NATIONAL PARKS AND RESERVES OF ECUADOR

The differentiation between the different categories often is not all that clear and certainly not a criteria whether or not you could be interested in an area.

We tried to give some indicational scoring to the areas, so that you may have an idea what could be important areas for you to visit. The scoring is from 1 - 5; the latter being very good, while comparing between these areas in Ecuador, in order to distinguish among them.

While most areas are scenic, some stand out for dramatic landscapes that are not found as abundantly in the other areas. All areas with snow-caped mountains have scored high. Tropical low-land areas score high if there are lakes from where birds and other wildlife can be watched.

Access scores a 5 if there is very convenient road-access to good trails or well-organized access over water that can be easily contracted.

Ecological interest is based on whether or not a visitor can actually experience and see and experience the biological highlights.

Overnight facilities score high if in or very nearby the port of access of an area.

	Scenic	Access	Ecological interest	Overnight Facilities
Galapagos NP	5	5	5	5
Galapagos Marine	The marine part of the Galapagos Islands
Cuyabeno	5	5	5	5
Cofán Bermejo	2	2	2	1
Limon cocha	4	5	3	5
Yasuni	3	3	3	1
Sangay	5	2	5	1
Llanganates	3	1	3	1
Sumaco	3	1	4	1
Podocarpus	3	3	5	1
El Condor	3	1	3	1
Las Cajas	5	4	4	3
Chimborazo	5	4	3 (vecuñas)	3
Ilinizas	3	3	2	3
Cotopaxi	5	5	3	4
El boliche	3	5	3	4
Antisana	3	2	2	1
Cayambe Coca	5	3	5	1
El Angel	5	3	5	3
Pululahua	5	5	2	5
Cotacachi- Cayapas	5	5	4	5
Cayapas Mataje	3	2	4	1
La Chiquita	2	4	2	4
Machalilla	3	5	5	5
Mache Chindul
Churute mangrove	3	3	4	3
Salado Mangrove	2	3	2	2
Rio Muisne Estuary	2	2	2	2
Santa Clara Island	2	2	2	2
Corazon and Fragatas Island	2	3	2	2
Lago Recreation	2	5	1	3
Arenilla	2	4	1	3

HIGHLIGHTS
Galapagos NP	Rather obvious
Cuyabeno	The only low-land Amazon area with lakes and micro channels from where one can observe wildlife and watch birds
Podocarpus	Interesting forest with the only South America coniferous trees
Las Cajas	5 Very scenic high land paramo landscape with many beautiful lakes
Chimborazo	Beside being the furthest point from the center of the earth, the area has a small herd of introduced vecuñas.
Cotopaxi	Beautiful scenic volcano top
Pululahua	Charming volcano close to Quito. Great for a morning visit when chances of decent weather are best
Sanguay	With three volcanoes and beautiful lakes, this area can be extremely beautiful, but the skies are rarely clear and the chances of spending all your stay in the fog and drizzling rain are extremely high. Only for very hardy outdoors people.
Cotacachi- Cayapas	A cable cart takes once close to the top of the Pichincha mountain top, part of falls in the Cotacachi Cayapas reserve. This is probably more recommendable for the fabulous view of Quito, than for the rich western Andes ecosystem. The value of the latter can be primarily appreciated by field scientists.
Machalilla	This area has a very rare transition forest from wet conditions in the North and the Peruvian coastal desert in the south. The landscape has suffered from human intervention, but there are still very valuable pockets of deciduous forests and bottle shaped trees. The beaches are accessible and offer plenty of over-night facilities.

While all areas can be reached in a day's travel, for most of them you will need several days to actually visit and appreciate them, as only very few have actual road access into the park, and if they do, the high quality ecosystems are at a distance from the road.

Plan your trip ahead of your travel, so that you avoid losing valuable vacation time figuring out what you would like to do, or worse finding out, what you really would have liked to do is not possible because you did not plan and organize it. We love to help you plan a great trip.