The Sabanilla Cordillera - Preparations

This month we will finally return to the mountains of Loja and continue our research in the Cordillera de Sabanilla in the South of Ecuador. Our goal will be this time to reach the mysterious lagoon hidden deep in these mountains as well as to explore the region for further remains of the cultures that lived year centuries ago: the Calvas (Nation of the Paltas). Besides intensive brainstorming over the maps of the area we also prepared ourselves to the physical stress of the expedition in the altitude and did several hikes in the Andes around Quito to Rucu and Guagua Pichincha, Fuya Fuya, Pasochoa, Illinizas and the Angamarca area. I’d like to thank Rolf and Dennis as well as the “Happy Lama” Jan for providing great company and a lot of fun during these adventures. I hope we will be in the mountains together again soon!

If plans work out we will leave Quito on the 20^th of September 2010 and start the tour from San Antonio de las Aradas on the 22^nd of September 2010. We will spend only about a week in the mountains this time as the area we want to research is quite small and we hope to be able to finish the explorations within this time – nevertheless we are already planning on further explorations into the areas further to the south in the near future.