From Urban Sidewalks to Hacienda Puppies

Sunday, November 19, 2017
Cotopaxi Province, Ecuador
We had our last breakfast at Hotel Finlandia and an added dish specific to Sunday mornings was a fish soup which is evidently good for hangovers!
We had reserved a driver and English-speaking guide from Hacienda Los Mortinos. They arrived a little before 10:00am and we struck out for the Hacienda. We were happy for Alex, our guide, as he studied in Florida, got his pilots license there and is fluent in English. We were able to ask many questions that were unanswered by our driver of the past two days. We not only learned about the scenery, history,etc., we gathered information about the national politics, immigration, economics and much more.
Our first stop was at Selva Alegre Valley de Los Chillos. It is a tiny town with many guinea pig restaurants (all grilling them on spits on the street). Evidently, this is the place to eat guinea pigs.  It is also called the happy jungle, with no jungle?!
We traveled on the Avenue of the Volcanoes where there are more than 80 active volcanoes.  It is a beautiful route on a very narrow, stone-paved bumpy road.  We stopped at a national park that has a 5-hour trek up to a waterfall. Since it was Sunday, there were lots of families enjoying the sunny weather. We walked a short way to get a sample of the topography. We followed the river and crossed a couple of streams before continuing on our way.
The next stop was at a roadside virgin sanctuary which was built because there is a "stain" on the stone that resembles the Blessed Virgin. Erosion has caused it to lose some of its shape, but it is still considered a holy place and Mass is said there regularly.
We continued our drive which changed from tall pine and eucalyptus trees (non-native) to small brush. By the time we reached the hacienda, there was little vegetation other than grasses.
The haciendas were originally deeded by the Spanish to only a few families. These deeds were printed, signed and authorized in Spain. Haciendas do not have a positive connotation for many Ecuadorians because these wealthy landowners were basically slave owners. After many generations of subdividing and selling the land, there are only a few of the original owners. 
Our hacienda is only 6 years old and owned by our guide, Alex's uncle who is a mountaineer who spent his life in the nearby National Park Cotopaxi. He and his fellow mountaineer friends established the refuge and were later forced to sell it back to the government. He built this beautiful hacienda for tourists, but it is built in the typical style. It is only a couple of kilometers from the National Park.
Since we arrived about noon, our room was not ready so we took a walk to a waterfall on the property with Alex. As we were leaving the hacienda, Brennan found two adorable puppies who decided to follow us on our walk. They were so small that we ended up carrying them over some of the water crossings and through some steep areas. We found out that the 10 to 12 llamas on the grounds were not fond of the puppies. We were a little worried that they were going to attack them since wild dogs are predators of llamas. We rushed through their grazing area as quickly as possible! At one point we thought we would have to turn around since the fast-moving stream crossing consisted of slippery logs. We found a long stick and used it to maintain our balance. We made it to two waterfalls before returning to the hacienda for lunch.
The staff are locals who work 8 days on and 8 days off. We are so glad we arrived today because it turns out that this was this group's last day and the chefs were amazing! Our lunch consisted of potato and cheese soup, trout, sautéed zucchini, cucumber salad and homemade raspberry glacé. Unbelievable!
After lunch we unpacked, Brennan played with the puppies and we ended up walking to the waterfall for a second time (and, of course, the puppies were in tow)!
We had a little down time, so we played cards in the dining room by the fire until dinner was served. Again, the cuisine was fantastic! We had zucchini soup with popcorn garnish, tilapia in an amazing dill sauce, rice, potatoes (of course) and a pepper salad. The dessert was a light, leche, rum (?) cake with chocolate. Dave told the chef it may be the best cake he has ever had!
After dinner we stayed in the dining room and listened to Andean music while we played cards.
We got Brennan to bed, published another day's journal and set the alarm for 5:40am. We have not seen the entire Cotopaxi Volcano yet and were told that right before sunrise is the best time. Hoping tomorrow will be the day!

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