Cotopaxi

From Quito, we headed to an amazing hacienda at the base of Cotopaxi. The hacienda is a working farm on the site of Inca ruins, and the setting was gorgeous (https://www.incahacienda.com/). We could see Cotopaxi clearly from the beautiful gardens.

Our first day was drizzly, so we stayed around the hacienda, toured the grounds and got to know the animals. Talia really wanted to milk the cows, so we headed to the barn where we received a cow-milking lesson. Talia suddenly got cow-shy and somehow I ended up being the only cow-milker in our family (though Talia did feed the baby cows from a bottle). After the cows, we hung out by the communal fireplace, had an excellent farm-to-enormous-table dinner and then fell asleep quickly with Ecuadorian-poncho-wrapped hot water bottles in our bed.

On day 2, we hired a driver to take us to Cotopaxi…which was completely covered in clouds. We did take a walk around a beautiful lake, and we spotted some new birds as well as an Andean wolf. Despite the weather, it was a nice outing. Back at the hacienda, Talia fed lamas and hung out with Lady Gaga, the farm dog.

On our third day, we woke up to SUN and took an early horseback tour around the hacienda property and neighboring farms before breakfast. Talia loved galloping and I loved the scenery (and the fact that, for the first time since we arrived in Ecuador, we were offered helmets). After the horseback riding, we had a delicious breakfast that did not include enough praise for the yogurt, which I’m sure was made more delicious by my expert cow-milking. Then Talia bid farewell to all of the farm animals, including a baby bunny, and we headed off to Quilotoa. Photos of horseback riding and Quilotoa in the next post.Read more