Ecuador Saving Mother Nature

Ecuador’s been doing a good job with this. Yes, there is logging. Yes, there is oil drilling. Nonetheless, Ecuador has established more than 10 major national parks—and many smaller ones—in a country about the size of the US state of Nevada. Its largest, Yasuní Nacional Park, shares the same border that the northern Oriente shares with Colombia and Peru. Most who visit this park are scientists conducting research of some sort. But the Oriente contains other national parks, such as Antisana Ecological Reserve, Parque Nacional Llanganates, Jatun Sacha Ecological Reserve, Parque Nacional Sangay, and more. Parks deeper into the jungle offer more nature-watching and jungle-trekking activities than those farther west that offer more mountain-climbing and lakeside hiking. Ecuador has also protected territory in the south. Parque Nacional Podocarpus, down near Loja, Zamora, and Vilcabamba, offers hikes along streams and up mountains. Slightly west of Podocarpus is the Puyango Petrified Forest that gives a glimpse of what Ecuador must have looked like a few million years ago. Here nature-lovers will find scenes of flora and fauna, frozen since time immemorial. A little ways north, just outside of Cuenca, is Parque Nacional Cajas. Working up the coast by Guayaquil, trekkers and animal-lovers will find Reserva Ecológica Manglares Churute, Bosque Protector Cerro Blanco, Pueblo Ecológico Alandaluz, and Parque Nacional Machalilla, all great places to wander through. Up north, parks higher in altitude but lower in latitude offer gorgeous hikes through lush and verdant forest through drier and rockier terrain, all the way up to snow-capped peaks and lava-spewing craters. For these experiences, head to Reserva Cotacachi-Cayapas, Reserva Maquipucuna, Reserva Los Cedros, Reserva Geobotánico Pululahua, and the Bella Vista Cloud Forest Reserve.

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