On Down to the Beach

After a week and a half of the high country of Quenca, it is time to get back to sea level at the beach. My friends B-Flat and Victoria have a place in Playas, and they encouraged me to bring some hashers down for the weekend to run a trail. I was able to wrangle 4 to come along. We had a fairly uneventful (except for the landslides) 6 hour bus trip up through the Cajas National Park. Woke up in the morning to the news that with all the rain, had created several landslides on the mountain pass, along with some election protests, and the road was blocked. Undaunted, we went to the bus station anyway, figuring if the road was still blocked, the bus line would know and not give us tickets. Cuenca is at 8500 feet, and driving over the mountain, we hit 13,600 feet, and did see clean up crews working to remove dirt and rocks from the road. But we made it.Read more