TOURISM AND RECOMMENDATIONS

• Arrival: a four wheel drive car is mandatory to come into Llanganates, because roads are deteriorated and dangerous. Generally one has to leave the car and take long walks to reach the attractions of the park. The usual trails are mildly difficult, but if one wants to go deeper into unknown places, a guide from the area is indispensable. The usual access route is from the town of Píllaro, south of the city of Latacunga, which takes you to Pisayambo lake and El Mirador. Another way to enter the park is use the unfinished road from Salcedo, west of the park, to Tena, east of the park. This road takes one very deep into the park, reaching up to Ana Tenorio river. Warm clothes and food provisions are recommendable because the paramo has severe weather conditions and there are no services available yet inside the park.
• Treasure hunting: the Ecuadorian explorer Luciano Andrade Marín ventured into Llanganates for five weeks at the beginning of the century, and recorded his experiences, concluding it would be "Uninhabitable forever" but a perfect place to hide something. Many famous people have gone into Llangantes to look for the treasure of Atahualpa, including botanist Richard Spruce and evolutionist Alfred Russel Wallace. A Swiss-German resident of Quito, Eugene Brunner, was convinced after 50 years of search he knew the location of the treasure, but died before retrieving any of it. Many people claim the treasure does not even exist, all the Inca's gold stolen by the Spaniards, but some believe general Rumiñahui was able to hide the 750 tons of gold along with the mummified body of the last Inca in this inhospitable region. Would you like to experience our Treasure Hunting game?