High in the mountains above Cuenca winds the path of the old trade route between the city and coastal Guayaquil. We stand deep in the heart of the National Park, where birds of pray circle sparse mountain trees; their bark peeling like fine paper. The air hangs in a fine mist over the dark-watered lakes, around which yellow grasses lay petrified by the wind against the glacial valleys. In a grassy clearing at the highest point of the path stand three marbled crosses, half bueried in the rocks offered by passers by. The story of the crosses is a mysterious one, and it seems that noone is certain of the real reason for the name of the place.
A common belief is that the name reflects an old Spanish- Catholic saying whereby a person ´makes three crosses´ in a place that they have no desire to return to. By making the three crosses they resolve never again to have to suffer the bad things that have happened to them there, and symbolically cross their palm before leaving.
Years ago trader families crossed the harsh, exposed path in order to make their living by selling goods in the adjoining city. At best the journey took 5 or 6 days, and back then the pass weaved its way through dense tropical jungle filled with dangerous animals and disease. Often people were lost along the way, but many thought that they had made it when they found their way through the forest and reached the highest point of the path (now the three crosses) in the mountains. Those who rested over-night to complete the jouney the following day never lived to see the tomorrow as the below freezing temperatures set in over the wet-land. Those who survived, exhausted and bereft, made three crosses at the point and vowed never to return; making new homes in their cities of destination rather than having to make the jouney back to their origin.
