. We will ride criollo horses which originate from the berberisca blood, introduced by the Spanish conquerors. These horses resist long rides through altitudes higher than the 4,300 mts and are not afraid of the bull that stands in front of it. Since the 16th century the lidia cattle graze in the vast expanses of the paramo. These cattle are the key element for bullfighting. Bullfighting has been part of our local culture since the 16th century. In many of the towns the bull is not killed but the chagras do risk their lives working the cattle.
We will travel through 6 of the 13 natural reserves in Ecuador. These reserves have cover an expanse of 1,309 hectares. Through these reserves the condors fly in the sky in search of it’s favorite food, carcasses of cattle who have completed their life cycle. At night the pumas ambush the wild foals, llamas, and deer. We may find achupallas (bromeliads) eaten by bears and with luck we will see dantas (mountain Tapirs). The Andean foxes chase that rabbits and the chagras trap them with their own hands after chasing them mounted on their horses.
We will have some good pictures and stories that will show the beauty of the paramos! Enjoy!