Arrival in Quito – transfer in

Depending on your flight. Upon arrival you’ll meet your guide and transport and then transfer to our hotel.

Quito, optional city tour

Today you have all day to explore the city of Quito. Founded in the 16th century and is located on the World Heritage List of UNESCO. You can walk the streets of colonial houses, churches, streets and plazas, with shops and restaurants. Climb the stairs of the church of San Francisco and can buy candles and incense to the Indians.

 Quito with a location at 2800 meters can always breathe fresh mountain air!

Quito – Amazon Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve

We took the plane trip to Lago Agrio. Here you start the largest rainforest in the world, the Amazon basin. This is the true primary rainforest left in Ecuador. With local transport we went to the Cuyabeno River Bridge and then took a wooden motorized canoe to get to our lodge in the Cuyabeno National Park. A fantastic place! Here you can really see animals as caciques, alligators, parrots, blue butterflies “Morph”, kingfishers, toucans, parrots, monkeys and piranhas. Even with luck freshwater dolphins Cuyabeno is their habit, so the hoatzin “prehistoric bird.”

Cuyabeno

Cuyabeno is far from Western civilization. A 400 km. From Quito Siona Indians live here still in its traditional form. A local guide and a naturalist guide will teach you about the use of plants used. We go by canoe to the Laguna Grande, or call the flooded forest, where is the habitat of, anacondas, Arapaima, manatees and piranhas. While we walk and maneuver through macrolobiums “a species of acacia that grow in water. Enjoy the sunset and all the sounds of the night and go in search of alligators. Her eyes reflect red light a flashlight.

Cuyabeno – Otavalo

Canoe trip and transportation back to Lago Agrio airport to catch our flight to Quito. We continue our journey and arrived in Otavalo at night, in our private transportation, city of the Indian markets. Originally the market was on Saturdays, so it is still in the guidebooks. But because of interest in this market, now celebrated every days.

Otavalo – Cuicocha

Everywhere in the markets and stores are brightly colored fabrics, soft and beautiful wool sweaters wood carvings for sale, The Indians here are considered as the only direct descendants of the Incas. The men in white pants and blue ponchos wear their hair in long braids, the women are dressed in black and blue costume jewelry and embroidered blouses. Otavalo is the place to buy souvenirs.

In Otavalo much to know. Cuicocha visit the lagoon, which is the crater of an ancient volcano, where we will walk for about an hour, path along the Blue Lake crater, on a clear day you can see the volcanic peaks of Imbabura, Cotacachi and Cayambe.

Otavalo – community tourism

we leave in the morning is a tour of several villages around Otavalo. With a local guide, visiting all kinds of small handicraft enterprises. The Indians are manufacturers of baskets, hats and ponchos. We can learn how people live and how to buy in their markets. In the afternoon visit a small community dedicated to community tourism. Accommodation with local families. Here we can live with them.

Community Otavalo – Mindo

Nature is very beautiful in the foothills of the Andes. Arrive to our lodge in Mindo built by residents of the area and also a place of biological research, but very well located in the middle of the clouded forest. The food cooked with delicious local produce.

Mindo

After breakfast a beautiful walk in the woods, you can see toucans and hummingbirds. Or armadillos, ocelots, spectacled bears, bats, butterflies can swim in the river and waterfalls, in the afternoon resting in hammocks at the lodge.

Mindo – Lasso

This morning we crosses the equator from north to south. We continue the journey in our private transport traveling through the “Avenue of the Volcanoes.” Crossing the highlands of Ecuador, with views of volcanoes, including Cotopaxi, Ilinizas. Our destiny is very special, tonight we will sleep in one of the best farms on the continent, La Cienega, (or similar depending on the capacity.) founded in 1688. It has become a comfortable hotel. Even the scientist Von Humboldt once slept here. Enjoy the historic environment and its beautiful gardens.

Lasso – Cotopaxi -Saquisilí – Baños

visit the weekly market Saquisilí, the most impressive Indian market in Ecuador. Every Thursday changes the normally quiet town in a large bustling market, where not only trinkets, but the cattle market. Then visit the Cotopaxi National Park, the volcano of the same name, with 5897 meters high, the largest active volcano in the world. Our private transportation will take you through various vegetation zones up to 4,500 meters. On foot you can reach a zigzag path to a mountain hut at 4,800 meters. The height makes this walk 300 meters, relatively small we take 1 hour away, but the breathtaking views of the valleys near worth it.

Baños

Baños is located at 1800 meters at the foot of the volcano Tungurahua. It is built around hot springs, which have a healing effect. Try it yourself and enjoy the cozy atmosphere of the city. Everywhere restaurants of all kinds of food, a full day of activities where you can stroll through the lush canyon of the river Pastaza, horse riding or rafting.

Baños -Riobamba, optional ride mountain bike

Chimborazo is 6310 m Chimborazo – meters the highest volcano in Ecuador. Through a beautiful landscape of wilderness and take a hike to a mountain hut at 5,000 meters. Maybe we can see a kind of Vicuña camelid red head and call that this is their habitat, for people who like to exercise, I optional biking downhill mountain of Chimborazo spectacular and accompanied by professional guides.

Riobamba –  Ingapirca – Cuenca

A day long trip but very special. In the morning the spectacular Alausí.  our private transport awaits us and we go Ingapirca, the largest complex of Inca ruins of Ecuador on the way to the city of Cuenca. The monument was built in honor of the last Inca king, Atahualpa, and was built for religious purposes and strategic. The central building of the ruins is the Temple of the Sun, where you can see the bricks with absolute precision fit without mortar.

The procedures for obtaining train tickets are complicated, and sometimes it happens that you cannot get any ticket. But always do all the necessary arrangements for this trip.

Cuenca, Chordeleg

Many people consider Cuenca, one of the most beautiful cities in Ecuador. Even more than in Quito, literally, walking through the city’s colonial past is also a cultural center and home to Ecuador for art galleries and interesting museums, the cathedral is beautiful with its high blue domes. Near the city of Cuenca, visit indigenous peoples in the area. As Chordeleg, where you can buy handmade jewelry and textiles.

Cuenca – Cajas National Park – Guayaquil

With our private transport will cross the highlands and twenty miles west of Cuenca visiting Cajas National Park This is a unique park with a rugged landscape, unspoilt paramo, where there are about 200 lakes scattered. We can make a quick visit could walk and bird watching, maybe even the condor, the symbol of the Andes.

We continue our journey to get out of the Andes and descend to the sea level. You will see the change of environment. The mountains give way to a tropical coast, with many banana plantations. In the early afternoon we arrive in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city, with its seaport, which is the heart of the Ecuadorian economy.

Guayaquil, transfer out

Departure to the airport and say goodbye to the land of the Indians, Andes, volcanoes, nature, the Amazon and the Pacific Ocean beaches. But you always take these new experiences ECUADOR Beautiful land of new friends. 

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