I started thinking about how much we were using the names of these Mountains and thought I would pass on a legend about them. Now I can’t credit where I found this out, because I have read so much and searched so much information about Ecuador, I really don’t know the source. Ok now for the Legend…
Mama Cotacachi (the mountain) is a pale-skinned woman with long white hair, and took care of the children at her feet [read the people in the villages]. She was married to Papa Imbabura. When they argued the thunderbolts fell.
Imbabura cheated on Cotacachi with Cayambe, a snow covered mountain to the south. He gave Cotacachi grain, but gave Cayambe rain and water.
When Cotacachi found out about Imbabura cheating on her she cried and those tears formed the lakes at the bottom of Cotacachi.
From the lake is the birth place of the Inca nation – but that is another legend for another day