On Saturday, our group went on our first of three major excursions - to the Intag Cloud Forest in the Imbabura province of Ecuador. At first we all wondered why a place would be called the "cloud forest." Were we going to stand on clouds? No, obviously not. Hehe so we were all confused. As it turns out, it's a rainforest-esque-not-really-a-rainforest-forest. The Intag is a large forest where it rains almost every single afternoon for hours on end so it's really humid. Because it's very hot and humid in the forest, the trees exude moisture, and because there are so many trees, it looks like the clouds are descending from the sky into the forest. In reality, the trees are creating the clouds. Isn't that a rainforest? Yes, still beats me why they don't just call it a rainforest. But it's a pretty cool phenomenon and it looks really cool when you actually see the "clouds" forming as you walk through the forest. I tried to take a picture, but I couldn't... It just looked super foggy.
So. We left around 8:30 in the morning on Saturday, and drove for 5 hours in total including a bathroom break 30 minutes south of the pueblo of Otavalo (a major tourist place, which I will talk about later). This place had AMAZING biscozchos (biscottes) and cheese that they make daily. As soon as you walk into the panaderÃa (bakery), it smells so delicious and awesome, like freshly baked bread and butter. It was 10 for a dollar, so naturally I got 10. The cheese is also really milky and stringy - hard to break apart with your hands, and so chewy once you bite it off. The hot chocolate there is also to die for - not too sugary, but just the right amount of cocoa. It's so hard to explain such deliciousness because my words would never do justice.
After about 30 minutes, off we went to Intag. As we neared the beginning of our hike to our destination (since cars can't go through the mountain), it began to rain, and we got to see the "clouds" begin to form. The view off the edge of the mountain as we curved around it on the bus was amazing. I could see tens of mountains with bits of "cloud" here and there - it was gorgeous. When the bus stopped, we all put on our hardy rain boots and raincoats/ponchos and hiked up the mountain in the rain. It felt so great walking in the rain through the forest - a once in a lifetime experience. Of course, we're going to the Amazon Rainforest in three weeks, so it won't be our last time, but it was still so great.
After about an hour's hike, we arrived at our site, and went straight to lunch. I won't even go into describing all the meals we had here because it was that great, and I definitely would not be able to write everything we had and how great it was. I'll just say that it was the best vegetarian 4 days of my life, and that if I could have this food forever, I might even consider becoming a vegan. Most of their food/fruits were home-grown or brought in from other farmers with the same agricultural ethics they had. The coffee is also shade-grown in their garden, which means that they don't need to use any fertilizers or insecticides because the shade creates a natural environment for insects that eat harmful insects, and the leaves that fall provide healthy soil.
I forgot to mention the owners of La Florida, the part of Intag Cloud Forest we stayed at - Carlos and Sandy - two of the most amazingly talented people on this planet. They are a couple, who are actually splitting up now.. but they own the land together and fight for the environmental rights of the forest that are being threatened by American/Ecuadorian petroleum companies such as Texaco Chevron. It's really great what they do for the forest and nature in general. They've fought off various private companies that are trying to deforest a lot of the area so that they can create mining sites with the help of nearby indigenous communities. So, their main goal is to keep growing their movement to fight off the government who is currently trying to relocate a bunch of indigenous people in Intag so they can mine and make money. Stupid. Carlos is a farmer/businessman/activist/photographer and Sandy is an artist/writer/cook/architect/activist, and the two of them make everyone else seem like they're not doing anything with their lives hehe. But they are very nice, caring people who have inspired me in so many ways.
Anyway, after lunch and becoming situated in our respective hut cabins, a bunch of us decided to go for a hike up to the waterfall that was supposed to be close to where we were staying. It was so pretty! And I don't think I've seen a waterfall (besides Niagra, which is insane). It wasn't that big, but it was nice and like the wilderness hehehe. Carlos's dog, Monté (a super cute, big Golden Retriever) always comes along on any hike that anyone goes on, and knows the way to pretty much every single place in the forest, and this time was no different. He pretty much led the way to the waterfall, and enjoyed every single moment of it. He would just sit or lay under the fall or in the river and look super pleased. He was so adorable.
Right before dinner, we had a talk from Carlos about how they started this place, and what their current work is (which I explained above). Then we had amazing dinner food and more free time. I can't really remember what we did, but I'm sure it was great. Hehe and so t'was our first night in the Cloud Forest. There actually weren't as many bugs as I thought, probably because of the rain, since by the time we left Intag, I was so sick of all the flying insects buzzing around my face. :)
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