Our Ecuador Trip - Cucin

Leaving Hacienda Zuleta was hard in so many ways. The rooms and the hacienda itself were darlings, the food divine, and there was still more to explore - I hadn't even made my way around the entire house! But it was time to move on to our next stop - Hacienda Cucin.

As to how we got there... as usual, Backroads offered a few mileage options, but the gist of it was that we walk from one Hacienda to the next. the kids opted to shuttle to an elementary school, walk 6 miles to a preschool, then shuttle the rest of the way.  Being type A, and especially since I hadn't done any running while in Ecuador, I decided to walk the entire way.

A group for four guests and Kai set out, walking and chitchatting, and pretty soon, we were at that first school, where we made a pit stop to use the bathroom. We asked a teacher if it would be okay, and she allowed us to walk in to a class that was in session. I can't imagine that happening in the US!

Kai then headed back to check on a couple that headed out a few minutes behind us, telling us that she'd soon catch up, so the 4 of us each pulled out our direction sheets and started walking. Pretty soon, we were at the base of a cobblestone path, with a dirt path and a house to our left. While this did not really seem like a 3-way intersection, we decided to continue, as a lot of the directions seemed open for interpretation. This hill was steep! We went huffing and puffing up the hill, grumbling the entire way about how steep it was. Every time we thought it was over, around the bend it continued up. Finally, we stopped and rested, had a few snacks, took some photos, and waited for Kai to catch up with us.

A view from the midway point

We marveled that we had not caught up with the kids and Ronn, the other leader, who were in front of us. After a few minutes, discussing whether we were going the right way, or should head back, we decided that if we were going the right way, it would really suck to have to climb that hill a second time because we had back-tracked, and continued on. Up another curve we went, still looking at the directions. We needed to make a right turn onto a dirt road, which was very easy to miss.

We passed a small dirt path, wondering if that was it, but it didn't look right. We passed a second, but it led straight to a house. Even though distance coordinates on my map were conflicting with mile markers, we thought the mile markers weren't completely accurate and forged on.

We passed another school, and this one was not on the map, and went past a pretty area with several ponds, probably homemade, sheep, cows, chickens and pigs. I think we were relieved that we were going straight and downhill after that long ascend. We thought that maybe we had skipped one of the small dirt road short cuts, but we're still on that main road. Eventually,cue reached a fork in the road, going uphill on the left, and downhill on the right . Nothing in our directions meshed with what we were seeing. One person didn't want to climb another steep hill, and suggested we go right, down the hill. Another suggested we turn around and go back to Zuleta. Finally, we agreed to go back to the school we had most recently passed and try to call either Zuleta, or Hacienda Cucin, where we were going.

As we approached the gate of the school, one kilometer back, I heard one person say to another. "aqui son su compadres" - so I ran forward, and lo and behold, there was Kai! We were so relieved to see her, but probably not nearly as relieved as she was to see us! She had gotten a ride with some people in a pickup truck who were delivering Christmas cookies to the schools in the area. Had she not seen them, she would never have reached the school when we were there.

Found!

Kai called the folks at Zuleta, and they were sending a cow truck to pick us up and take us to the meeting point in Angla, on the way to Cucin. We figured that we would walk toward where they'd meet us, back the way we had just come when we backtracked to the school. We were getting quite familiar with that brief stretch of road!

After about .6 km, Kai say a cow truck making a u-turn away from us. She flew down that hill, backpack and all to chase the truck before it disappeared. When the rest of us caught up, Kai and the driver told us to get in the back of the truck, then started negotiating about heather they were driving back to or to Angla where we were supposed to be headed. At one point Kai mentioned that the driver would take us forward, and she'd head back to Zuleta to borrow a 4x4. I don't think any of us would have allowed her to separate from us after being lost for two hours.

The First Cow Truck

Fortunately, just then, the correct cow truck rolled by, the one that Zuleta had sent, an not the random one Kai had been negotiating with. We were loaded up into the back of this truck, and quickly started the very bumpy trip to Angla.

 Let me tell you, sitting in the back of a cow truck is somewhat like sitting on the back wheel seat of a school bus, except there are no seats to keep you in place. Add that to a hilly, muddy cobblestone road, and we were bouncing all over. The concept of personal space went out the back of the cow truck! We laughed all the way to Angla, for about 20 minutes, in shock from how crazy that ride was.

In Angla, we were unloaded from the cow truck, to the amusement of our families, and made our way to a preschool where we sang songs and played with the children, who ranged in age between 6 months and 5 years. First we sang them "the itsy bitsy spider" and Then they sang it to us in Spanish. Diane, the 10 year old that Yarden had befriended sang Head, shoulders, knees and toes" in Spanish, and then they sang their much faster version of the song. The children were really darling, and it was an incredibly special experience to visit them.

Itsy Bitsy Spider

Showing the kids the picture she took of them

As we were leaving, they followed us and played with some of the children. It was clear that they liked having us there, and wanted to keep playing.

But of course it was time to continue on. The kids choosing the shuttle option, and a handful of us continuing on to Cucin by foot. We all stayed together, and had Ronn leading, so fortunately we arrived without incident.

Finally made it!

We had a quick barbecued lunch on the patio before the rain started.

Lunch - Chicken, Pork, Potato, Corn and a Salad

I thought that I'd digest for a few minutes then go for a run, as I had done no running since coming to Ecuador, but once I got to my room, I decided to lay down for a bit as that hike had tired me out more than I expected. By the time I was ready to consider running 1/2 hour later, it was steadily raining, and I ended up staying in bed, and then going to the living room to sit in front I'd the fire and have a nice cup of mint tea.

After showering, we met in the living room where we got to try a sampling of local fruit, including naranjilla, taxo, passion fruit, goose grapes and more. Then it was time for the kids to eat pizza and watch a movie while the adults ate in the main dining room.