Llanganates National Park Voyage Tips and guide

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Llanganates National Park (officially Parque Nacional Llanganates) is a protected natural area in the Andean Highlands of Ecuador. The area is fantastically scenic with a backdrop of Andean mountain scenery, with peaks and crags and abundant wildlife. Perhaps even more important to many visitors is the park's place in local legend where stories are told of immense riches hidden somewhere within the park's boundaries.

This is a large park, covering an area of more than 220,000 hectares.

The most prominent peak in the park is Cerro Hermoso ("beautiful mountain"), with an elevation of 4,570 meters. The mountain is a popular hiking destination with several marked trails, some of which are quite steep and challenging.

Back in the time of the Spanish Empire, the Spanish conquistadors told each other tales of vast treasures in the New World, just sitting there waiting for a bloodthirsty, larcenous villain to steal it for himself. Francisco Pizarro was one of the most famous of the Spanish villains, spreading the Spanish rule over anyone who happened to be in his way. In 1532, that someone was the Inca king Atahualpa of Cajamarca. Pizarro kidnapped the king, who quickly realized that the Spanish were greedy scumbags who coveted gold above all else. Atahualpa promised that if he were released, he would give Pizarro a room filled to the brim with gold and another room filled to the brim with silver.

Pizarro quickly agreed to the deal, but being a typical greedy Spaniard, he was also treacherous and always ready to lie like a dog. While Atahualpa sent his minions out to collect gold and silver from his hidden treasure troves, Pizarro murdered the king, even as General Rumiñahui was leading a caravan of minions laden down with treasure back to Pizarro. Word reached the General that Pizarro was a lying, cheating, murdering scoundrel who had murdered the Inca king, so Rumihahui turned the caravan into the jungle and hid the treasure someplace that only he would know. He then sent the minions out to other treasure troves to gather the deceased king's wealth and bring it to him in the park, where it too would be hidden from the greedy Spanish dirtbags.

Pizarro eventually captured Rumihahui and tortured him to force him to reveal the location of the treasure. Rumihahui kept his mouth shut though and died, taking the secret to his grave. Local legends have inspired scores of treasure seekers to search the park from one to the other, looking for the treasure, but it has never turned up.

Do you feel lucky?

The park was established as part of the Ecuador national parks system in 1996.

Several archaeological sites from Incan and pre-Incan civilizations are in the park. In 2013, an international team of explorers found a large square structure, 260 feet tall and 260 feet wide. It was built of stone blocks, each weighing 2 tons. The site was found in a cloud forest, 20 miles from the village of Baños at an elevation of 8,500 feet.

Landscapes, climate, and plant and animal vary widely from the western to the eastern side of the park. In the west, where Andean peaks dominate the landscape, paramo grasslands fill the valleys between high peaks. The area is populated with a large population of llamas, including their relatives, like the vicuñas and alpacas.

In the eastern part of the park, the mountains are lower without craggy peaks. It's an area of mountainous forests with rivers and streams flowing down towards the Amazon basin. The eastern part of the park is remote and difficult to reach and explore due to the frequent wetlands and the lack of roads. Several unusual endemic plant species thrive in this area, such as the Andean Magnolia.

In the western highlands section of the park, areas of paremo grasslands are populated by several types of llama as well as mountain tapirs and spectactled bears. The montane forests are populated by deer, goats, agouti, porcupines, anteaters, rabbits and different types of monkey including the machin monkey and the howler monkey.

Bird species include the Andean condor, Andean gull, pilco real, and ducks. Several kinds of hummingbird live in the park including the royal, bunga, and sword-billed hummingbirds.

The nearest airport served by commercial flights is Quito (UIO ^IATA).

From Quito, travel by bus to the town of Salcedo. Buses operated by Cooperativa de Transportes Salcedo depart from Quito's Terminal Terrestre Quitumbe every hour. The trip to Salcedo is about 90 km and will take about 1-1/2 hour.

The park can also be entered via other towns, such as Patate, Pillaro, Baños, or Rio Verde.

• Baños
• Ambato