Hola desde Ecuador!
This week we got the chance to explore the Valley of Intag. We left the village for two days and had a great time. Our first stop was Laguna Ciucocha, a beautiful volcano at the altitude of 3.068 meters that has a lagoon in its crater. We were joined by Alfonso Morales, one of the leaders of the Cuicocha region. He is currently the president of 45 communities and has been an advocate for these communities to the United Nations. He took the time to meet with us and told us about his work and his communities! He was such an interesting man to meet.
We got to the lagoon and got on boats that transported us around the crater and the islands inside the crater. The water is dark blue and very clear. Cuicocha means rainbow in Quichua and it was given this name because of the beautiful colors you can see at the bottom. After riding the boat we had lunch in a delicious traditional restaurant that has the view of the crater, the lagoon and the Ecuadorian mountains.
We left Ciucocha and rode through steep, cloudy roads all the way to Intag Valley. Our hotel was called EL Refugio de Intag and is run by Peter and Sandy, two Americans who, driven by their passion of bird watching, decided to retire here and made this beautiful and cozy hotel. We were all happy to have beds, more than one bathroom, hot showers and wifi. The meals are all sourced from the farm and they trek all through their land of enchanted cloud forests with huge trees and all sorts of animals. Dinner was delicious and everyone was happy to rest!
We woke up next morning and had a great breakfast of pancakes, homemade granola and yogurt and fruit. We left El Refugio and got to La Finca la Soledad. It is a coffee farm owned by Pepe and Monique and their son Jose. Pepe was born in Ecuador but is also half Brazilian. He has travelled to over 80 countries, all continents and climed the highest peaks in each continent. He climbed Mount Everest twice solo and with no oxygen and was the first Latin American man to do so. Most recently he climbed the highest peak of Europe which is in Russia with a Brazilian t-shirt signed by all the Brazilian soccer players during the World Cup.
He showed us around his farm and explained how the coffee is planted, grown, taken care of, how the fruit is harvested and the process done between the grain and the cup. It was very interesting and Pepe encouraged the students to learn more about the coffee they were drinking and find little brewers that grew their own coffee. After we headed back to our village and ate a delicious dinner prepared for us. We will keep you posted on our next adventures!
-Juliana & Lawrence