According the andean tales, It say the mountains were gods. The Imbabura Mount was a strong young man. He used to get up early and enjoyed looking the landscape in the dawn. One day, he decided to see more places. He made friends with other mountains whom he visited frequently. But, one afternoon, he met a girl-mountain named Cotacachi. Since that moment he look her, he was overcome with a joy as if a fire was burning in his heart. He never was the same. He understood that happiness was to walk next to her, gazed the stars. And so it was born an enchantment between both mountains forever.
I want you be my partner," he told her, as he touched her face with his hand. -That is also my wish," said the Cotacachi woman, and she closed her eyes a while. The Imbabura took his beloved to his scarce snowy peak. It was an offering of both giants involved in love. She also gave him her frost that was born on her top. After a while these lovers gave themselves up to their passion. The clouds passed contemplating these exuberant mountains that slept embraced, in the middle of prodigious lagoons. This intense tenderness was rewarded with the birth of a son. Yanaurcu or Cerro Negro, they called him, at the time when the grasslands moved with exhilaration. With the passing of the moons, Imbabura mount grew old. He had headache, but he did not complain.
When the peck of Imbabura is covered with a plume of clouds, he has a headache. But when it fades, the Taita contemplates again his beloved Cotacachi, reviving memories of caressing his face with his hand and with a heart, due to the singular shape it has on his slope.