Qualla: Andean Highlands (Ecuador)

Andean Highlands (Ecuador): Introduction

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY-SA 3.0. Alexander von Humboldt, climbing through Ecuador in 1802, looked at the central plateau running north to south between the country's two Andean ranges and called it the Avenue of the Volcanoes. The name stuck. More than two centuries later, the Pan-American Highway - signed as E35 within Ecuador - runs the length of that same corridor, connecting Quito in the north to Loja in the south, threading past Cotopaxi and Chimborazo and Tungurahua. This is the Andean Highlands: a region starting at roughly 2,200 meters and climbing to Ecuador's highest peak, Chimborazo at 6,263 meters, where pre-Columbian heritage persists in food, language, clothing, and a thousand small daily practices that the country's coastal cities have partly abandoned.

Image: CC BY-SA 3.0

Andean Highlands (Ecuador): Two Ranges, One Valley

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit amalavida.tv from Ecuador, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Ecuadorian Andes are not a single ridge but two parallel ranges: the Cordillera Occidental to the west and the Cordillera Central to the east. Between them lies the fertile central plateau where most highland cities are built - Quito, Latacunga, Ambato, Riobamba, Cuenca, Loja...

Image: amalavida.tv from Ecuador | CC BY-SA 2.0

Andean Highlands (Ecuador): A Land Measured in Elevations

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit GreenockBeejamin, CC BY-SA 3.0. Temperature in the Andean Highlands depends more on altitude than on latitude, which sits almost on the equator here. The lowlands of the Littoral provinces start warm and humid, subtropical. Climb through the foothills and the vegetation shifts every few hundred meters. By 3,000...

Image: GreenockBeejamin | CC BY-SA 3.0

Andean Highlands (Ecuador): The Provinces of the Plateau

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Lamingasalinas, CC BY-SA 3.0. The highlands divide into ten provinces. Azuay holds Cuenca, the third-largest city in Ecuador and a colonial architectural jewel with UNESCO status. Bolivar centers on Guaranda, called the Rome of Ecuador because it sits on seven hills; Salinas de Guaranda, a village nearby, pro...

Image: Lamingasalinas | CC BY-SA 3.0

Andean Highlands (Ecuador): Quichua, Llapingachos, and the Things That Stay

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Claudioborjaec, CC BY-SA 4.0. Spanish is nearly universal in Ecuador, but across the highlands - especially in Chimborazo and Tungurahua provinces, and in rural communities everywhere - Quichua remains the first language of many. Any attempt to use a few words of Quichua is received with genuine warmth. Foods...

Image: Claudioborjaec | CC BY-SA 4.0

Andean Highlands (Ecuador): The Things to Do, The Places to Pause

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY-SA 3.0. The highlands offer what mountain regions everywhere offer - hiking, biking, climbing, horseback riding - and a few things that are particular to Ecuador. Birdwatching in the cloud forests around Mindo draws specialists from around the world; over 400 species have been recorded w...

Image: CC BY-SA 3.0