Spend a day trekking on the slopes of snow capped, Antisana Volcano, the fourth highest peak in Ecuador.
Walk around the Antisana Ecological Reserve to take a look at the old glacier, and see the flowers covering the border of picturesque lakes.
Antisana
with the height of 5705 m asl Antisana features the large zone of snow, which starts about 5 000 m asl.
Within the zone there is an of glacier moraine, whit the age reaching 11 000 years.
The Ecological Reserve has been created mainly to protect the unique ecosystem called ‘paramo’ which exists in the Andes at the altitude between 3 600 m to the snow level. There are no trees in the zone, and the vegetation getting less dense with the gain of altitude.
In spite of tough weather conditions the fauna and flora of ‘paramo’ is rich in variety of species.
The relatively small but nice examples of flora include the lichens and paramo straw, gentians, red Indian paintbrush, orchids and chuquiraguas.
During the trekk you can spot varoius birds, like carunculated caracaras, black wing doves, cinereous conebills, brown speckled teal, Andean lapwings, endangered black-faced ibis, and with a bit of luck andean Condor.
The tour starts from Quito which is around 2 800 m asl. Within two hours you will ascend in an air-conditioned private car the Reserve at the altitude about 4 000 m asl. Depending on the needs and interests the trekking distance inside the reserve varies between one to five kilometres and takes about two hours time.
The trekking ends with the packet picnic lunch inside the reserve ( included in price).
After the luch you will be taken back to the hotel in Quito.
Included are also the entrance to Ecological Reserve of Antisana
and the services of an English-speaking guide.
Duration
7 hours
Tour commences
Daily
Start
08:00 pm
Price
from € 167.18
[photo courtesy of emmett.hume]