Las Cajas national park

Near Cuenca, up in the mountains is a beautiful national park Las Cajas. We decided to go there and refresh ourselves after the new years party. So we packed the van and slowly climbed to 4000 meters where the ranger station was located. The parking area was suitable for us to camp couple of nights and the guards were friendly. From the ranger station we quickly found us a new dog and with it we head to the wilderness.

The refugio at 4000m. We used the kitchen but slept in a van. Photo by Malik.

Is there any better cure for a hangover than to go hiking to the beautiful place like this. Our temporary new dog followed me closely like a shadow.

Soon we realized that the park was full off rocks which looked suitable for climbing. There was actually some routes established allready. The rock was volkanic but quite solid. The grass covered higland is called Paramo here in Ecuador.

Some areas were covered with these tangling guinea? trees. This was first time we saw trees like that. The bark was similar to pines in Finland, but there was no needles, and the trunks were all twisted.

Iitu chilling with Pikkarainen.

This cliff had about ten bolted routes on it. We climbed couple of them. The rock was sharp and the routes had plenty of delicate moves.The sector was called Toreadora.

In this picture taken from the refugio you can see two developed climbing sectores. By the lake is Toreadora and behind the hill is a Chica Toreadora.

Hundreds of small ponds and lakes everywhere. The view got broader as the second day we climbed up to 4400m.

Iitu taking care of navigation, as usual.

On the top. No snow this time, but the wind was very strong.

In Las Cajas there was real Hattiwattis growing in many places. A lot of them. How cool it was to see them in reality!

We found this happy but tired French kid from the national park and adopted him. He's Malik. Photo by Malik.

Llamas, and the trip continues.