It was the end of the week and it had been a couple of months since my last mountain, but it felt like it had been ages. This mountain season started with a fairly easy hike up a lesser volcano that is part of the Imbabura volcano complex. We started the day at a small "town" called Ugshos which is really a small cluster of small farm houses and their respective fields. The sky was grayish but it wasn't cold and after some minutes of walking uphill we had to stop to take off some of our layers of clothing.
The walk was pretty painless even if walking up a mountain at more than 3,000 meters after two months of relative inactivity is not exactly easy.
climbing up the Cubilche Volcano
The flanks of the Cubilche volcano are covered with tall paramo grass. There was no real trail so we had to create it with our own footsteps. This was was fun, especially on the way back down to the bus since it was slippery. The trail we had created managed to turn into a grass slide that we used just as we would have when we were kids. When falling over to a side or slipping the grass created a soft plush pillow for you to fall in. One of the most comfortable things you can do is throw yourself into the grass and just sit there contemplating the surrounding mountains.
The other "lakes"
Finally on top of the volcano there are three small lakes. Actually, now there is only one lake left, the Cubilche lake, since the other two dried out. Sadly, the Cubilche lake will probably dry up as well leaving only a bright green concave spot where it used to be.
Laguna de Cubilche
