Volcano Avenue: An Ecuador Photo Essay

ML took a trip to Ecuador earlier this year courtesy of the Ministry of Tourism, ATHecuador, Latitude Intl., Avianca, Taca and Aerogal airlines. Some photo highlights below.

Hacienda San Agustín de Callo, Central Sierra.
Ecuador’s Spanish colonizers routinely built on top of of existing Inca and other indigenous people’s structures, or else demolished them and re-used the stone. This 17th-century hacienda stands atop an Inca fortress; much of the original hand-cut and -fitted volcanic dry stone is still visible today. The hacienda is now a horse farm, museum and boutique hotel located in the shadow of Cotopaxi , at 5897 metres the world’s highest active volcano.

Flower farms, Northern Andes.
The view from La Avenida de los Volcanes, a route through the centre of the Andes named by 19th century German explorer Alexander Humboldt, one of the earliest champions of Ecuador’s volcano-crammed beauty.

Ceiling detail, Iglesia la Compania de Jesus, Quito.
In 1605 the Jesuits began to oversee construction of what would become the capital city’s most opulent church. Most of the gold-leaf in the interior walls and ceilings – up to seven tonnes – had been plundered from the conquered Inca.

View through hotel window, Riobamba, Central Sierra.
This crater looms menacingly above the city of Riobamba. At the geographical centre of the country, volcano-engulfed Riobamba is within day-tripping distance of several climbable volcanoes including Ecuador’s highest, Chimborazo. The latter is not a difficult climb as long as you’re fully acclimatized to the altitude.

Alausi train station, Central Sierra.
My shoes were not of the shining kind but for a small fee these young shoe-shiners were happy to pose for a photo in front of the La Nariz del Diablo train.

Sibambe train station, Central Sierra
Perched up in the paramo, a high-elevation Andean grassland wilderness, the newly built Sibambe station symbolizes the renascence of Ecuador’s once-formidable railway that was blasted through the mountains in the early 20th century under notoriously harsh conditions. The train route is named La Nariz del Diablo, or the “Devil’s Nose” for the shape of a massive wall of rock that stood in the way of the tracks, requiring engineers to carve a series of vertiginous zigzags during which many workers died.
So far this is a day-tourist railway only, but the government has plans to extend it and add sleeper cars by 2013.

Ingapirca ruins, Southern Sierra.
This archeological complex, the best-preserved in Ecuador, is a fusion of Canari and Inca styles. The latter conquered most of what is now Ecuador in the 15th century, rebuilding the existing Canari centre at Ingapirca as a Temple of the Sun in alignment with the solar calendar. The mastery of the Inca’s signature mortarless stonework, still standing after six centuries, is evident here.

Sally Lightfoot crab, Santiago Island, Galapagos.
Ubiquitous on all the Galapagos shorelines, these ever-mobile crabs redefine the word “skittish.” Shooting them without a super-fast lens is difficult but this one hid in a small crevice in the volcanic rock.

Surgeonfish off Fernandina Island, Galapagos.
As soon as you don your mask and look under, you’ll see you’re in the middle of vast schools of (mostly) yellow-tailed surgeonfish who truly don’t care if you live or die. And later that day a young Galapagos shark darted past us without even a sidelong glance.

Deck of the Galapagos Legend.
The Galapagos Islands struck me as surprisingly barren at first sight, especially when passing them in a ship. The apparent barrenness is nothing of the kind, however. The lack of large trees is a result of the thin volcanic soil strata. This small group of islands nearly a thousand kilometres off the coast of Ecuador is home to almost 9,000 species, according to the WWF.