Plan Your TripCommunity Tour (Full Day)

Community Tour (Full Day)

Difficulty level: Easy tour

Visit the reforestation project in the Cayambe Cocam the hydro-power plant clean, learn the process of cheese production which includes tasting delicious samples! Visit indigenous artisanal carpenters shop and fish at a trout farm.

Oyacachi Community Tour (Full Day)

(Suggested departure times from Quito – transportation not included:)

Full Day	ACTIVITIES
7:00 am	If you are leaving from Quito for a day tour and are taking a bus, you will need to leave from the Ofelia bus station at 7:00 am.
7:30 am	If you are taking a private car, then your car will pick you up at your hotel or hostel at 7:30 am.)
10:00 am	Arrival and Welcome to the community and Ecological Reserve of Cayambe Coca of Oyacachi
10:15 am	Begin your visit with the community reforestation project. You will find a variety of native plants and trees the community has in their nursery. Due to the heavy use of wood for construction and art, the community has committed to reforesting the areas that have been most heavily affected.
10:45 am	Visit the community’s clean energy micro hydro plant, where the entire community receives clean renewable energy from their most plentiful resource, water. Arrive at the central plaza where the community’s history and religious traditions are explained.
11:15 am	Learn the process of local cheese production in Oyacachi. There are 4 cheese factories that produce “queso fresco” and also a very delicious mozarella. Watch the process occur in front of your eyes and try cheese fresh off the “press”.
11:45 am	Take up a sugar cane pool like the good old days and compete between your friends for who can catch a trout out of the local trout farm pool the fastest (if you don’t get one within two seconds you should change your technique!!). Learn the process of how trout are grown from little babies to a delicious lunch. Oyacachi has many trout farms where families make a living selling their trout.
12:15 am	Finally, visit the Oyacachi Wood Artisan’s workshop. There you can see the young and old of Oyacachi practicing their ancestral traditions of spoon and bowl creation of ,and their new styles of masks and sculptures.
12:45 am.	Once you have caught your trout, it is taken directly to the kitchen where you will head for a delicious meal of fried or baked trout (other menu options are available).
13:30 pm	Having learned about the community’s economy, strap on your hiking boots and experience why Oyacachi is called the Land of Water. Take a 2 hour trek past three gorgeous waterfalls and enjoy the beautiful views of the valley as you climb further and further into the clouds.
15:45 pm	After a long hike, take some time for yourself. Soak your tired body in thermal pools, take more pictures of the community, visit the wood artisan’s shop to buy something that caught your eye or simply rest by the babbling Oyacachi River and enjoy the tranquility of this community in the clouds.
17:00 pm	Return to Quito