Explore The northern sierra
Some 33km north of Ibarra, the Panamericana forks at the village of Mascarilla, a black community with an impressive sideline in clay masks and figurines; there’s a checkpoint here (have your passport ready). To the left is the old road to Colombia via Mira, which is paved as far as El Ángel, but for the final 48km to Tulcán is in poor shape and rarely used; to the right, the busy Panamericana ascends the sun-baked Chota valley before turning to Bolívar, La Paz and San Gabriel on its way up to Tulcán and the Colombian border.
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El Ángel and around
El Ángel and around
From Mira the road continues its climb for the next 25km to EL ÁNGEL at 3000m. It’s a friendly highland town whose most famous resident was topiarist José Franco Guerrero, responsible for the fantastic gardens in Tulcán; the Parque Libertad, at the top of the town was his herbal sketchpad for the more advanced creations to come. A peaceful place, El Ángel only gets busy during its Monday market, held on the streets running downhill from the Parque Libertad, where you’ll find clothes, produce and fresh fish caught from the nearby mountain lakes.
Most people come here to access the nearby Reserva Ecológica El Ángel, but another possibility is spending a few pleasant hours at La Calera hot springs, 11km southwest of town, at the bottom of a winding cobbled road in the crook of a forested valley. The site is pretty well deserted during the week, when you’ll have its naturally heated pool and cooler, larger swimming pool all to yourself – though the latter is emptied three times a week for cleaning (Mon, Wed & Fri after 1pm). At weekends, jeeps leave for the springs when full from the Parque Libertad ($1), but at other times you’ll have to rent a camioneta.
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Reserva Ecológica El Ángel
Reserva Ecológica El Ángel
Established in 1992, the Reserva Ecológica El Ángel ($10), 15km north of the town of El Ángel, is home to some of Ecuador’s most interesting páramo landscapes, a windblown rain-soaked wilderness of rolling grassland hills and lakes, ranging in altitude from 3644m to 4768m. It’s most famous for its frailejones, peculiar furry-leaved plants endemic to the northern Andes, which grow on dark stems up to seven metres in height and cover 85 percent of the reserve’s 160 square kilometres, covering the hillsides like a ghostly vegetal army. The reserve’s wildlife includes foxes, deer and condors, and streams teem with rainbow trout. In a few of its sheltered pockets, forest supplants the soggy moorland, and dense thickets of trees such as the polylepis – draped with mosses, orchids and bromeliads – make the best places to spot hummingbirds and armadillos.
