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Paradise on Earth
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From moisture-laden rainforests pulsating with wildlife to mighty, ice-capped volcanic peaks set like jewels in a cobalt blue sky, there’s something for everyone in tropical Ecuador. Rainforests are the greatest of all Mother Nature’s pharmacies. For every human ailment, there is almost certainly a natural remedy waiting to be discovered somewhere within these vast, lush cathedrals of trees. Indigenous peoples have long known about and harvested the riches of the rainforest, relying on plants to provide not only medicines, but also food, as well as tools, weapons and building and other materials. . . . . . Just how useful rainforests are to the people who live in them soon becomes apparent to anyone lucky enough to visit the remote Napo Wildlife Centre in Ecuador’s Yasuni National Park - thanks to the boundless enthusiasm of ebullient tour guide Jorge Fabre and his colleagues. “This plant, for example, is used by indigenous people to treat snakebites,” Jorge told our group. “The leaves are crushed and a drink is made from the juice which is then given to the person who has been bitten. A paste made from the same plant is placed on the wound itself.” Elsewhere in the forest, Jorge drew our attention to all manner of other useful things: a leaf so rough it can be used as sandpaper; a black, spiky seed pod called a monkey’s comb simply because monkeys use it for grooming themselves; a type of palm from which fishing lines and nets are made; a different palm used for construction purposes and also to make spears, bows and arrows, blowpipes and such like; and the red sap from the dragon’s blood tree which is used to seal cuts, deter mosquitoes and treat ulcers. . . . . . Rainforests are full of hidden dangers for the unwary or inexperienced visitor. One insect be avoided at all costs in Yasuni National Park is the large bullet or hunting ant. Up to 1.25 inches long, it can inflict an extremely painful sting. As we walked along the trail, Jorge suddenly stopped, waited for us to gather around him in a semi-circle and then used his machete to bang on the trunk of a tree. Almost immediately, a stream of aggressive bullet ants flowed out of a hole at the bottom, alarmed by the noise. As soon as they realised they weren’t being threatened, they turned around and just as rapidly disappeared back inside the hole – much to our relief. “Those were lesser hunting ants,” said Jorge, “but greater hunting ants are also found in the area.” The greater is the world’s biggest ant. Thankfully we didn’t see any of those. In another part of the forest we came across a small sapling encircled by dead vegetation. Jorge explained that this plant enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship with the lemon ant. The plant provides food and shelter for the ant, while the ant, in return, chemically kills off all other plants in the vicinity so that its host grows tall and strong. . . . . . Ecuador is a birdwatcher’s paradise, and 562 species have been recorded in and around Napo Wildlife Centre alone. Many of the winged wonders are big and colourful. From our cabanas (there are ten altogether, plus a large dining area with a library and well-stocked bar), we were treated to an almost constant avian air display, complete with low flypasts. Among the participants were greater ani, white-throated toucan, yellow-rumped cacique, russet-backed oropendola and primitive-looking hoatzin. As well as forest walks, there are also canoe rides for visitors in the local lake and creeks. The lake is full of fish, including the huge arapaima and red-bellied and white-bellied piranha. Much more likely to be seen, especially at sunset, are black caiman – alligator-related reptiles whose eyes ‘glow’ when caught in the beam of a flashlight. A must for ornithologists are the two relatively local parrot ‘licks’ where all manner of species, from magnificent macaws to parakeets and parrotlets, drop in for their daily dose of clay to neutralise the toxins in the seeds and nuts they eat. Napo Wildlife Centre is unusual in that 49 per cent of its net profits go directly to the local Anangua community and the remaining 51 per cent to the Quito-based EcoEcuador Foundation, a conservation body. . . . . . As a young lad, I yearned to ride a horse like a cowboy – to gallop across vast, dusty plains putting the world to rights like my ‘big screen’ heroes John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. Although my childhood dream was nothing more substantial than early morning mist, I’ve often wondered what it would