Know your city
Gap Year in Andes As earth longest mountain chain containing some of the planet most impressive peaks, the Andes offer an incredible experience for your gap year travel. Ecuador is one of the best places to bring this massive mountain range to life through active pursuits and guided tours. Perhaps nowhere on the continent are the chain snow-capped volcanoes so accessible and easy to appreciate.
From a bird eye view, the Andean highlands spring forth with a collage of colors. In the upper reaches of the Andes, the afternoon sun drapes over wide stretches of untouched páramo, or tropical alpine grassland. Down in the valleys, it illuminates fields of corn, barley, wheat, and quinoa, turning them into gold, amber, lilac and amethyst patterns that change with the shadows cast by playful clouds. In the Andes, land of interplay between light and dark and the natural and the man-made, it is impossible to experience the same day twice.
In Ecuador, as through most of their length, the Andes exist in two sub-ranges – a western and an eastern one – with a central valley in between. The climate of that central valley, which contains Quito and most of the highland towns, is fairly similar year round, although there is rainy season that extends from September to May, with the exception of a few weeks in December and January. In the rainy season, weather tends to be better in the mornings, with downpours frequent in the afternoons. Meanwhile, the dry months tend to be windier. In the highlands, temperature depends much more on elevation than on seasonal changes. That said, the climate of the Andes of Ecuador, while reliably temperate, is constantly changing, and locals claim the area experiences “four seasons in one day” throughout the year.
In general, the best time to visit and climb in Ecuador western Andes (which include the peaks of Pichincha, Chimborazo and the Illinizas) is June through early September. By contrast, June, July and August are the wettest months and December and January the driest in the eastern Andes (where we find Cayambe, Antisana and Sangay volcanoes). Cotopaxi, Ecuador second peak and the world highest active volcano, exists in its own micro-climate and is climbable most of the year.
History of the city Arrow
Ecuador Andes were inhabited by various indigenous peoples before the Inca conquest in the 15th century. Among the most notable were the Quitus and Caras in the north – with the former giving the future country capital its name – and the Cañari in the south, who still exist as a separate ethnic group. When the Inca Empire reached its zenith at the beginning of the 16th century, it stretched from Quito to what is now Santiago in Chile. But with the death of the emperor Huayna Capac, the vast empire fell into civil war as the Quito-based Atahualpa challenged, and eventually defeated his half-brother Huáscar in Cuzco (Peru). It was into this war-torn empire that Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro stepped when he first landed on the northern coast of Peru in 1526, then returned to conquer it in 1532 with just 168 men. Quito was founded in 1534 by Sebastián de Benalcázar, one of Pizarro generals, and soon became an important colonial center, along with the central and southern highland towns of Riobamba and Cuenca.