After relaxing in hammocks in Vilcabamba, I headed up to Cuenca – Ecuador’s third biggest city and most beautiful – for two days.
I spent my time there wandering around the city centre, full of churches and colonial buildings, and exploring Cajas National Park.
Cajas National Park
Cajas National Park is just 30km from Cuenca and a must visit if you’re in the area. The park is at a high altitude, reaching 4450m at its highest point, and its landscape is that of hills, valleys, lakes and forests.
I caught a morning bus from Cuenca and got dropped off at the welcome registration centre. There is no entrance fee, but you do still need to register.
There are lots of trails to hike and as you’re registering in the office, you’ll be asked what trail you’re doing. If you’re not sure, don’t worry! They’ll be able to give you advice on the trails and their distances and hours.
Trail 1 seems to be the most popular for a day hike. I was really keen to do trail 2 as I’d heard it was great for panoramic views over the whole park. While I was registering, I met Aubrey, a lovely American girl, who had also arrived solo and together we decided to combine trails 1 and 2. I’m so happy we did both!
We started with trail 2. It took us an hour to get to the green posts which mark the path for trail 2. Seeing as trail 2 is all about the views, most of the walk is ascending quite steeply up to the San Luis ridgeline.
It was a muddy, loose stone, narrow ascent and I was using the long grass on either side of the path as handholds for most of the uphill. I’m not great with exposure so I did feel a bit nervous and was sincerely hoping that the way down the other side was a lot easier!
Walking along the ridge line was really cool as we finally had views of the other side of the park. We had a quick lunch break but couldn’t stay up for long as the wind was pretty strong and cold!
Thankfully the descent at the other end wasn’t as bad as the ascent and we made it down quite quickly.
From there, we joined up with trail 1 which took us further into the park, through what felt like an enchanted forest, past lakes, mini waterfalls and through valleys.
It was a muddy walk to say the least, a lot of marshy boggy land that was muddier and wetter due to the recent rainfall. Aubrey definitely got covered in more mud than she anticipated! Trying to stay relatively clean was futile – embrace the mud became the mantra!!
Rather than returning to the welcome centre, we ended our walk on the side of the main road and waited for a ride back back to Cuenca.
Walking in Cajas National Park was a great day trip – mud and all! The views from Cerro San Luis were fab as was the rest of the walk past lakes and through the forest. A really good walking day out! It’s hard to say how far we walked, I reckon it was 5hrs45ish of walking and distance wise around 10km.
How to get to Cajas National Park
Cajas National Park is about an hour drive from Cuenca. Buses to Cajas leave at 7am, 8am, 9.15am, 10.20am, 11.50am, 2pm and 2.30pm from the Terminal Terrestre and cost $2 (£1.50 approx). I got the 9.15am bus to make the most of the day. If you miss these departures, you can also take any bus headed to Guayaquil and get off at Cajas on route.
To return to Cuenca, head to the main road and hop on any bus heading in the right direction. For our return journey, we ended up getting a shared van, instead of a bus, simply because it turned up first and we didn’t fancy waiting on the side of the road for any longer. We paid $3 for the ride and it was much quicker than the bus.
How to get to Cuenca
Cuenca is a well connected city. From the south are buses from Loja which take around 5hrs and cost $7.50 (£6 approx). From the coast are buses from Guayaquil which take 4hrs ish and cost $8 (£6 approx). You can also even come from Peru’s Mancora! From the north are buses from Quito which take around 9hrs and cost from $13 (£10 approx).
Final thoughts
Cuenca was a nice place to spend a few days before I go to the Galápagos Islands. It’s got tons of pretty buildings and churches and the main centre is lovely to walk around.
If you’re in Cuenca, definitely put aside a day to go to Cajas National Park – it’s beautiful (and muddy)! If you’re from the UK, you might get Lake District and Scotland vibes from it! I loved the day hike we did and would recommend. It’s an easy park to get to from the city and really is my Cuenca highlight!
My next stop is Guayaquil for my flight to the Galápagos Islands!!! I’m super excited!!! At the start of this trip I’d ruled out visiting the Galápagos mainly for price reasons. However, I changed my mind and still can’t believe I’m going!!