be like to climb into a saddle, to feel every movement of a living, breathing creature beneath me and to see the world from a totally different perspective. I told myself that if, by a chance, I ever got around to riding a horse, it would be a fairly sedate experience in a sun-dappled paddock with somebody else holding the reins. In fact, my first up-close-and-personal equine encounter took place not in the countryside of southern England, where I live, but in the rarified air and boulder-strewn foothills of the high Andes in Ecuador. The setting for my first ride was the bucolic and beautiful Hacienda El Porvenir, a mountain lodge encircled by four volcanoes and nestling on the grassy slopes of one of them – the heavily eroded, 4,721-metre high Ruminahui, named after an Incan general who fought the invading Spanish Conquistadors in the 16th century. Before our equine briefing, we were invited to down a cup of coca which helps combat the effects of altitude sickness. A little later, we followed our guide into the courtyard where we were helped to don a weatherproof poncho, llama chaps and a sort of cowboy hat. I was in my element! Our brief ride, we were told, would take us up the hill behind the lodge. The terrain looked rough, but I assured myself I was in the hands of experts. . . . . . Getting on a horse, I discovered, is an art in itself, never mind the riding. Given that I was wearing a thick and somewhat cumbersome poncho, I had to make several attempts before I could get my leg over, so to speak. With everyone finally in position, we moved off. The experience was both hilarious and unnerving. Hilarious because initially some of our horses faced one way and some the other. Unnerving because my horse clearly didn’t suffer fools gladly. I could immediately tell who was boss, and it certainly wasn’t me. Eventually I managed to get the hang of things and succeeded, much to my surprise, in getting my horse to follow the others. All went well for a while. Then, with frightening speed, the sky clouded over, hail began to fall, lightning lit up the heavens and thunder boomed all around us. The hail stung my face and my glasses misted up, which meant that virtually everything more than a foot away from me was just a blur. I held on for grim life as my horse plodded on, seemingly oblivious to all my commands. Two or three of my fellow travel writers decided to call it a day and head back to the lodge. For reasons still unclear to me, I decided to press on. And I’m glad I did, for the ride was exhilarating, the stormy weather certainly adding to the challenge. . . . . . Horse riding is the speciality of ‘high adventure’ tour operator Tierra del Volcan, which runs three working haciendas or farms, of which El Porvenir is one. Riding trips last from several hours to eight days. Other activities include trekking, hiking, climbing, camping under velvet, starlit skies, mountain biking and birdwatching. Volcanoes pepper the Ecuadorian landscape, the area between the eastern and western ranges of the Andes, from Quito south to Riobamba and Chimborazo, having been aptly dubbed the Avenue of Volcanoes. Pichincha, Sincholagua, Antizana and Tungurahua are among the peaks of fire. But the volcano that most people go to see is the 5,897-metre high Cotopaxi – a beautifully symmetrical snow and ice-capped mountain. Situated 44 miles south of Quito, Cotopaxi is one of the world’s highest active volcanoes, though not the highest as is often claimed. The first recorded eruptions occurred in 1534. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the ill-fated town of Latacunga was destroyed by the volcano several times. Although quiescent now, Cotopaxi warmed up suddenly in 1975. “The snow inside the crater shrank to the point of disappearing completely,” according to a visitor centre information board. Cotopaxi National Park is Ecuador’s most visited national park after the Galapagos Islands. The landscape is rugged and starkly beautiful, huge boulders and lava flows testifying to the raw power of Mother Nature’s wrath. Despite the harsh conditions, life doesn’t just survive but positively thrives, having adapted to the prevailing conditions over millennia. As we drove along the dusty track across the treeless, windswept plateau known as paramo, we spotted herds of wild horses, small groups of llamas grazing in the nearby hills and wildfowl galore on and around the beautiful, electric blue lake of Laguna de Limpiopungu. Yes, Ecuador is quite simply a paradise on Earth. ------- FACT
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 Trekking in Ecuador © Ron Toft
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