The Intag Valley is a place of many wonders. It's only 1h away from Cotacachi, my hometown, and offers so much variety in everything, especially nature, which this post will focus on (mostly).

After a long and interesting trip, I arrived happy and well in Cuellaje, at a coffee farm. I spent the afternoon giving a course on vegan cooking which went extraordinarily well, and went to bed quite early as I was tired. The next morning, I was relaxed, went for coffee and then to explore a little.

It was a fresh morning, though the valley is usually quite warm. The river was constantly adding moisture to the crisp air, providing the background track with its gurgling and chuckling.

I love rivers. Water in general. I could take thousands of pictures, and I did take a lot, and now I have many good pictures to support lazy metaphors for change, patience, resistance, persistence, and so on.

Nature here is incredible. Each stone, left alone for a month, will grow moss which will then entangle other seeds and therefore plants. The biggest I've seen was a 10m tree growing on top and around a boulder in Mindo. I'll see if I can find the picture.

Flora and fauna are a treat for the eye. Colors everywhere, hummingbirds at every corner (and flower), ant-roads, fungi of all kinds, way too many and somewhat scary insects.

I went to see another friend later, same valley, different direction. There, I could not make it up with my 4x2, so my friend picked me up to bring me up to his farm. It's way up a hill, with rivers on both sides - but they have dug into the ground for centuries, so you can only hear them, not see them, as they're far below the farm.

As it's higher up, the view is a lot better. The mountains have very unique shapes, I even found the worlds biggest ramp where the gods to their skating maneuvers. Supposedly.

He's 100% organic on all fronts, even the toilet. The water comes directly from a spring further up the montains, with the water line running below the electricity lines. Internet is quite stable. He proudly told me about his newest addition to the household - a water heater. I'm not one for hot water and probably could do without if it wasn't for Lily. I had never really thought about it.

The earth in the Intag is incredibly fertile. And the plants have adapted - a lot of them grow from branches. A branch falls down, a year later it's a tree. It's amazing and beautiful, and with some gardening skills one can accomplish miracles.

The more I wandered around, the more beauty I found. And that's the charm of the whole Intag Valley. You can basically stop at every part of the road, walk 5 minutes and already find 5 things worthy to take a picture of, even with my underwhelming cellphone camera. The beauty of nature makes up for equipment and lack of talent or skill.

Another thing that I always love to see is the original state of things that I consume on regular basis without thinking about them.

Coffee is the main produce in the Intag, and it's really good. Most of the coffee I drink comes from there. It's one of the main propositions against the mining companies that want to take a destructive bite out of the valley. Narrow as it is, even a nibble wreaks havoc on all fronts. Eco-Tourism and certified organic coffee are a perspective for people who live there. They're quite united, in one big coffee association called "AACRI". The different retreats and hotels also work together a lot, and in hand with the local hot springs, of which my next post will tell as I traveled there the next day.

Thank you very much for reading! I hope you enjoyed this little journey into the colors of the Intag Valley near Cotacachi, Imbabura, Ecuador. It's a special place that I love a lot, and I hope that I'm able to transmit that love in my post about it 🙃