Volcanoes & Wildlife of Ecuador and Galapagos

Day 1 – Welcome to Quito

Clouds, cable cars and volcanos – that’s the sort of welcome committee you can expect in Quito, the world’s second-highest capital city. Those, plus a friendly face from the Camino Women family, who’ll be right there and waiting at the arrival hall to take you across town to your hotel.

After a quick freshen up, it’s time to meet your partners-in-hiking. A dinner together at 2,850 metres up gets the ball a-rolling on this Andean-scaling, island-hopping adventure of a lifetime. And so it begins.

Accommodation: Hotel Patio Andaluz, or similar, Quito
Included: Dinner

Day 2 – Quito to Cotopaxi

You’ll wake with mountains on your mind, because today is the day you enter the mighty Andes in earnest. But first – Quito. This UNESCO-inscribed city deserves at least a morning, don’t you think? Well, in truth, it deserves a lot more than that, which is why you’ll maximise every last second with a guided walk, pinballing between the people-watching mecca of Plaza Grande and the whitewashed faces of the Metropolitan Cathedral.

Then, head still swirling with visions of Spanish-style palazzos and monasteries from 400 years ago, you’re suddenly heading south. The city’s in the dust now, as the landscapes start to change and shapeshift. The group jostles in the car to spot glaciers floating in the clouds. Welcome to the epic Cotopaxi National Park, your first hiking playground in all of Ecuador.

Accommodation: Hacienda El Porvenir, or similar, Cotopaxi National Park
Included: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Day 3 – Cotopaxi

You wake up at an altitude of 3,800 metres, so don’t be surprised if you feel a little breathless over breakfast. That’s totally normal and it’s why there are two hike options for that first outing into the Andes: a challenging summit ascent that’ll take you another 600 metres up, or a more chilled riverside walk that’s great for acclimatisation.

Whichever you pick, it’s bound to be awesome. Going the river way means potential meetings with high-altitude hummingbirds along a path rich in wildlife. Going the higher route means scaling the peak of Pasochoa to gaze into a sleeping volcanic crater that’s now filled with lush rainforest.

Come evening you’ll have struck a line from the bucket list – you can now officially call yourself a trekker of the Andes!

Accommodation: Hacienda El Porvenir, or similar, Cotopaxi National Park
Included: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Day 4 – Cotopaxi

The snow-capped tops of Cotopaxi will greet you again this morning. Can you feel it’s getting easier to breathe? Yesterday’s hikes are paying off – you’re becoming acclimatised. Good, because you’re going to put that to the test today, with not one, but two separate treks in the alpine tundra that rolls around this roof of Ecuador.

First up is a hike that really stretches the hamstrings. This one’s a four-hour romp that’s got all the ingredients of a proper Andean adventure. Incan ruins, free-running horse bands, sweeps of tundra pockmarked by strange flora – you name it, it’s here.

This afternoon, you take on the ultra-famous Limpiopungo Lagoon. The walk’s not hard – just three kilometres max. What’s hard is peeling yourself away from the views. Look one way and you’ll see the jagged caldera of the Rumiñahui volcano. Look the other, and there’s the icecap of Cotopaxi herself. All that’s framed by shows of spring wildflowers and the occasional cameo by a camelid.

Accommodation: Hosteria La Andaluza, or similar, Riobamba
Included: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Day 5 – Andaluza to Ingapirca

Choo-choo! Hear that? It’s the call of the Nariz Del Diablo train, Ecuador’s most famous locomotive by far. Of course, you Camino ladies have tickets, so hop aboard and enjoy the ride. Well… enjoy it if you can. Did we mention that this train skirts a sheer drop along the edge of a peak known as the Devil’s Nose? And did we mention that it completes several steep switchback rail sections to lose 500 metres in altitude over just 12 kilometres in distance?

It’s a vertigo inducer, but it’s also stunning – watch the mountain peaks slide by, the river gurgling in the valley below.

