el angel ecological reserve

El Angel eco reserve is the best place in Carchi Province in Ecuador, has a big water reserve with lakes and you can see animals like osos, lobos, condores, etc. Besides there is special plants like the polilepys that is beautifull.

El Angel is a poor, untouristy town. The tourism office on the parque was closed. The people from the Claro/photo shop on the parque have a good hospedaje, 8 $ per person. You can hire a camioneta to the Reserva El Angel, but it's not cheap if you're alone. I found transport to the next villages, La Libertad and San Fransisco, and started to walk. At around 8.30 am, the pickup truck brings the park rangers from town to the entrance of the Reserva and they gave me a lift.There are 12 km left from the entrance to the pass, through the frailejones (and also cattle ranches). At the pass, you can go to the Mirador (viewpoint) where there is now an antenna. But bad weather is frequent here, especially later in the day. There is also an unfinished refugio at the pass. You should descend to Moran, 12 km on the road in a beautiful valley (until you enter the clouds ...). At Moran, a very small village, Carlos Castro has a really nice guesthouse, also a good dinner, for a total of 10 $, really nice people. They really deserve to get more tourism. Start early the next day, good visibility only lasts till noon or 2 pm. 2 hours of hiking in mixed forest/pastures on an easy trail till the next village LA CORTADERA. Here you turn left, it climbs a little bit, it becomes a rough trail and you now enter the cloudforest and the jungle, where I met strictly noone. 1 hour 45 further, there is a small waterfall and a grand view, the perfect place for lunch. 30 minutes later, they are building a new hut (or is it another failed project ?), but it's full of mosquitoes. The trail deteriorates after that. It is a well-built, clear trail but it is not maintained, there is now way to get lost. There is no water on this section. After 1 hour 30 of descent, you arrive to the also mostly abandoned hut of El Corazon. There was rainwater in drums. It provides shelter but you need to bring everything else.The untouched rainforest continues for the next hour of descent. You reach streams now, then good places to camp. Afterwards, the trail improves, but the forest has been partly cleared (well, it's easier to observe birds this way). 3 hours from El Corazon, you arrive to a quiet village LAS JUNTAS and the road. There is a shop but nothing else, no transport (except a bus early morning ?). So I walked 1 hour 30 further on the road to GUALCHAN where a bus left for Ibarra at 12 noon (there is also a place to swim in the river).I met zero tourists in the area.

Visited two sides of the El Angel reserve, one filled with frailejones and the other an old polylepis forest. Both are so unique. Be sure to have a 4 wheel drive vehicle and warm clothing.

El Angel Ecological Reserve is a unique and beautiful area where the tall Espeletia (known as Frailejón) creates a paramo which is unique. Some of these plants might be hundreds of years old. These soft 'bunny ear' cactus leaves can hide hummingbird nests under the older dead leaves - though I didn't see even one hummingbird. Condors might also be seen - but I didn't see them. Here the cloud rolls in fast and the winds can pick up - it's amazing how clouds envelop you in a matter of minutes. The landscape is repetitive but striking. In the distance you will see Colombia.It's a long distance to travel to see this landscape. While we didn't have any problems here, this region is on the do-not-go list for travel due to some prior violence. Check your foreign office listings before considering it. Note too that your insurance might not cover you if you go (ours didn't) even if you have high-altitude insurance.

We visited this reserve up near the colombian border on our photographic trip organised by Surtrek and what a special place. El Angel is one of the best places to see this unique paramo consisting of the Frailejonal plant ... what at first seems a gentle climb is made a little harder by the altitude especially when carrying a backpack full of cameras. But once you reach the top you are rewarded with a fantastic view of the plants of all different heights stretching for miles and miles an extremely special sight.

Streng genommen versteht man unter einem „echten“ páramo nur jene Pflanzenformationen, die durch markante „Schopfrosetten-Bäume“ der Gattung Espeletia (fraylejón) oder „Riesenkerzen“ der Gattung „Lobelia“ geprägt werden. Und diese Merkmale findet man ansonsten nur in den Hochlagen Kolumbiens und Venezuelas sowie mit anderen Gattungen, jedoch der gleichen Wuchsform an den Hochbergen in Ostafrika. Charakteristisch und auch notwendig für die Vorkommen ist eine hohe Nebel- und Regenhäufigkeit sowie in den Zwischenphasen starke Sonneneinstrahlung, gegen die sich die Pflanzen mit verschiedenen Anpassungen schützen, z.B. mit einer dichten, flaumigen Behaarung der Blätter.Dass also ein solcher Páramo auch in Ecuador anzutreffen ist, liegt an der Lage von El Angel an der nahen Grenze zu Kolumbien, wo solche Vegetationstypen in fast allen Hochlagen oberhalb 3200 m ü.M. auftreten. Das heißt allerdings nicht, dass dieses südlichste der größeren Vorkommen (abgesehen von einem winzigen, sehr abgelegenen Relikt in Llanganates nahe Baños) einen weniger klar ausgeprägten Typus als jene im Nachbarland bildet. Im Gegenteil: Einen derart dicht mit fraylejones besetzten Standort wie jenen in der Reserva Ecológica von El Angel findet man ansonsten kaum. An seinen Rändern von Weideland mit Rindviechern bedrängt, konnte er mittlerweile sein Areal weitgehend behaupten und bildet somit einen ziemlich feuchten Kontrast zu seinem sehr trockenen Hangfuß im Valle del Chota, einem ähnlich interessanten, aber ganz andersartigen Standort. Er bietet zugleich mit zahlreichen Motels entlang der Straße von Ibarra nach Pasto in Kolumbien eine ideale Basis für einen Tagesausflug in die Páramos, z.B. am Wochenende ab Quito. Für die Landwirtschaft (vor allem Zuckerrohr) in dieser trockenen Fußstufe bildet die Reserve von El Angel mit ihren für páramos typischen Seen und vermoorten Standorten in den Hochlagen einen eminent wichtigen „Wasserturm“.

Los Frailejones... Son únicos!!! Que plantas para maravillosas, no solo parecen orejas de conejo sino que su presencia es vital en la producción de agua en las fuentes manantiales de los páramos ya que al parecer "peluches" retienen mucha agua en el rocío de cada madrugada. Complementan este paraíso, sus lagunas de "El Voladero", el cráter de su volcán "El Azufral" y la vista del hermoso pueblo andino paramero de El Angel