We started our fourth day by climbing to an altitude of over 13,000 feet to visit Parque Nacional Cayambe-Coca. The ride to the hiking path was stunning. We learned about the unique aspects of the páramo, or the primary ecosystem found in the Andes. After driving through clouds and passing through multiple spectacled bear crossings, we arrived at the trail. Due to the extremely high altitude, it wasn’t only hard to breath, but it was also considerably cold. We also had the chance to try some Andean cranberries which tasted like… nature.
After Cayambe-Coca, we made our way over to the hot springs in Termas Papallacta. The experience was a much needed break from the constant movement and activity of the past 3 days. The hot springs were situated between the mountains, which made for an even more enhanced experience.
Our next stop was Guango Lodge, a hummingbird reserve about 30 minutes from Termas Papallacta. When we arrived, we were greeted with coffee, tea, and cookies. We then made our way outside to see the hummingbirds. Feeders filled with sugar water were scattered throughout the lodge, accompanied by the overwhelming presence of dozens of hummingbirds. We took a short riverside hike in search of some more birds, and we were eventually lucky enough to spot an Andean Guan in the treetops. My favorite birds were the Tournaline Sunangels which had beautiful iridescent patches on their chests that changed from pink to purple. After reviewing some slow motion videos, I discovered how eradicate and seemingly uncoordinated hummingbirds actually are. They flew backwards, upside down, and sideways.
We made a quick stop in a small town called Jumandi to get lunch at Bar/Restaurant Gina where I once again ordered churrasco. We were then on our way to the cloud forest, an extremely biodiverse region of Ecuador marked by its high altitude and rainfall. The biodiversity of the forest was amazing, and even in just a short 30 minute hike, I experience so much. We were quite literally walking in a cloud, 11,000+ feet in the sky. By far, the cloud forest hike was my favorite experience of the trip. Because of a certain incident that included an expenditure of ‘air’ and a very close call, we were all laughing very hard which made breathing extremely difficult. It took me a good 10 minutes to fully catch my breath, but the view was worth every second.
As we boarded the bus and started our journey to Iyarina Lodge in Tena, Ecuador, we unfortunately got stuck in a mudslide and some minor traffic. But we eventually made it safe and sound to lodge. It was dark when we arrived, but the nearby Río Napo, the largest river in Ecuador, was as loud as ever. As we made our way to our rooms, we were greeted by an onslaught of bugs… big and small (but mostly big). Next morning, we woke up to a full view of the Río Napo right in front of our rooms. Breakfast was amazing as always, and soon after, we headed over to a local cacao farm across the street to learn about the cacao harvesting process. We picked our own ripe cacao pods and tasted some of the fruit. I preferred the fruit from the green cacao pods as it was slightly more sour.
We headed back to the lodge to see the chocolate making process. Alfredo from Napusamai then gave us a demonstration on how chocolate is made by hand. After drying out the cacao beans, he then roasted them for around 4 minutes until they started to make a popping noise. After roasting, we helped peel the cacao seeds. The next step was grinding the cacao seeds into a fine powder, which we also assisted Alfredo with. The final step was heating the cacao powder with sugar, water, and milk. At the end, we had handmade chocolate! And of course, we had to dip some locally grown bananas in our homemade chocolate.
Our last stop on the itinerary was a chocolate tasting hosted by Kallari at Iyarina lodge. I bought wayyyy too much chocolate since the Kallari almond milk chocolate was the best chocolate that I’ve tried on the trip so far.
Hasta Luego,
Olivia