Field Trip: Cascada de Peguche

The Cascada de Peguche has become our go-to hike, especially when the kids are freaking out.  On Saturday, the kids were freaking out, so I got them out of the house for a walk.  (And so Kerry could enjoy a little kid-free peace and yoga.)  From the front gate to Sylvia skipping across the irrigation channel in the first photo is a 30 minute walk up, more of less.  We took an hour, with a stop at the tourist section for treats (potato chips for the kids, a beer for me -- yeah carbo loading!).  It takes about ten or fifteen minutes to get out of our neighborhood, across the tracks, and into the park area.

I don't know what the river/stream is called, but the flow is as low as it gets, so I hear.  (I will call it the Peguche River until I hear otherwise.)  The Peguche River divides the city of Otavalo and the more rural weaving community of Peguche.  Unfortunately, we don't swim in the pools below since the river drains from Lago San Pablo, the lake and community above Otavalo and Peguche.  For one, everyone (it seems) does his/her (yes, I've seen men doing their wash here) laundry in the river.  I don't even want to think about sewage... Below, there are some nice-looking pools where the river has been channelled.  It's tough to try to explain to the kids why locals can swim there and we can't.  So far they are buying the same argument that we use for not drinking tap water: our bodies aren't used to it.  We'll see how long that lasts.

The irrigation ditch -- and the laundry for that matter -- show you what a tight tie people here have with their water.  I wonder how old some of the aqueducts are, and having seen some Mayan water-works in central America, I can imagine that they are quite old indeed.  The first photo is looking down-stream, by the way, and the shots with the kids and the waterfall is shot from about the same spot, looking up.

The Cascada is also a holy site for indigenous people here.  There are rituals, ceremonies, and festivals that take place every year, according to schedule, the next of which is on the equinox.  We look forward to checking them out, though I do know there are some where tourists (we are tourists on a long stay after all) are definitely not welcome.  We want to respect the local practices and beliefs as much as possible.

On the way up, the kids and I took the Peguche side, and on the way back, we take the Otavalo path.  In one shot, you can see one of two suspension bridges that span the river.  The kids think it's funny to freak me out -- I don't like heights.  I reluctantly allow them to walk across without me holding onto them with a vice-grip.  The last shot is only a quarter of a mile or so above civilization. We return home dusty and tired.