Wildlife, from the páramo to the islands

Ecuador can show you a penguin and a glacier in the same week. The animals are not performing. The way you stand is part of whether they remain.

The islands

On the Galápagos, blue-footed boobies, marine iguanas, giant tortoises, and sea lions are the everyday miracles. Frigatebirds hang over the docks. The Galápagos penguin, the only penguin that lives on the equator, is a colder-water sight, often around Isabela and Fernandina.

The park’s distance rules are the whole ethic. Two meters is a common statement of it; follow whatever your naturalist says on that site, that day. Do not touch, feed, or surround an animal for a picture. If it walks toward you, you are the one who moves.

Cloud forest and páramo

Mindo is the birding capital of the western slope. Hummingbirds are the guaranteed audience. Toucans and the cock-of-the-rock are the reason people get up in the dark. Go with a local guide for the lek.

The Andean condor still flies over parts of the high páramo. It is rare. A day at Cotopaxi or Chimborazo is not a condor appointment. It is a chance.

The forest

In the Amazon, expect monkeys, macaws, hoatzins, caimans, and, with luck, a pink river dolphin in Cuyabeno. Yasuní’s reputation rests on sheer numbers of species, many of them insects and birds you will not identify. That is a reason to hire a naturalist, not a reason to leave the trail.

Do not feed anything. Skip the flash. The best sighting of the trip is usually the one you did not rearrange.