Betty took it easy on us by scheduling a rather late pickup time for today's tour -- 8:30 AM. This allowed us time to get up and have a nice breakfast at Hotel Crespo and then enjoy a walk by the river just behind the hotel before meeting our guide, Arturo, for the day's excursion to Cajas National Park. I was impressed with the active locals that were well into their morning workouts by the time we hit the river trail. We could definitely see ourselves fitting in with the lifestyle here.
Cajas is about a 45-minute drive from Cuenca, mostly uphill. We elected to do a fairly long hike of about 3.5 hours and saw many beautiful views of lakes, wetlands, and mountains shrouded in clouds. My favorite part of the park was probably the Quinoa Forest. To me it seemed like something you might see in Lord of the Rings. Old, gnarled, and dense trees with a soft forest floor -- an amazing natural playground.
After concluding the hike, we went to a restaurant just outside the park and dined on the local specialty of fried trout, or trucha frita. We arrived back at the hotel in Cuenca by about 3 PM and in time to enjoy a siesta. Later, we took and walk from the hotel and found a nice cafe to enjoy a cup of coffee and a piece of pie before dinner at Cafe Austria. Luckily, we arrived during happy hour -- beers for a buck! We returned to the hotel after dinner to get some rest before and early day tomorrow.
The trip was not only memorable for the amount of animals we saw but also for the people and accommodations at the two camps where we stayed. Our first guide, BK, was a wealth of information about the animals, landscape and down to the plants and what they were used for. Everyday out was a learning experience with him. All the people at the camps were gracious and the food was excellent.
Our second camp in the Okavanga was just as good as the first as far as the staff, accommodations, food and animals. After our experience at the first camp we amazed that the high quality remained the same. Our guide, G, made sure we were able to enjoy every experience including a rush through the bush to witness a cheetah and an ensuing hunt that he heard over his radio.
In both camps there were enough guides out that if they saw something the other guides were informed which helped in seeing as much as possible. It was also nice that the concessions were large enough that we did not have vehicles following each other throughout the day.
Normally there is always something in a trip of this length that we think could be improved upon but this is the rare case where we cannot think of anything. From the time we left the States to when we returned it was one of the most hassle free vacations we took.
Perhaps emphasizing the use of the laundry facilities at the camps would be useful because of the luggage restrictions would be the only thing I can think of as an improvement to future clients.
Kenneth Dropek
2 days ago
Mary was so pleasant and professional. She made sure all of our questions were answered.