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Living History in Loja, Ecuador
From the 24th to the 27th of July Flor Maria and I spent some days 
exploring Loja and its surroundings. Even today, history is alive in many parts of day to day life in Loja and currently many projects involving the research and conservation of archaeological sites are carried out throughout the province; the biggest one being probably the Qhapac Ñan with the support of the UNESCO. Our visit coincided with the bicentennial of the Quito Revolution in 1809, which was celebrated with a lot of music, dancing, reenactments and presentations.
On Sunday we visited thePodocarpus National Park. The park exhibits an exceptional range of flora, and has beenconsidered the “Botanical Garden of America”.
We entered the park at its main entrance in the south of Loja at the Loja – Vilcabamba road and from here hiked our way across three of the four
trails created by the national park staff. The trail “Los Miradores” took us up to 3050m altitude and due to strong wind and rain it got pretty cold but the exquisite scenery made it well worth the effort. Nevertheless we spent Monday a little more easy going, visiting the University UTPL (Universidad Tecnica Particular de Loja) and shopping in the bookstores in the centre of the city.
For all who missed the “expedition-factor” in this report: of course we did some successful research for our next expedition into the mountains of Loja which is planned for an October departure…
2010 – The year of the mysterious Lagoon
been really full of travel and exploration, many of which have been planned with good friends accompanied by a cold beer (or two) sitting in the hot equatorial sun at one of Plaza Foch’s cafes in Quito. Planning our tours and expeditions is still one of our favorite pastimes and many afternoons and long nights have been filled with conversation on the best way to explore new routes. 
During 2009 we have made several explorations throughout Ecuador with a strong emphasis on the Mountains of Sabanilla in the Province of Loja in the South of Ecuador. We have been very
successful and found three different ruins, most probably Pre-Inca sites where the Calvas, a tribe of the Nation of the Paltas, worshipped their gods. Working in Cooperation with the University of Loja (UTPL) as well as the INPC (Instituto Nacional de Patrimonio Cultural) we suggested to name these ruins “Torneados de Sabanilla”. For 2010 we plan to continue the cooperation as well as our explorations of the Espindola Valley and the Sabanilla Mountain, this time also with the support of the Consejo Provincial de Loja (the Government of the Loja Province).
to be not only hidden by difficult terrain but also protected by rain, wind, hail and even storms that cast anyone away who tries to get nearer to this mysterious lagoon. So far we have not found one single person that actually stood at its banks and truth to be told we suffered 3 failed attempts in 2009 too. Fortunately we returned always healthy from our explorations and of course look forward to solve the mystery of the hidden lagoon in 2010…La Laguna del Tigre
Even the sun warmed us for a few hours in the morning before the typical afternoon clouds started to come in. Nevertheless, in the late evening hours we reached the valley of the lagoon and set up our camp just below the ridge with sight over the lagoon.
Having brought provisions for a week we decided to continue our way further south. So the next day we left the lagoon and hiked along the Cordillera de los Sabanillas, impressed by the wide and untouched mountain scenery with its immense valleys, small rivers and rocky mountain peaks. After two days we reached the “Laguna Los Huicundos” where we set camp in the evening right beside a small stone pyramid. From the ridge we could spot the lights of the small town of Amaluza deep down in the valley. In the morning we found a small path running from east to west which looked like it once was used a lot but now slowly started to disappear.
This tour has been kindly supported by:
Galapagos Cruises
Galapagos Cruceros
The Sabanilla Cordillera – Preparations
If plans work out we will leave Quito on the 20th of September 2010 and start the tour fromSan Antonio de las Aradas on the 22nd of September 2010. We will spend only about a week in the mountains this time as the area we want to research is quite small and we hope to be able to finish the explorations within this time – nevertheless we are already planning on further explorations into the areas further to the south in the near future.
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