KIMBLER B & B AND OUR HIKE TO THE CAJAS

I love Facebook, because it has given me an venue to reacquaint with my high school friends and family that I have not seen or communicated with in years. So using that forum, when we moved here, we put out the welcome mat to all our friends and family.

Because of this, I received an email from my 2nd cousin who asked if our welcome extended to his traveling friends... I of course jumped at the idea. Randy being a bit more socially challenged; I negated to tell him about the offer and just let it work its way into the conversation. Our new potential guests determined that they would stay at a hotel at first and see if we meshed ( I think that was good, since they already knew my cousin, I could see why they might have doubts about us... : >}  ).. as it turned out since I was going to Macara for a week, and they were off to Vilcabamba for a week, we would all share space when I returned.

Steven and Randy listening to and discussing music, soul brothers..

Fougere enjoying a book.. I was off reading myself when I happened upon her reading downstairs

 While Steven and Fourgere were here we arranged to go to the Cajas. Fougere is quite the hiker, and she convinced us that it would not be "that bad". Steven had just gotten over a severe ankle strain, but he was game, so were agreed. We contacted our friend Arturo for a day trip, and on the Friday before they left we were off to the Cajas.

One view point and bill board telling about the area almost 14,000 ft elevation.. cold and windy!

 To walk around Lake Toreador you need to sign in. Arturo sent us off to the building that housed the bathroom and displays of the lake while he completed the necessary fee payment and log in for us.

Photos of the different type of wild life and plants found around the Cajas.

View of the lake from the display building

I just loved this photo..

 We cinched our hoods down against the very cold wind and began our hike down the hillside to the path that followed the edges of the lake. As we walked I took lots of photos. Not a clue what most of these are,only that I thought they were very pretty.

Yep, even Randy thought it was cold!

Teeny Tiny flowers...

The building is where we stared from..

I was told that these lakes are not from springs, but from rainwater and waterfalls..

somewhere is the path...

I probably should have put my hand down, I had to zoom in on this ... it was very tiny..

Some kind of ground cover.. loved the yellow, green and tiny pink flowers

In my mind, I thought this might be similar to Tunda.. it is all mushy underneath but pretty solid to walk on

Here we are all posing.. at the half way point! No turning back!

Yep, there are fresh water trout up here!

A waterfall with a nice grassy area for a picnic

There was fungus among us!

That building at the top is where we started from, and our goal.. elevation and lung capacity were bothering me at this point

Oh yes please, I will sit while you take our picture!

Another photo that I had to zoom in on.. these were everywhere, a ground covering

Trees and cool yellow ground covering

Randy loved that they had a bench and wood in case you wanted to stop and have a bit of a warm up before you left

After our hike we went to the Che restaurant and had a wonderful meal

We had a great time with Fougere and Steven, and we made sure they understood if they were back in our neck of the woods they were welcome to come stay with us again.. Thanks Chris for introducing us!