Imbarra

After going to Cayambe, we went to Imbarra in the following day. Imbarra is in the northeast of Otavalo and it is also the provincial capital of Imbabura, so you may know it is quite a big city.

When we arrived Imbarra in the morning, it started to rain. Originally, we wanted to go to the Bosque Guayabillas in the East first, but as the western side of the city was totally covered by dark cloud, so we decided to head to Yahuarcocha, which was a lake in the North.

The peaceful aspect of Lake Yahuarcocha.

Yahuarcocha is a popular place for the Ecuadoreans to enjoy their weekends. When we arrived, we found there were so many stalls selling food of handicrafts, there was also an old ferris wheel and other machine games for the children.

At first, I thought this lake was not so interesting to me, but when we have a 45 mins work around the lake, I found this lake was really beautiful. When we bypassed all the shops and loud music played by the restaurant, I found the peaceful aspect of the lake.

As the sky above the lake was so clear, I could see the reflection of the sky clearly in the lake, with the beautiful trees in front of the lake, it was really a nice picture.

Sometimes, there were couples sitting down beside the lake, talking secretly, laughing happily and kissing openly. When I closed my eyes walking beside the lake, I could hear the music from the nature, singing birds, blowing breeze and talking of the grass with my shoes touching on them.

As my friend was so eager to row a boat, so we rent a boat ($2 per 30mins) and went to the middle of the lake. The view was really very nice, but my hands was really tired after half an hour of rowing.

In the middle of the Lake Yahuarcocha.

Imbarra is also famous for its Helados de paila(home-made sorbets), so after the rowing, we headed for lunch and desserts. The lunch disappointed me again, as the rice was too hard, just like not yet boiled. So once again, I couldn't finish my lunch, it was the second worse lunch I ever had in Ecuador. But the helados saved me after that. It was just so wonderful and I couldn't use any words to describe the taste. But it really satisfied me a lot after the bad lunch.

As we needed some more exercises and the weather started to turn good, we went to the Bosque Guayabillas, which was a natural park in the top of the hill. But it really took us a long time to find out where it was. Since the book didn't mention it clearly and we didn't know where exactly the location was.

We bypassed a beautiful cemetery when we were searching for the Bosque Guayabillas.

So after searching for an hour and half, asking many local people, we finally found the road leading to the park. Since my friend was tired at that time and the road was really steep, so he gave up climbing and I climbed alone.

Luckily I insisted climbing up to the hill, as it only took about half an hour and the view on the top of the hill was really fantastic. I could have a panoramic of the city of Imbarra. As the view was really beautiful, then I went down to the bottom of the hill and persuaded my friend to climb up with me again.

Overview of Imbarra.

After such a hard climbing(though Imbarra is not as high as Quito, it is also 2225m above sea level), we praised ourselves by one more Helados de pailor again! While seating in the bench of the central plaza, enjoying the blue sky and sunshine and tasting the helado, I really demand no more.

The taste of the helado lingers in this beautiful moment.

La Basilica in Imbarra.