NATIONAL
PARKS AND NATURE RESERVES OF ECUADOR
Ecuador has 33 national protected areas, of different
categories.
The differentiation between the different categories often is
not all that clear and certainly not a criterium to decide 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 |
We marked the best areas for visitation in green.
|
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 beforehand. Please contact us; we love to help you plan and organize
a great trip. We are still gathering the information on each of the parks, so
there is no need to open those pages yet.  | 
