In local Ecuadorian legend, the god Taita Imbabura is said to have fought the god Mojanda for the affections of Maria Isabel Cotacachi. Imbabura won this battle and took Cotacachi for his wife. Imbabura was so smitten with love for Cotacachi that he erupted with joy upon first seeing her.
Beyond the town of Otavalo in northern Ecuador is the peak of Imbabura (4,640m), and across a broad plain to the north is Cotacachi (4,944m). While Cotacachi is higher, from Otavalo it is less prominent. From the Pan-American Highway, Imbabura is by far the more striking and dominant, less sprawling, more forbidding and more clearly a single isolated peak.
This ascent was from the east side of the mountain, from a road above the town of Ibarra. The trail starts with a steep walk up grasslands, followed by an easy if long scramble up rocks to reach the collapsed crater rim. The main summit lies a couple of kilometres along the rim, involving some more scrambling as well as easy traversing along the ridge.
For a trip report see: www.markhorrell.com/blog/2019...
For related photographs see: www.flickr.com/photos/markhor...
Music by Martijn de Boer (dig.ccmixter.org/files/NiGiD/5...)
28 май 2020
