Las Cajas National Park

"The Andean highlands (Paramos) and cloud forests are unique bioclimatic zones of the Tropical Andes. Paramos act like living sponges that absorb, purify and supply vast quantities of water to the cloud and rain forests below, which are considered some of the most biologically diverse ecosystems on earth. The survival of most living creatures (including man) within these and adjoining regions is dependent on the conservation of the Paramos."

Joella was going stir crazy with little or nothing to do, so she started volunteering. Above is the opening paragraph from a press release she wrote for the "Cordillera Tropical Fundacion", an environmental group concerned with saving, among other things, Andean poison dart frogs believed extinct since 1995. But, that's another story...and, no, the next picture is NOT one of those frogs.

We're living in Cuenca at 8000' and when you go up another 1000' to the Cajas National Park one of the first things you notice is the stark absence of trees. This is a wierd moonscape and, yet, it's only an hour out of town. Jo even rode her bike up there, but now she hates dogs which is another story wherein a man cleaning out a ditch saved her ankles from being mauled by throwing rocks at the attacking, feral, Paramos puppies.

So, these are the "Paramos" that Joella was refering to in her Press Release. In Spanish, "Cajas" means many things: Boxes, a safe or even a cashier's counter. From the air, this outlandish landscape was first described as being littered with silver strong boxes or safes. More likely, the name comes from "caxas", the Quichua word for cold. Actually, theses boxes are hundreds of small, clear, trout-filled, mountain-top lakes which hold the atmosphere-released-water until it's needed down below in the lower elevations. Hiking in the Paramos is at times like walking on a giant squishing sponge.

While hiking here, you're quite literally in amongst the clouds. All the water hanging inside of these suspended, gas cotton balls surrounding you is continually leaking out onto the treeless hills, down the creeks of their many ravines and,finally, into the numerous, waiting collection pool "cajas".

When we first got out of our vehicle it was surprisingly cold because of the cloud cover, elevation and wind. However, there were times later on during our hike when the sun came out and the wind died that we had to take off our layers of clothing because it had now become too hot.

What I had to keep reminding myself there was a direct relationship between all this peculiar scenery and the lofty elevation where I was standing . Washington Pass, which I often traverse going to Mazama in Eastern Washington, is around 5400' and I used to think that it as a naked height. This is almost twice that elevation and the Cajas topography makes the Cascade Peaks look like a green jungle by comparison. Yes, the Cajas is barren, but its beauty also takes your breath away at the same time like a ugly old man with a soul of gold sitting alone in a doorway on a deserted street.

Here is our neighbor, Becca, who came on the hike with us. In the recent past, she was a social worker from the Bay Area; but now Becca is on an extended honeymoon, volunteering at an orphange and trying to figure out what's wrong with Joella's husband.

Perhaps, if you blow these pictures up you'll be able to better appreciate how they are Not all the same, but in fact very, very different from each other. Everytime I turned around I felt I was looking at something I had never in my life seen before, an unsettling sensation.

Every once in a while, tucked in hollows and natural depressions, we would come across small forests of very wierd trees called Polylepis. If you look them up you'll see that these little tress grow at the highest altitudes of any wood in the world and wandering into one of these dense, dwarf forests is like entering a Brothers Grimm fairytale. Even in broad daylight you realize the deeper into the silva's underbrush you go, the darker everything becomes which all serves to make creepy experience even more scary and terrifying.

I don't know that I'd ever seen it celebrated in the US, but here and other third world countries International Women's Day is a BIG deal. There had been several major parades back in the city along with a street fair where men were kept from entering by the police. Even up here on top of these mountains we encountered a spiritual group which had gathered to pray for and thank all women. They built a mandala out of flower petals and colorful patches of cloth, then placed a small bowl of pure water in its middle. A tiny urn filled with incense was lit on the upwind side of the manadal's top center and they began softly, slowly chanting in unison from deep within a natural clearing found in the heart of darkness made by the Polylepis forest. Time faded away.

At first, it seems as if you are the first person to ever walk these hills because there are no trails.

Although, it's when you stop trying to see everything that more is revealed. There are footpaths and trails everywhere. New tracks made by mice and snakes alongside thousand year old footprints from Inca soldiers marching up from Peru to conquer the Canari of Ecuador's Andean Highlands.

The quiet stillness of these many aquatic hand-mirrors reflect the past back into the present.

It's all there to see by closing your eyes and opening your heart.

What a long, strange trip it's been............................................................................................................. gratefull to not be dead.

Time to make like a tree and leaf,

T & J