After our week in Cuenca, I spent a day touring Cajas National park (We both wanted to go, but Stef was out of commission at the time). Cajas, like most other things Cuencano, is the most diverse park in Ecuador (which is one of the two most diverse countries in the world, along with Costa Rica).
- The park extends from the paramor at 3600 meters down to the beginning of the jungle at 1000 meters above sea level.
- There are five different ecosystems contained within the park, including paramor, forest, and lakes.
- The park contains over 240 lakes.
That’s the good, interesting, front of the sign information.During the day, I also learned a couple of other facts about the park:
- Most of the primary forest (original forest) is gone. It has burned down at various times and places. Native vegetation ha been replaced by evergreen pine trees, which are a good cash crop for Ecuador in December (can you guess why?)
- All of the sea life in the 240+lakes is gone. About 30 years ago trout were introduced to the park as a food source and a way to create some sport for the park. Within about 10 or 15 years, they had eliminated every other kind of fish in the park. They are still a huge attraction, of course, and ecuadorians come to cajas all the time to catch trout, cook it, and eat it at the 30+ restaurants that are in and around the park.
The trout we had at the restaurant was really good – and I don’t even like fish! But the park is pretty picturesque – supposed to be verysimilar to Scotland (Braveheart, anyone?)… Definitely check out some of the views below!
