EXPEDITION VOLCANOS OF ECUADOR

Ecuador

Cotopaxi (5.895 m) and Chimborazo (6.310 m)

departure: All year

Duration: 14 days

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FROM

1.550€

Ecuador is one of the smallest countries in South America and yet offers climbers and travelers in general an incredible diversity of mountains, ecosystems and cultures to explore. Just one day’s journey from Quito, the capital, you can find peaks and glaciers above 5000 meters, Amazon rainforests, sunny beaches, cloud forests and ancient Inca settlements, avoiding the mountaineer and adventurer the long approaches and necessary planning elsewhere on the planet.

In addition, Ecuador has a good network of shelters located at the foot of many of its main mountains, which facilitates the logistics of accommodation for many climbers who try to ascend the main summits of the country throughout the year. Within these summits, we can find from hills of a moderate altitude without the presence of affordable glaciers for the majority of people used to walking in the mountains (Pasochoa, Imbabura, Pichincha ..), to snow-capped mountains that present technical and difficult routes with considerable altitude (Antisana, Altar ..), passing through peaks with affordable normal routes for a mountaineer with some experience in high mountains, such as the Illiniza N, the Cayambe, the Cotopaxi (temporarily closed to climbing) or the Chimborazo. El Chimborazo is a huge and prominent rock and ice massif that rises between the city of Riobamba, located to the south and the city of Ambato, located to the north of the mountain. It has several summits, the highest being at 6,310 m altitude. It is the only mountain in the Ecuadorian Andes that exceeds six thousand meters in height and geographically it is considered the highest mountain on earth if we measure the distance from its top to the center of the planet. This occurs due to the fact that Chimborazo is very close to the Equator and that the terrestrial sphere is flattened by the Poles. Its name derives from ancient pre-Columbian languages and means “ice woman” and it was a place of worship for the Incas who built small ceremonial buildings on its slopes and offered animal sacrifices for veneration of the mountain gods. Although Humbolt attempted his ascent in 1804, reaching the meritorious height of 5900 m, it was Edward Whymper who in 1880 accompanied by the Carrell brothers who achieved the first absolute ascent to the mountain.

Best season:
All year

Selección X-Plore

TYPE OF ACTIVITY:

PHYSICAL:

TECHNICAL:

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TRAVEL ITINERARY

DAY 1. FLIGHT TO QUITO AND ARRIVAL AT THE ECUADORIAN CAPITAL
Departure from the city of origin and arrival in Quito at night. Reception at the airport and transfer to our accommodation.

Hotel accommodation, Quito.

DAY 2. QUITO – HALF OF THE WORLD – PULULAHUA – QUITO
Breakfast.

In the morning we will move to the north of the city to visit the Middle of the World monument. Then we will move about 5km to the viewpoint of the Pululahua caldera, the largest in South America. Short walk through the sector. Return in the early afternoon to Quito, where we will take a guided tour of its historic center, one of the largest and most beautiful in South America and declared a World Cultural Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1978. We will start the tour going up the Colina de the Virgen del Panecillo to have a panoramic view of the city. Then we will visit the Plaza de San Francisco, the largest in the city, the Plaza de la Independencia where the cathedral and the Presidential Palace are located or strolling through the neighborhood of San Marcos are essential destinations when visiting Quito.

Hotel accommodation, Quito. Breakfast.

DAY 3. QUITO – PASOCHOA (4,200 M) – MACHACHI
Breakfast.

We will leave Quito in the morning, heading south along the Avenida de los Volcanes in a journey of approximately 1 hour and a half. During the trip you will have the possibility to enjoy the typical paramo landscape and views of the mountains of the sector. From where the transport will leave us, we will walk more or less 4 hours to the summit of Pasochoa, a large extinct volcanic caldera. Due to the morphological characteristics of the place, the Andean forest has been preserved intact, which is habitat for a great variety of fauna and flora, with more than 60 species of native trees and a great variety of birds. At the top we will rest contemplating a beautiful view of Cotopaxi. Descent and transfer back to Machachi.