We’ll arrive later at Ingapirca – Ecuador’s largest Inca site, and one that most travellers outside South America have never heard of. 

Accommodation: Hosteria Posada Ingapirca, or similar, Ingapirca
Included: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Day 6 – Ingapirca to Cuenca

Remember all that history we mentioned? Well… you’ll waste no time this morning in joining the llamas and getting stuck right into the middle of it. Cue the Ingapirca ruins, which sprawl across a lush mountainside above town, unfolding in a series of huge megalithic walls and shrines. Let the imagination run wild as you duck into what remains of the fabled Temple of the Sun, where your guide will reveal how the Incan designers forged the building to harness the light of the summer solstice. Be wowed as you gaze across the terraces towards the high Andes, where the clouds shift on the summits just as they did when the Inca stood where you stand.

Fast forward a few hours and you’re back on the hiking trail. Not just any trail, either. This one’s a section of the Ecuadorian Inca Trail, a winding, wiggling route that once stretched the length of an entire empire. Your bit’s a bite-sized chunk that’ll take the afternoon, traversing lush valley plateaus topped by jagged rock spires – see if you can spot the climbers.

Accommodation: Mansión Alcázar Boutique Hotel or similar, Cuenca
Included: Breakfast and Lunch

Day 7 – Cuenca

After a whole week of thigh-burning hikes and wandering history sites at high altitude, you’ve earned a break. There’s no need to lace up the boots and reach for the trekking poles this morning. Urban explorations are the order of the day and Cuenca is your proverbial oyster.

Step out of the hotel to walk the Rio Tomebamba riverside, dive headlong into the mercado to shop for Panama hats and Incan-themed trinkets, mill about the cafes sipping Ecuadorian brews – ooh, it’s the best coffee there is.

There’s a cooking lesson pencilled in for later on, plus something a bit special. We’ll keep it under wraps for now, but let’s just say you might want to hold off on your pre-trip Mesoamerican spiritual cleansing rituals!

Accommodation: Mansión Alcázar Boutique Hotel, or similar, Cuenca
Included: Breakfast and Lunch

Day 8 – Cajas National Park

All rested? Spirit cleansed? Good, because the Cajas National Park is calling. They say it looks like the Scottish Highlands or Wanaka, but there are definitely differences. For one, you’ll be gazing up at mountains that top out at nearly 4,000 metres. For two, there are llamas everywhere. Your guide knows the web of trails that filter through the Cajas peaks, so get together with your Camino compadres to pick the one you’re most up for this morning. Here, one rule remains – keep your eyes open and you’ll turn into a birdwatching enthusiast, if you weren’t one already.

Whichever trailhead you select, know that a reward awaits at the end: The steaming waters of the Piedra de Agua Thermal Spa. You’ll bubble away in mud pools and hot baths there in the shadow of the Andean foothills. It’s the perfect way to bid farewell to the mountains. Yep, it’s island time tomorrow!

Accommodation: Mansión Alcázar Boutique Hotel, or similar, Cuenca
Included: Breakfast and Lunch

Day 9 – To the Galapagos

You’re going on a real journey today. It will take you from the thin-air lands of Cuenca at 2,500 metres above sea level all the way to a string of islands set more than 1,000 kilometres out in the Pacific Ocean. Told you this trip would be an adventure!

It’ll pan out like this: a transfer from your hotel on the doorstep of the Andes to the airport, a flight out over the coastal plains of South America, across the ocean to land at Baltra Island, a short ride to Puerto Ayora, then a speedboat to Isabela. And viola, welcome to the Galapagos, a strange and stunning land unlike any other place on Earth. It’s your playground for the next four days.

Accommodation: Casa de Marita, or similar, Isabela Island
Included: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Day 10 – Isabela

The honk of the blue-footed booby and the smell of brine caking on the volcanic reefs greets your ears and nose this morning. It’s all a bit different to the Andes, hey? You’re about to find out how different, with a trip to the island’s vast wetland region. As you duck between strange candelabra trees and spiny Galapagos cacti, you might see flashes of pink here (is it a flamingo?) or splodges of golden-brown there (is that a sea lion lazing on the rocks?).

