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We met an Alaskan family on the bus to Cajas back in January. Ashley, a Spanish teacher and Scott, an art teacher, are living in Cuenca with their two kids, Cormac and Story for the year. They return to Anchorage in June, sadly for us. We have decided to stay another year in Cuenca, and will return to Tacoma in July 2020.

We have been sharing dinners, birthday parties, having park and zoo play dates, and we went camping together to LLaviucu, a section of Cajas National Park that is a steep-sided expansive valley about 2000’ lower in elevation than where we normally go.

We hired a van to pick us up at our houses and drop us at the park entrance—what a luxury! Otherwise, getting to Llaviucu involves a taxi to the bus station, a bus to kilometer 13 of the road to Cajas, and then hiking 2.5 miles or so on a rocky road to the park entrance station. 2.5 miles is a long way to go at a 3 year old pace with a heavy pack on your back! Riki and I carried 5 sleeping bags, 5 pads, 2 tents, plus food, diapers, wipes, and many layers of clothing for 5 people between us.

Pizza for lunch! at the trailhead in the drizzle.

We set up camp right by a bend in the river, then went for an afternoon hike up valley on the trail. The kids loved playing in the tall grass, swinging in the hammock, and “feeding the fish” in the river with seeds from the grass. Oh, and “helping” wash the dishes, which was great until part of Steph & Nic’s jetboil went floating away.

After Mac & cheese with canned jalapeño tuna salad (Mo’s find at the grocery store) for dinner, and getting the kids to sleep, we four adults stood around talking (un-interrupted!) for an hour or two as we watched the stars appear and disappear under a partly cloudy sky. We shared stories of our respective weddings, of our families, and of the time Ashley and an ex built a birch bark canoe and paddled it out of the wilderness.

At 5 am I was lying awake in the tent, having just got Luz back to sleep, when the ground started to shake below me. At first I thought, is Riki shaking my tent? But no, it was an earthquake! It was so strange to be lying on the ground and having it shake. It was dark, so there was nothing to see as a reference point. Turns out it was a 7.6 quake with epicenter in Macas, in the Ecuadorian Amazon. It was followed about 20 minutes later by another earthquake. The kids all slept through it, but us adults felt it for sure. I’ve never felt an earthquake that strongly before.

After packing up camp, we walked around the lake and listened to Scott’s stories of Alfie of the Al-Can highway. I think Tomu and Cormac were hunting dinosaurs. The last adventure was hiking off trail up valley, through boggy swampy areas and big tussocks of grass. The grass was taller than most of the kids’ heads.

We wish Ashley, Scott, Cormac & Story lived in Tacoma—it’s lovely to find you mesh with another family on all levels—the parents get along, the kids get along, you like to do the same things (be outdoors and have adventures!). But we plan to make the most of our time remaining with them here in Cuenca.