High in the Pure Air of the Andes Mountains

                                   

We are living a scene from a children's book we have often visited in our imaginations.

The story, by a wonderful children's author, Kate DiCamillo, is in a trilogy of short stories about two best friends, Bink and Gollie, who are phenotypically and behaviorally opposites yet love each other deeply. In one story, Gollie decides she needs a change of scenery, so she closes her eyes and spins a wheel of possible travel destinations. When the arrow lands on "The Andes Mountains," Gollie takes off to South America. Shortly thereafter, Bink knocks on Gollie's door looking to play. On the next page, Gollie is pictured just on the other side of her door, climbing a snowy mountain peak. "I cannot talk right now!" she yells through the door, "I am high in the pure air of the Andes Mountains!"

source: https://www.binkandgollie.com/

On Sunday morning, we dragged ourselves out of bed -- we had been up late at a baptism the night before -- to trek to thermal waters that were recently uncovered outside of Esperanza. Esperanza, which means hope, is a verdant mountain town tucked into the Andes on the road to Latacunga. I have passed through countless times on the bus but had never visited. My ex-boyfriend, Hernan, who lives in La Maná, has become quite a mountain biker in the last decade, and he and I planned the expedition, which involved serious biking for him and pick-up truck travel for the rest of us. We were to meet at the crossroads.

The landscape was unbelievably majestic as we passed through Esperanza and climbed up and over the hills that sloped up into ebony-colored mountains at its outskirts. The dirt road wound through steep fields of mora (blackberry), sugar cane, and even pine trees. Birds hopped through the canopy. Traditional wood houses and more modern cinder-block houses peppered the countryside. In the distance, we could see the bright blue roof of a cancha, and everyone argued about which town that could possibly be. At one point, all we could see below us was a dense blanket of clouds. We crossed the river and stopped to verify our progress and chomp on blackberries, until we finally hit a fork in the road where Hernan was waiting for us with his bike.

A little farther up the mountain, the dirt road ended abruptly at a cement volleyball court with a working water spigot. A local man collected $1 per adult for entrance to the thermal waters. Then began the descent. Down, down, down we trekked. Down the dusty road at first and then down a dusty steep path, again winding through mora, sugarcane and babaco trees. Babaco, not to be confused with barbasco, is a large juicing fruit, essentially a cross between a papaya and a starfruit.

The actual hiking trail wasn't long, but it was steep! For my children, it was reminiscent of the South Kaibab trail in the Grand Canyon, which they hiked last June. We assured them that the canyon we were descending into wasn't nearly as deep, but the trail was similarly steep, and the landscape was spectacular. We were all quietly dreading the return climb even as we jauntily descended.

At the bottom of the canyon was the ultimate reward -- just up from the frigid river, an oddly colored sea-green pool of water in which to frolic and float and jump and swim. And we did all of these things. It was absolutely lovely. It certainly wasn't the hottest thermal waters I have swam in, but the equatorial sun was strong, and we were quite happy with its mild temperature. Plus, we had the place almost all to ourselves.

Later, at the river's edge, we gobbled up the food we had carried: fresh bread, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, apples, and of course rice and chicken (it's the Ecuadorian way). And despite the terribly challenging trek back up and out of the canyon (my very least favorite type of hike is an out and back where the uphill is the final leg), it was beyond worth it. Simply breathtaking.

As we hauled our tired bodies back up the steep trail, huffing and puffing the thin high altitude air, we exclaimed, "WE are high in the pure air of the Andes Mountains!”