Ecuador

“La libertad es un estado de gracia anudado al ser humano desde su integracion al mundo (“freedom is a state of grace tied to the human being from its integration into the world).” That freedom came earlier to Ecuador than most realize, with the Spanish losing control in 1830. Only a few years before the great German explorer, Alexander von Humboldt, traveled to Ecuador. His swashbuckling tales of epic adventure, described in many an ancient tome, make for fascinating reads by the light of a candle.

The colonialists mostly left but the haciendas, occupying thousands of hectares straight to the Colombian border, remain in the hands of certain Spanish families. Estates such as Zuleta are now quasi-corporations, divided by land reform but still held by descendants. At Hacienda Cusin, a splurge of monastic mayhem and splendid gardens awaits with all the comforts of a lit fireplace in your room and a hot water bottle tucked inside your bed, creating a sublime sense of a reinvented past that no doubt outperforms what once existed. Play your cards right and Ramiro will serenade you with his guitar by the fireside with Ecuadorian songs that pick you up by the scruff of the neck and hold you tightly in their embrace. The revitalized Hacienda Piman also delights despite decades of abandonment with bitter feuding among family members – and a couple of ghosts to keep you company on cold Andean nights.

Forget the Galapagos as the indigenous people are lacking and nature is so abundant here, particularly at extreme altitudes. There are the pampas and lagunas of Cubilche and Mojanda with Christian (“guardian of the mountain”) to patiently guide you and reveal their grandeur, and the extra-terrestrial landscape of Páramo El Angel at 12,500 feet with its frailejones (“big monks”) growing to inexplicable heights with eerie stillness all around.

Only a bird distracts overhead, and birds you will see, particularly in the cloud forest of Intag de Refugio, where Oswaldo, more bird than man, has an unrelenting commitment to ensuring you spot trogons, tanagers, and toucans. Clear-winged butterflies and all manners of wondrous species and habitats hold their moisture like they will never let go in an uncanny display of a natural environment literally drenched with wild beauty. Shrouded in mist at these dizzying altitudes you can lose yourself in the heady belief that you are Humboldt himself, a man aching with desire for the mystery of nature to privately manifest herself.

Here’s my photo essay on Ecuador.