Ecuador Adventures

Quito

You are met on your arrival at the airport and transferred to your hotel in a modern district of Quito for 2 nights on a B&B basis.

This morning you are collected from your hotel by your English-speaking guide for the ride on the Teleferiqo cable car which rises high above Quito for wonderful panoramic views over the city. The ride begins on the city’s western fringes, climbing the flanks of the massive Pichincha Volcano from 3,000 up to 4,000 metres. You then visit the Museo de la Ciudad dedicated to the social history of Quito, set in a restored colonial building. After lunch you explore the Old City on a walking tour with your guide.

Papallacta hot springs

Your are collected from your hotel for the drive up the eastern cordillera of the Andes, crossing the highest mountain pass in Ecuador. It can be foggy up here but with clear skies there are magnificent views of Antisana volcano and the surrounding paramo. Travel on to Termas Papallacta, a comfortable mountain lodge set around thermal springs where you stay the night on a full-board basis. Your guide takes you on a hike on a short trail just to stretch your legs, or a longer one if you prefer. You can also take the plunge in the hotel’s many thermal pools, steaming and bubbling in the open air. Steam rooms, massages, mud wraps and other spa treatments are at reasonable extra charges.

Cotococha Jungle Lodge

In the morning continue east by road through the cloud forests pausing at a lodge known for hummingbirds, including the sword-billed hummingbird whose slender beak is longer than its body. You can do a short hike here before continuing to Cotococha Amazon Lodge, on the shores of the Napo River. After lunch at the lodge there is a choice of activities: a 3 hour walk in the rainforest, or a visit to a local community reached by a short canoe trip. For the walk you don rubber boots provided by the lodge. Your guide will help you identify medicinal plants, and explain their characteristics and how traditional communities use their medicinal properties. You should also find a great variety of insects, birds and small groups of monkeys weaving through the trees. After about 3 hours you return to relax, freshen up and have dinner. To visit a local community you take a short canoe trip downriver to a Shiripuno village which is pleased to invite visitors to experience a traditional way of life in the Amazon forest. Local ladies will receive you and chat about their traditions and lifestyle, show you how they cook and weave cloth, and how dance features in their lives. A huge stone marked with ancestral petroglyphs expresses their nature-oriented beliefs. You can return to the lodge or continue a short distance upstream to a river beach to walk (1hr approx) through secondary rainforest to the lovely ‘La Cascada de Latas’ waterfall, take a dip perhaps and return the same way.

After breakfast you are taken by canoe through the rainforest to a regular checkpoint at Misahualli village, where there is often a troupe of capuchin monkeys in the trees, then on to the Arajuno river. Here you stop to visit a rescue centre that is usually caring for a variety of toucans, parrots, monkeys, capybara, and sometimes even ocelots. After a riverside picnic you stop at a river landing where a family with contacts with the lodge demonstrate traditional gold panning, making pottery, brewing ‘chicha’, and hunting with blowpipes. You return to the lodge on a forest trail.

Baños region

You continue to the Baños region, breaking the journey at Puyo at a small balsa wood workshop for brightly painted gifts. The road climbs the gorge of the Pastaza River declared ‘A Gift to the Earth’ by WWF, a 50km corridor from rainforest to high mountain passes. There is a spectacular waterfall at El Pailón del Diablo (Devil’s Cauldron). You stay 2 nights full board at a 300-year old hacienda tucked into the mountains in the village of Patate.

Lots of soft adventure options today based around the hacienda, including hiking, mountain-biking and horse-riding (all at reasonable extra cost). There is also a heated indoor swimming pool, a spa and gym. Your guide is at your disposal for a trip into Baños or elsewhere in the area.

Cotopaxi

Time to turn northwards along the Avenue of the Volcanoes to visit Cotopaxi NP. Cotopaxi (p9) is the highest active volcano in the world, and one of the most beautiful. You drive up to 4500m, with wonderful views when the weather is clear. If you are responding well to the altitude you might walk (slowly) the short distance to the mountain refuge at 4800m, and maybe a little further to touch the lowest tongues of the glacier’s blue-white ice. Herds of wild horses and llamas come to drink at the beautiful Limpiopungo Lagoon below the volcano. There are vestiges of Incan stone walls and the ruins of an Incan fortress. Descend to spend 2 nights full board at a characterful hacienda with an accent on outdoor action.

Free day at your hacienda for options that include walking, horse-riding, mountain-biking and canopy tours, all at reasonable extra cost. Your guide returns to Quito today.

Quito

On your transfer to Quito by road you might be able to call at a local market, such as at Saquisilí. On Thursdays, the big market day, four separate markets take place–an early morning animal market, a handicraft market, a fruit and vegetable market, and a market for clothes and costumes in the local style. Back in Quito, you stay the night in the ‘La Mariscal’ area.

Transfer to the airport for your flight to the Galapagos or back to the UK.