Through the mists

Las Cajas with Chris.

There were little yellow and red globito flowers like teeny miniature beachballs poking out of spring cushion plant mounds. Furry red horsetails and bright orange Chuqeiraga flowers attended closely by Ecuadorian Hillstars, some of the highest elevation hummingbirds in the world. Across talus scree fields and under the overhangs of ancient hunter gather camp sites we climbed to the highest point around. At over 16,000 ft. we´re scraping the clouds up here. The view extends for miles and miles in every direction over layers of hazy blue mountain spines.

At the top amid lonely rock cairns and an old rusted out weather monitoring shack we ate a lunch of ham sandwiches and Dutch apple pie Jenny packed us from the cafe. We watched as the weather changed from sunshine to cloud shadow. beginning with rain and ending in snow and ice plummeting down on our improntu tin refuge. We bundled up grateful for the shelter and watched the ice pile up all around us. Ice on the equator. Magical.

Eventually we pulled ourselves away from that place and made it down again savoring each crazy wildflower along the way. Taking in the views obscured by the passing mists and letting the holyness of this place sink into our bones. I had to get back up here to remind myself why I´m here. This is what makes it for me. The whisper of the wind in these high places of the world speaks to my soul.

I had just enough time to drop Chris off in Cuenca, take down my photography displays in the cafe and run over to take Seth to the airport before meeting Catherine for a last supper. I barely was able to catch my breath with so many good byes and little things to wrap up, but I made it and now I write from a little cafe in the Candeleria district of Bogota, Colombia.

I´ve got nearly the next month traveling in Colombia. My own vacation. On first impressions there is already so much to say about Bogota and I´m keeping a journal as I go. I doubt I´ll be able to blip until I get back to the states in a couple weeks but be patient! Great things await and it dawns on me that in only a week or so I´ll be at 360 blips, full circle. I´ll have to think about it. I´ll have to surprise you.

Stay tuned for Colombia!