A
REVIEW
MY FAVORITE PLACES IN ECUADOR By Jefferson Morales
thanks for your support.
The Ilinizas
My name is Jefferson, I'm from SangolquĂ, a city just 30 minutes from Quito, the capital of Ecuador. I'm working in tourism such as tour guide more than five years ago, but the last two years I'm working in the Cuyabeno Reserve in the ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest. I love my country and I've traveled for all Ecuador, always with my camera because I like to take photos even I'm not a professional photographer but, i like to freeze the moments. Every photo has an anecdote o history
SANGOLQUÍ
I wanna begin with my lovely SangolquĂ, which is a small city located in the Chillos valley next to Quito, I was born there, I grew up there and I live there. SangolquĂ in the past was the granary of Quito, was well known for the Chillo corn and for that reason the name of the valley. This corn was really wanted in the colony epoch because the grains are big, yellow and the flavor otherworldly.
Iglesia Matriz de SangolquĂ
Hiking and camping in the nature is one of my favorite things, you can breath fresh air, you can listen to the birds, mammals, insects, amphibians, you can feel the connection with the mother nature. When I walk in the nature i don't feel tired because i can feel the power of nature on me. Here in Ecuador you have several places for camping, and the best part for me is the next day when you open your tent and you have a wonderful landscape.
Pichinchas
Cotopaxi
YANACOCHA
If you like biodiversity you have to go to Yanacocha Reserve, I love Yanacocha and is really close to Quito just 40 minutes to the westward, in Pichincha's foothill. Yanacocha is a private reserve with 1200 ha and an elevation of 3200-4400 m.a.s.l. The reserve was created in order to protect the flora and fauna native of the Andes, mainly the Black-breasted Puffleg (Eriocnemis nigrivestis) an endemic hummingbird and emblem of Quito.
Birdwatching in Yanacocha is awesome with 242 species
1 1 Spectacled Redstart 2 Blue-backed Conebill 3 Gray-browed Brushfinch 4 Yellowbreasted Brushfinch
There you can find feeders with different species
2
Polylepis forest, Paramo
3
4
PICHINCHA WEST
TANDAYAPA VALLEY, NANEGALITO AND MINDO
Just one hour from Quito we have an amazing ecosystem with a wonderful biodiversity, beautiful landscapes, tasty traditional food and good people who make your visit an unforgettable and full of good experiences. I'm talking about the cloud forest.
Tandayapa Valley
9 Swallow Tanager 10 Fawnbreasted Tanager
9 Tanagers are social, even you can find mixed flocks in the same place. You can find several places with feeders to see this beautiful birds.
11 Palm Tanager 12 Silverthroated Tanager
10
Polylepis forest, Paramo
11
12
INGAPIRCA
Ingapirca means Inca Wall, this place has so much history before the incas but the Incas was the last part of ecuadorian history before the european conquest. This place was part of the CaĂąari culture and was really important in the festivities, there we have a Temple in honor to the Sun every summer solstice (june 20 this year 2020) there we have a big celebration the name Inti Raymi (Sun's party), is really interesting for the rituals, is striking all the colors with the flowers and food, there is typical dance and music as well.
Inca stone, in the middle of the Molleturo's Paramo
CAJAS NATIONAL PARK
Another of my favorite places in Ecuador is the Cajas National Park, just 30 minutes westward from Cuenca city. The altitude there is 3.160 - 4.450 masl, that part of the andean mountain range is really old with less volcanically active. In El Cajas we can find water bodies: there are about 165 lagoons that are over 1 hectare and 621 that are smaller than 1 hectare. In total there are 786 water bodies. We have different hikes since 1 hour until 14 days walking around all the park. The landscapes there are awesome.
Gentianella hirculus
CUYABENO
The fauna production reserve Cuyabeno has a big part of my heart. I've been working there since june 2018 and Cuyabeno is like my second home, I love that place after a couple of days there i fell in love with the jungle, the birds, insects, monkeys, reptiles, amphibians, spiders, mammals, weather, food, people, landscapes, rainy days, sunny days, sounds, everything. Would need a complete book to show you all the photos, but you're gonna see some of them.
Tandayapa Valley
Tayra (Eira barbara) is a mustelid, they feed on fruits, eggs, chicks and other vertebrates like monkeys and squirrels. They are agile with really sharp claws which use to climb trees to find their food. Neotropical Otter (Lontra longicaudis) prefers to stay alone, they feed on fish and crustaceans. one of the differences with the giant otter is the otter is brownish color and the giant has a cream-coloured mark in the throat. Giant Otter (Pteronura brasiliensis) is my favorite mammal, is rare to see them. They feed on fish, crustaceans, and small reptiles. They spend time in groups swimming, hunting and cleaning their fur.
About insects and arthropods this place is awesome, you can find thousand of them and to take a good picture you need a macro lens. I don't have but i took some pictures. Identify an insect is a challenge, around 80% of them are as yet unnamed. 1 1 Female Horned scarab (Dynastes hercules), it has almost the size of my hand. 2 Bess beetle (Veturius sinuaticollis)
2
Moth
1
2
Amphibians are interesting, we can find really tiny ones, such as your pinky finger nail, until big ones like the smoky jungle frog (Leptodactylus pentadactylus) picture 1 ad 2 with 18cm, even they are able to eat mice, bats, snakes, other frogs and other small reptiles. You can find poisonous ones, like Anthony's poison arrow frog (Epipedobates anthonyi). They produce a substance call it epibatidine 250 times stronger than morphine and isn't addictive. 3 South american common toad, (Rhinella margaritifera) 4 Yurimaguas poison frog, (Ameerega hahneli)
3
4
1
5
7
4
5
Rusty whipsnake, (Chironius scurrulus) juvenile
6
Two-striped forest-pitviper, (Bothrops bilineatus)
7
Blunthead tree snake, (Imantodes cenchoa)
8
Tiger rat snake, (Spilotes pullatus)
9
Green-striped vine-snake, (Oxybelis argenteus)
8
6
3
9 5
1
32
33
32 Violaceous Jay 33 Black-capped Donacobius 34 Swallow-winged Puffbird 35 Red-capped Cardinal 36 Masked Crimson tanager
34 37 Scarlet-crowned Barbet
35 3
36 45
37
Neotropic Cormorant
jefferson.morales1993@gmail.com
+593 979 350 327
@jeffoz593 City Tour Quito Middle of the World Guide-Driver service Birdwatching tours
Full day Mindo, Quilotoa, Cotopaxi, Otavalo, Antisana Tailor-made Tours
UNIQUE EXPERIENCES
ECUADOR IS WAITING FOR YOU Amazing Places, nice people, tasty food,wonderful nature, Galรกpagos islands, Coast, Andes and Amazon rainforest
JEFFERSON MORALES presented
MY FAVORITE PLACES IN ECUADOR