More surprises await at Isabela’s Arnaldo Tupiza Breeding Centre, where your Camino crew will meet arguably Ecuador’s most iconic native residents – giant tortoises. These guys can grow to over 1.5 metres across, weigh over 300kg, and live to over 150 years. Perhaps some of them even met Darwin himself?

Accommodation: Casa de Marita, or similar, Isabela Island
Included: Breakfast and Lunch

Day 11 – Isabela

Make sure you fuel up at breakfast this morning, for the Galapagos are about to throw one of their hardest hikes your way. It’s a 13-kilometre monster, traversing the edge of one of the world’s largest volcanic calderas. It will take almost all day, but will reward you with visions of remote, rugged, empty lands that look like something out of the Moon landing videos.

Follow your guide on a route that navigates steam-billowing fumaroles and holes in the crust of the planet that smell like sulphur. When you get to the top, there’s one of those yes-I-did-it moments – you and the group will stand side by side surveying lava fields and distant peaks and deep-blue ocean waters that go on for as far as the eye can see.

Accommodation: Casa de Marita, or similar, Isabela Island
Included: Breakfast and Lunch

Day 12 – Isabela to San Cristobal

Yesterday was hard, so enjoy a lay in, a slow morning, and a bit of a chill before you have to get going. You can zone out until your flight to San Cristobal, which whisks you over the Galapagos – and the views from the plane window are just what you’d expect – to the eastern corner of the archipelago.

That’s where you say a quick adios to civilisation, because your path leads to the Manglecito EcoLodge. It’s hidden away on a lonely beach on a lonely corner of the island, where it’s just the sound of the lapping waves, the tweet of the birds, and the rustle of the mangroves as a backing track. The group gathers to watch the sun dip low and the stars come out. This is what travelling to the ends of the Earth is all about!

Accommodation: Manglecito EcoLodge Campsite, San Cristobal Island
Included: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Day 13 – San Cristobal

So, there’s this jagged spire of rock that rises from the Pacific about 6 kilometres off the coast of San Cristobal, and it’s ringed by dashes of reef that burst with wildlife. We tell you this because it’s precisely where you’re headed this morning. You’ll bash over the waves, dive straight in, and go looking for sea lions, stingrays, even sharks! The smaller critters there are just as impressive – think fish with more colours on them than a rainbow, and marine iguanas that cling like limpets to the rocks.

Back in camp, it’s time to take stock of a trip that’s gone from the clouds to the cold ocean, with giant tortoises and Conquistador-built towns along the way. Gather one final time with the Camino crew under the glittering stars of the Galapagos, dining, drinking and reminiscing about everything you’ve done together.

Accommodation: Manglecito EcoLodge Campsite, San Cristobal Island
Included: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Day 14 – Back to Quito

Quito’s big energy calls you back from the edge of the world today. It’s a wild ride – you wake up in a remote camp beside a glittering white beach thousands of miles out in the Pacific and finish the day hopping the bars of one of South America’s great capital cities. The flight takes about two hours in all. Then the whole evening is yours – to sit outside, let the day sink in and start mentally packing for tomorrow.

Accommodation: Wyndham Quito Airport, or similar
Included: Breakfast

Day 15 – Farewell

Todo lo bueno se acaba – all good things must come to an end. That’s it, folks. Two whole weeks of Andean peaks, selfies with the llamas of the Cotopaxi steppe, birdwatching on the Galapagos islands, and volcano treks above the Pacific Ocean. Tired legs, sun-kissed faces, and full hearts are what you’ll leave with. Plus a whole group of new hiker friends who we’re willing to bet you’ll be calling upon pretty soon to plan another adventure! Perhaps you can start planning that as you head to the airport this morning?

Included: Breakfast