Cajas National Park

Cajas begins less than an hour from Cuenca and rises to well over four thousand metres, a landscape of open páramo grassland scattered with something like two hundred and seventy lakes and tarns left behind by glaciers, and it feels far wilder and emptier than its proximity to a city suggests. Its particular treasure is the polylepis, or paper-bark tree, which grows in twisted, moss-hung stands in sheltered hollows at an altitude where trees have no business growing at all, forming small enchanted-looking woods. Marked trails run from the ranger station at Laguna Toreadora, from short loops around the lakes to full-day traverses, and the wildlife includes llamas, hummingbirds down to the tiny metallic species that live in the páramo, and the occasional Andean condor overhead. The weather changes constantly, which is part of the character.

What you actually see

• The lakes - hundreds of glacial tarns scattered across the páramo.
• Polylepis woods - twisted, moss-covered paper-bark trees in sheltered hollows.
• The páramo grassland - the high open moorland with its own flora.
• The marked trails - loops and traverses from the Toreadora ranger station.

When to go

The park is open year-round and there is no reliably dry season, though August to January tends to be clearer; expect sun, cloud, wind and rain in the same day whatever the month. It is cold at this altitude, especially with wind. Start early, as cloud usually builds through the afternoon.

Honest expectations

It sits above four thousand metres and people arriving straight from the coast feel it badly; acclimatise in Cuenca first. The weather is genuinely fickle and fog rolls in fast, which is how walkers get lost, so stay on marked trails or take a guide for the longer routes. There is little shelter and no facilities beyond the ranger station.

Nearby

Cuenca's old town is half an hour east; the road continues down to Guayaquil and the coast.