laguna cuicocha

with one full day to spend in cotacachi, paige and i decided the must-do activity was visiting the local reserve. home of laguna cuicocha. and the organization with which paige has been working these first few weeks at site.

so after a lovely breakfast with her family, we headed to the reserve to take a hike around the stunning laguna. situated in the crater of a volcano, the earth is still slowly leaking gasses so ecuadorians claim the volcano as still active. the interesting thing is that those gasses create quite a hostile environment in the water, allowing very little to live in the large 200 meter deep laguna.

we made our way to this back corner of the laguna along the trail, making a few friends along the way, before the sky became menacing and telling large drops of rain started falling. so we quickly turned around as the skies opened. soaking us head to toe as we walked arm in arm back to the trailhead in a fit of laughter. (paige and i have a predetermined habit of getting stuck completely unprepared in powerful downpour - it always ends in us bursting with laughter and welcoming the soaking).

luckily the rain stopped and the sun returned. so as we made our way to town in the back of a pickup truck, our clothes quickly dried!