The Treasure Hunt

Our second day at the hacienda we were told to be up for breakfast at 7:30 so I set an alarm so I could get up and take a shower first. I stumbled half blind with sleep into our all yellow bathroom and as I got into the shower, noticed that both the valves said “F” for frío (cold). That was not something I wanted so see so early in the morning! Turns out the one was actually hot and the shower was fine but I was scared for a minute.

Around 7:30 Emily and I wander out and no one is around, not even anyone who works there. So I went to see if I could get into the secret room behind the bookcase again- to make a wish with the volcanoes- but I couldn’t get it open! None of the books did anything, they were all actual books. At breakfast, which was at least an hour later than we were told,  Chiri told us the book we needed to use to get in the room. It didn't work but we found a screw that was holding the bookcase to the wall so when we unscrewed it the shelves just swung right open!

Cotopaxi

Once we finished breakfast our group all piled on the bus and we took a drive to the start of our hike. During our drive Chiri told us some myths about the volcanoes we saw. For instance they say that there are three Pichincha volcanoes, a baby, a mama and a grandpa/dad (he just said viejo which could be either) and they will erupt in succession from smallest to biggest because “when the baby cries, mama gets up and dad gets upset.” We stopped a couple times to get good pictures of Cotopaxi and Rumiñahui (this time we could see the hole in his ‘lip’)

After the bus driver- our normal bus driver’s brother- got all pissy about driving in between some plants we made to where our hike started. It was just this vast, flat, rocky wasteland, with almost nothing but rocks, lichen and some very hearty flowers with Cotopaxi looming in the distance. We walked across that for what seemed like forever- I wasn’t keen on walking across so many rocks since I was prone to slipping- and then finally found somewhere to cross the river- on foot. Here is where our boots came in handy.

 We all started rolling up our pants and getting ready to cross but Marcos wouldn’t let anyone go by themselves. He guided everyone, even sort of tossing a couple of the lighter ones onto the shore. Even with assistance we all ended up getting pretty wet. Water inevitably got in the boots and I forgot to take off my socks. Oops. Then the boots were passed back and forth across the river until everyone made it across.

From there it was just a short hike along the river bank to a little cliff cave thing where we stopped to have lunch. The people from the hacienda who had come with us brought a bunch of food and we had all taken turns carrying the pots and utensils needed for our lunch. Our group all plopped down on the ground in front of the cave and dug into the oritos (the tiniest bananas you’ve ever seen) and mandarinas someone had carried while Marcos went to cut down a tree for firewood. Finally most of us rallied and went to find some kindling- we were told not to come back until we each had five sticks.

While we were sitting Keunae made a new BFF. One of the hacienda people’s daughters, Wendy, had come with and she immediately stuck to Keunae. I’m sure her mom was happy about it because she just told her to stay with Keunae all the time. Wendy showed us where the best sticks were and led us to the waterfall. Keep in mind she’s like 9.

When we came back with our kindling the fire was already started and the food beginning to cook. So everyone but those cooking followed Chiri into the forest through the perfectly straight rows of trees to this clearing that had a spongy floor. There Keunae, Wendy, Grant, Caro and I all stayed while the rest went on another little hike. I just took a nap on the soft ground, it was nice.

We ate right after we got back. It was all very good especially for being made in a cave. While we were eating Marcos came up the hill with about 8 fish speared on a stick that he had just pulled out of the river like it was nothing. Once we were done digesting we started gathering our dishes and Chiri told us to go down to the river to wash the plates so we started down the hill. As we were walking Chiri yelled to us that he was just kidding. I should have known given the bookcase incident. So we left our cave and hiked our way back to the bus along the side of the river. It was a slightly harder hike than on the way in, but we didn’t have to cross the river, and it was more interesting than rocky tundra, so I liked it better. 

Most of the hike was through the brush on the side of the river but eventually we met up with a road and took that the rest of the way back. From the road we saw some bulls grazing in the distance, at the foot of a volcano. On the way up Marcos asked me where I was from- yes, he speaks! I told him close to Chicago because most people understand that. But apparently he thought that Chicago was a country. I told him that I was from the US and that Chicago was a city there. He’s a cowboy born and raised.

Back at the ranch (haha) we packed up our things and hung out on the porch until we had to go. Chiri explained to us that the ‘treasure’ we were supposed to find that day was nature. He told us Rumiñahui said that people who are blinded by gold will never find the treasure. Then he gave us postcards and we were off. But not before we watered the garden we had planted the day before, to really reinforce the friendship we planted. As we were watering the plants, and taking some last minute pictures, the bus driver started revving the engine because he was really raring to go. It was pretty obnoxious.

As always the drive back took longer than the drive there so we started getting worried we wouldn’t have enough time to write our skit and get the rest of our work done before Tuesday- on which I, at least, had a skit, mindmap, a paper due and a test. So when we finally got back Chris, Emily, Keunae, Danielle and I all went to McDonalds (the only place open past 8pm on a Sunday) to write our skit. We went into the Playplace for privacy but they kicked us out of there around 9:30 and we stayed in the main dining room until close.

next time on TFTE: the epic skit and the dancing Virgin!

Hasta luego,

Caitlin