The 3 Amigos Saddle Up

Wednesday, November 22, 2017
Cotopaxi Province, Ecuador
Dave woke up at 5:40, looked outside, saw blue skies and rushed outside to see Cotopaxi glowing. He saw a perfectly clear Cotopaxi, but was slightly disappointed in the "glow". He walked up the hill and through two gates and got some great photos. Ten horses surrounded him and one kept nudging him from behind. Obviously, he was suppose to have their breakfast. He came back to bed, but when Brennan got up about 7:30, we decided that we should go have breakfast. We enjoyed a beautiful view of the full volcano while having our breakfast (the same each day). 
After breakfast we started organizing our bags since we had to leave in the afternoon.
We had a horseback excursion scheduled for 10:00am, but the Wrangler (local neighbor) showed up early. Since we are novice riders, the Wrangler demonstrated how to control our horses. He spoke no English. Neither Grandpa nor Brennan remembered their horse's name, but Grandma got Tornado -- great!!
The weather could not have been better and the mountains were gorgeous. We rode from the hacienda to the Cotopaxi NP. We rode up and down gorges, forded a stream, JUMPED a small water crossing, rode very close to a canyon and finally rested at a river bank where there was a resting hut and another group of about 12 riders.  We got back on our horses to ride back to the hacienda. After a crazy steep descent down to the river, the route back was rather flat which meant the horses wanted to take off. The Wrangler realized we were not exactly pros so we trotted back fast and hard. Grandma was not exactly thrilled and was relieved when we were finally done. Brennan, on the other hand, loved it and was begging to get to gallop. We rode for three hours and got off the horses walking bull-legged. Grandma is convinced that she will not be able to sit down for a week!
When we got back to the hacienda, the puppies found Brennan. We are sure they will miss him tremendously.
We had our last meal at the hacienda: carrot soup, tilapia in sauce, peppers, rice, tomatoes and some fruit with chocolate sauce.
We had a couple of hours before our driver would come so we cleaned up, finished packing and played Scrabble. The driver was a little early and we said goodbye to a very special place.
Our driver, Pablo, had the same SUV we had used on two other occasions. We took a more direct route to the airport than the scenic route we had taken on Sunday. This route had the same rough, stone-laid roads for awhile, but also went through several small villages where everyone seemed to be working in the fields. The houses were very small shacks.
A common practice that we continued to see is people standing along the roadside being picked up by pick-up trucks. The trucks stop and the people jump in the truck bed. We believe they pay a buck or two for the ride.
About halfway through our ride, Pablo stopped outside a warehouse/garage area and honked his horn. Out came Fernando, our driver and companion on our hike up Cotopaxi! Pablo got out and Fernando took over. We got to the airport over two hours early, but we needed to eat dinner since we wouldn't get to the hotel until after 9:00. There were few choices for restaurants so we chose the Guacamole Grill. We shared some empanadas, pork tacos and chicken quesadillas.
Our 7:30 flight actually took off about 7:55. We got into Cuenca before 9:00, and rather than having a lost checked bag, ours was almost 1st off.   A driver was waiting for us and 10 minutes later we were checking into Hotel Forum.  We love the hotel! It's filled with antiques and right outside our door is a sitting room with several couches, a piano, chandelier, etc.  For us, it is like having a huge suite since there are no other rooms in this wing.
We needed cash for tomorrow's tour guide and the hotel clerk said it was only two blocks to an ATM. We headed out, got the cash and found Cuenca's fabulous historic central plaza. 
Back at the Forum, Brennan got tucked in and G&G got a couple of beers from the hotel lounge; we took them up to the "living room" outside our room. After this little unwind, we crashed, exhausted by 10:30. 

Comments

Bligh
2017-11-24

Steeple Chase here you guys come! Wait, no bull-legged photos? Love you

Bligh
2017-11-25

Yay - I knew there would be pictures coming. There are some great ones.

2025-02-12

Comment code: Ask author if the code is blank