Hacienda San Isidro de Itaqui and Cotaca

Another long weekend and another adventure! This time, we headed north of Quito to check out another hacienda and more sites in the Andes. As usual, our travels included some minor inconveniences—this time the issues involved plumbing problems at the hacienda where we were staying. More on that later.

Our first day, we hung out at the hacienda and had a lovely tour of the grounds by the adorable 83-year-old owner. He was incredibly enthusiastic and welcoming. Talia did a good job translating for us since he spoke no English and our Spanish remains no bueno. He treated us as if we were the first visitors in ages (again, more on that later). We tasted fruits from his many trees, toured the gardens, met the baby cows and had a lovely morning. In the afternoon, we took a long horseback ride through the huge property (Kyla, who was a bit wary of horses came too!). Talia and Kyla shared a horse because, when we met our guide he said, “tenemos tres caballos. Dos están tranquilos y uno está loco. ¿Quién está bien con el loco?” I now know enough Spanish to stop Talia from volunteering for the loco horse.

Ok, remember the plumbing problem I mentioned? Well, when Kyla took her usual 3-minute shower post horseback riding, she noticed that there was a bit of water on the floor. No big deal. Then I took my usual-length shower and caused a biblical flood in the bathroom—water gushed from a drain in the floor. We told the lovely hosts and they did their best to fix the problem…but when Talia showered a few hours later, the problem occurred again and this time black water streamed from the drain. Oy.

The next morning, we attempted to check out, but our hosts were very persuasive and convinced us to stay in a part of the property that was connected to a different plumbing system. They assured us that the room was great, even though it seemed as if no guests had been there for 200 years (and, in fact, as noted above, it seemed that we were the first guests in quite a while and we the only guests during our stay). Our tour guide for the day, Andres, offered to call a new plumber for the hacienda owner, and we took off for a day of exploring with hopes of normal showers when we returned. See the next post for the rest of day 2 of this trip.Read more