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Cotopaxi National Park: Photo by Jason Halberstadt

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Cotopaxi National Park is located in Ecuador and was created to protect the Andean condor and spectacled bear. It contains the Cotopaxi volcano, which dominates the Ecuadorian landscape. The park has two mountain ecosystems - cloud forest below 3,600 meters and páramo above 4,000 meters. Activities include climbing Cotopaxi volcano, hiking, horseback riding and birdwatching. There are also ruins and options to camp or stay in refuges or inns within the park.

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Cotopaxi National Park: Photo by Jason Halberstadt

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Luis Chicaiza
14 views2 pages
Cotopaxi National Park is located in Ecuador and was created to protect the Andean condor and spectacled bear. It contains the Cotopaxi volcano, which dominates the Ecuadorian landscape. The park has two mountain ecosystems - cloud forest below 3,600 meters and páramo above 4,000 meters. Activities include climbing Cotopaxi volcano, hiking, horseback riding and birdwatching. There are also ruins and options to camp or stay in refuges or inns within the park.

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Cotopaxi National Park

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Cotopaxi National Park

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Cotopaxi National Park is located in Ecuador and was created to protect the Andean condor and spectacled bear. It contains the Cotopaxi volcano, which dominates the Ecuadorian landscape. The park has two mountain ecosystems - cloud forest below 3,600 meters and páramo above 4,000 meters. Activities include climbing Cotopaxi volcano, hiking, horseback riding and birdwatching. There are also ruins and options to camp or stay in refuges or inns within the park.

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© All Rights Reserved
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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14 views2 pages

Cotopaxi National Park: Photo by Jason Halberstadt

Uploaded by

Luis Chicaiza
Cotopaxi National Park is located in Ecuador and was created to protect the Andean condor and spectacled bear. It contains the Cotopaxi volcano, which dominates the Ecuadorian landscape. The park has two mountain ecosystems - cloud forest below 3,600 meters and páramo above 4,000 meters. Activities include climbing Cotopaxi volcano, hiking, horseback riding and birdwatching. There are also ruins and options to camp or stay in refuges or inns within the park.

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Cotopaxi National Park

photo by Jason Halberstadt

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An hour and a half south of Quito, along the Avenue of the Volcanoes, is the
dominant image on the Ecuadorian national psyche: the perfectly conical Cotopaxi
volcano (altitude 5,897 m / 19,350 ft), one of the world's highest active volcanoes
and a mecca for mountain climbers. The volcano lies within Parque Nacional
Cotopaxi, a 33,393-hectare (82,515-ac) national park created in 1975 to protect
the fragile wet forest and pramo habitat of the endangered Andean condor and
spectacled
bear.
It
is
the
most
popular
of
Ecuadors
reserves.
The national park has two types of mountain ecosystems: cloud forest, or montane
forest, up to the timberline (3,600-3,000 m / 11,808-12,464 ft) and pramo
(4,000-4,500
m
/
13,120-14,760
ft).
Andean
blueberries,
lupine,
bromeliads,ugsha grass, mountain roses and other flora cover the landscape. Fauna
species entail 17 mammals, including puma, white-tailed deer, weasel, an endemic
marsupial mouse and wild horses; and almost 100 species of birds, including
Andean gull, shrike-tyrants, brush finches and snipes. Cotopaxi last erupted in
1942.
The
volcano
is
monitored
by
Ecuadors
Instituto
Geofsico

(URL: www.igepn.edu.ec). Besides Cotopaxi, the park is also home to other


mountains and volcanoes: Rumiahui (with three peaks: 4,722 m / 15,488 ft,
4,631 m / 15,190 ft and 4,696 m / 15,403 ft), Morurco (4,849 / 15,905 ft) and
Chiguilasin Chico (4,876 m / 15,993 ft). Just northeast of the park boundary is
Sincholagua (4,873 m / 15,983 ft), which also can be summited. Volcn Cotopaxis
glaciers feed the Guayllabamba, Cutuchi and Daule rivers, which flow to the Pacific
Ocean, and the Ro Napo, which flows towards the Amazon.
Parque Nacional Cotopaxi may be accessed at three entrances: the northern (called
Pedregal), near Machachi; El Boliche, where the train arrives; and the main
entrance (Caspi), six kilometers (3.6 mi) north of Lasso. The roads from the latter
two meet and head to the southern ranger station. About five to six kilometers (33.6 mi) beyond the main station is Estacin Mariscal Sucre, a complex that has a
restaurant, lodging, a smallmuseum displaying the parks flora and fauna, and a
self-guided hiking trail. The climbers refuge is another 15 kilometers (9 mi) uphill.
The
national
park
offers
a
wide
variety
of
outdoor
activities,
including climbing Cotopaxi
and
other
mountains, hiking, horseback
riding and mountain biking. Laguna Limpiopungo, which lays midways between
the two ranger stations, just west of the turn-off for Volcn Cotopaxi, provides
excellent birdwatching and vistas of the various volcanoes. Several pre-Columbian
ruins scatter the park, the most impressive of which is the Inca fortress, El
Salitre (Entry:
$5).
If spending the night under Cotopaxis starry skies, you have a choice of lodging
options:camping, refuges and a variety of inns, from hostels to haciendas.
The national park service of the Ministerio del Ambiente publishes a downloadable
interpretive
guide
(in
Spanish)
about
Parque
Nacional
Cotopaxi
(URL:www.ambiente.gob.ec/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2012/07/ParqueNacional-Cotopaxi.pdf). For more details about hiking and climbing in Parque
Nacional Cotopaxi, check out Ecuador Climbing and Hiking Guide (in English).
No entry fee into the park is charged, although one must still pay for camping,
refuges and other services. You may entire the park 365 days of the year, between
8
a.m.
and
3
p.m.
Cell phone reception is difficult to nonexistent in this area.
,

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