The Color of Water

Ambuqui – Ibarra, Ecuador

How bad do you think a lake has to be before Diana loses all interest in swimming in it? I mean, she swims in lakes with alligators. She swims in rivers with wicked currents. She swims in huge ocean swells. Basically, she’s like the Mikey of swimming. She’ll swim anywhere. If she won’t swim there, no one will . . .

Now, this is probably especially true of Alpine lakes. No alligators. Beautiful. Surrounded by mountains. They are essentially the perfect places to swim . . .

So imagine my surprise when Diana declared that she had no interest in swimming in Lagos de Yahuarcocha, outside of Ibarra. There are two potential reasons for this. The first – because the lake is too red. The second – because the lake is too green. 

Let me explain . . .

Yahaurcocha is an indigenous word that means something like blood red. The name comes from pre-Columbian times when the last Inca emperor was trying to quell a rebellion of other indigenous peoples in the area around Ibarra. The rebels built fortresses and did a pretty good job holding off the Incas, but eventually the Inca emperor grew impatient and amassed a huge army. When the Incas finally defeated the rebels the emperor ordered his men to kill all the males who were 12 or older. I guess they cut their throats and then threw the bodies into the lake. It is estimated that 20,000-50,000 men were killed and dumped into the lake – which, of course, caused the lake turn to red. 

Thus the name. 

That’s bad. But that was over 500 years ago now. Pretty sure Diana wasn’t worried about the blood . . .

Green . . . When you read the reviews of this lake they talk about the mysterious green sheen – like it’s a good thing. When you get there you immediately see that it is, indeed, green – but it’s not very mysterious. In fact, it’s pretty obvious that this is the green of a horribly polluted body of water. Like a small pond used for collecting wastewater or something. Disgusting. 

Even Diana wasn’t willing to swim in that sludge. 

Kind of sad to see an Alpine lake that is surrounded by mountains and volcanoes become such a cess pool. 

Still, as long as you don’t look too closely it is pretty. And, let’s face it, we haven’t seen a lot of natural lakes since Minnesota. 

The other thing that is interesting about this lake is that there is a bike path and road around the lake. More interesting . . . The road doubles as a race track. There are bleachers and banked turns and everything. Pretty cool – although I guess the autódromo has not been updated since the 1990s. (There are a lot of things like that in Central America – kind of like the Telemark-esque hotel we stayed in last night . . .)

Since we couldn’t swim, we decided to bike around the lake. Half way around we found a little restaurante place -Monarca – and decided to grab lunch. There was no one else there – except for William – the affable owner and cook. 

William made me a mean burger and Diana a nice bowl of gallina (old rooster) soup. The soup is good, but we can’t really figure out the attraction of the old rooster part. See exhibit 1 – the old rooster leg that Diana didn’t eat . . . (Totally justified: as you would expect, old rooster is tough as hell . . .)

We chatted with William for quite a while. William himself does not bike much, but his cousin does. His cousin is Martin Lopez. Martin is a 24 year old pro rider. Interestingly, his first big victory was a stage of the Vuelta Costa Rica in 2019. Now he is riding on the Asana team. (I don’t really follow that closely – but isn’t that a pretty good team?)

Next stop? The Mirador San Miguel Arcángel. If you don’t know the word mirador I guess I’m not surprised. I didn’t know it until we arrived in Latin America. I guess the closest analogue in the USA would be a viewpoint. But not quite the same thing. 

Viewpoints are just places where you can see far. In my experience, they mostly just happen to exist. 

“Oh, look, from that rock over there you can see the whole valley . . . Let’s call that a viewpoint . . .”

But a mirador is more of an intentional thing. 

“If we cut down all the trees in this area, and then build a viewing platform, and probably add some trinket and snack vendors, we can call it a mirador. And then we can charge people to go on the viewing platform.”

Such was the Mirador San Miguel Arcángel. Vendors? Check. Viewing platform? Even better – they built a whole viewing tower that was itself a replica of the arcángel. You go up into the arcángel like you are going up into a lighthouse or something . . .

And here’s the funny part about miradors like this – or, in similar fashion, about public bathrooms in Latin America as well. There will be a sign – often hand scrawled on a piece of paper taped to the wall, or maybe just spray painted onto it – saying something like: “50 Cents to Enter.” 

Except there won’t be anyone around. So you just shrug and start on your way – either up the stairs in the arcángel viewing tower, or into the bathroom, or whatever. But then, just as you are crossing the threshold, you hear a voice. 

You glance over your shoulder and a person has materialized out of nowhere, and they are holding out their hand and demanding 50 cents. Now, they are wearing no uniform. They have no insignia. Not even a hat or a pin. But they speak with great authority, and, inevitably, you just hand over the money. 

It’s only 50 cents – and they seem to know what they’re talking about . . .

That’s a mirador. 

Oh, the views were fantastic. I wouldn’t say million dollar views. But 50 cents? For sure. 

That’s partially because we had to bike up about 1,500 feet to get there. Diana’s idea. I mention that because it’s pretty clear to me that her knees are fine these days; otherwise she might not have volunteered for that much extra abuse . . .

Last stop? Ibarra and our wonderful Warm Showers hosts. Elaine and her mother, Marian, were originally American but they have been living down here for some time now. Elaine is an occupational therapist and runs a clinic for patients with disabilities. She is doing great good in the world. 

We are really enjoying hearing their stories of life in Ecuador. 

Better yet, they let us cook dinner for them – in their very nice kitchen. Chicken curry and cucumber salad. Lots of veggies. A great combination of good food and great company. So nice.

The bike ride? Also nice. We started out lower down – where it felt like we were in Utah or Arizona – and biked up probably 3,000 feet – with an additional 1,500 or so up to the Mirador. Lots of beauty. 

Oh. One other thing. Diana found the best ice cream place we have been to since probably Texas, or maybe Arkansas. Actually creamy. And actually frozen properly (I think electricity is expensive enough in Latin America that nothing ever seems quite as cold as it should . . .) 

Yum.

Loving Ecuador. Tomorrow? We head toward more volcanoes and another crater lake thing that is supposed to be amazing.