Nudo del Azuay

I woke up at 5am this morning still dark in my tent with the first cautious flirtations of songbirds ringing through the dawn silences. Donning my vest in the chilly air and pulling on my rubber boots Im off to climb the big ridge at the end of the valley through the alpaca fields where the cloud forests borders the world of grasses. It has been a long while it seems since I woke up to watch a sunrise. This one atop that hillside amongst the potshards and imagined spirits of the Canari was a good one. Smooth and gradual as a deep long breath and sublime as a water color. Big prayers out to the winds and thanks for a new day.

My camera battery died over the night otherwise I would be sharing this sunrise with you now, though it is just as well. It could never be captured in any photograph. Satisfied with such a humbling sight to greet the day a big slow cooked home breakfast later ensued. Waking up slowly to pack up camp and carry supplies down the hillside. Since Don Jose cannot make it to help with our transects today there is no reason to stay longer. The plan is to make it back to Cuenca but as of yesterday Big Blue still will not start, even after scrounging motor oil with Stu. We snapped two ropes attempting to pull Big Blue out yesterday and gave up on it. Either there will be a driver Stu somehow arranged by noon or were staying in another day. One last possibility remains though and with the help of the students we pushed Big Blue to the rim of the roads descent. Lo and behold I got him to jump start on the way down! I drive back up perching on that same edge to pack and we make it back to Cuenca without a hitch. No stopping.

The ride back is gorgeous and the clouds today are phenomenal. El nudo del Azuay they call the place we work. A nudo in Spanish means a node, a connecting point. Here the cordilleras connect briefly before splitting off again in their jagged scar across the edge of the continent north to Colombia and beyond. Off the map in the high sierra.