Saturday, May 31st, Caymbe National Park

Today, we woke up around 7. We had breakfast at Hacienda Gauchala at 8 am. Some of us had eggs, while others had granola and yogurt. Overall the breakfast was good! After breakfast we loaded up the bus with all our bags. Then Javier told us we were going to met the owner of Hacienda Gauchala. The owner was Gabriella Bonitaz. Gabriella told us about the history of the Hacienda and what is going on today with the hacienda.

Hacienda Gauchala is the oldest hacienda in Ecuador. The hacienda was built in the 1580´s. There is a ton of history within the hacienda. The PreInca people were known as Camibe Caiki. The Incas traveled up through the South to take over the area. It took the Incas 17 years to conquer these people. The Incas only stayed for 30 years, before they were conquered by the Spainards. The Spainards built temples over the prexsisting structures. The Spainards made all the people work at the hacienda for no money. The people received a small amount of land to grow crops, however there was no other stipen for their work.

The hacienda today looks mostly the same as it did in the 1600´s. With minor changes in paint, and materials of the walls and ceilings. Today, most of the structures are made of wood, however back in the day the wood was very expensive. They used straw instead of wood. The condtions today are very luxurious, compared to the 1600´s. The French wrote frequently about the really bad conditions especially in the Obrahi, or church.

Throughout the years the hacienda has had many owners. However around 1892, the first person from Gabriella´s family bought the hacienda. Today, UCLA and Columbia University archelogists are doing research within the hacienda and local area. After much research they have decided this year to excavate under the original church and walls. Gabriella is very excited for this research.

After the tour of the hacienda we drove in the bus for about 30 minutes. Then we arrived at the middle of the world. The spot that we stopped at was located on the equator. There was a giant sun dial carved into the ground. Along with a large tower with a mirror to cast shadows. At this location we met with Gabriella´s husband Cristobal. He has a degree in Business Administration. However he gave a short speach about how the sun dial worked. He used a smaller model to help explain it. Because of the Earth´s tilt at 23 degrees, Louisiana will never have the sun directly overhead. However, on two days out of the year, Ecuador does. Those days are March 21st and September 23rd. The days are referred to as the Equinox. The Equinox is when the sun is directly overhead. The Sun Dial represents the world. We were located in the middle of the world for two reasons. One we were standing on the Equator. But also because we were on the highest point on the equator. The highest elevation from the center of the world is Chimborso, located in Ecuador. Although the talk with Cristobal was alittle confusing it was very interesting. I think all of us really enjoyed taking pictures on and near the equator.

After many pictures, we loaded back into the bus for another hour drive. Our next stop was San Luis shopping mall. This is the first place that looks like the United States. Many of the stores were the same as back home. This was a very short stop for lunch. Although this may disappoint some of you most of us ate Pizza Hut for lunch. I have to admit that it tasted just like home. Don´t be too upset as this was our first meal from a typical United States resteraunt.

After a very quick lunch we piled back into the bus for about a 2 hour drive. The drive was very scenic. We saw many mountains, rivers, and waterfalls that were beautiful. We drove into Caymbe National Park. This is one of the most scenic places we have stayed. Our lodge is located on the top of a hill with views of many volcanoes and mountains including Cotopaxi. We all really enjoy it.
Once we unpacked the bus, we buddled up with warm clothes and went down to ride horses. Javier and the others helped us all up onto the horses and off we went. The ride was beautiful and so much fun. Many of our horses did a slow gallop and trotted most of the time. This is for many of us our favorite activity of the day. We saw wild horses and llamas. Although it was very cold, we all had a great time. After riding for two hours we had a nice dinner and snuggled up in bed. Overall, it was a very good day, we learned alot and had fun!