Cuenca and El Cajas National Park
A World Heritage city since 1999, forty minutes from a páramo holding more than 235 lakes
Cuenca, founded on 12 April 1557 and crossed by four rivers, holds at 2,560 metres a historic centre laid out on Renaissance lines, World Heritage since 1999. Forty minutes west, El Cajas lifts the páramo to 4,450 metres and gathers more than two hundred and thirty-five lakes. The whole city drinks from them.
What you will see
The Historic Centre
The Cathedral’s blue domes, the ruins of Pumapungo and the hanging houses above the Tomebamba gorge.
The Toquilla Straw Hat
Its weaving has been on the Intangible Cultural Heritage list since 2012; the workshops remain open in the city.
The Lakes of El Cajas
More than two hundred and thirty-five, between 3,100 and 4,450 metres, plus four restored kilometres of Inca Trail.
Wildlife & flora
El Cajas holds 157 bird species and 44 mammals: Andean condor, giant hummingbird, spectacled bear, mountain tapir and the endemic Cajas water mouse. Above 3,300 metres grow dwarf forests of Polylepis, the paper tree. A National Park since 1996, a Ramsar wetland since 2002 and the core zone of the Macizo del Cajas Biosphere Reserve since 2013, across 28,544 hectares.
From our own visits
We recommend the baños de cajón, a very Cuenca Andean healing tradition: a steam bath for one inside a wooden box, with only your head outside. They are found in the parish of Baños de Cuenca, the city’s thermal area, home to Piedra de Agua, Novaqua and Hostería Durán; it is best to confirm when booking which one offers the cajón and at what times. El Cajas, with its lakes and Polylepis woods, is among the most photogenic landscapes in the country, and the light changes within minutes: come prepared if you bring a camera.
What you should know
From 2,560 metres in Cuenca to over 4,000 in El Cajas is barely forty minutes of road: acclimatise a day or two in the city before walking. The weather turns in minutes, with fog and a real risk of hypothermia, and leaving the marked trails is unwise. Registering at the control huts on entry is mandatory.
