Cuenca & the Southern Highlands - Adventure Guide to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands - page 202

Flora & Fauna

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áramo grasslands dominate the landscape of the
high-altitude southern Sierras - a land of steep
slopes, jagged peaks, and variable weather conditions. In
addition to the páramo typically found in the central Si-
erras, pockets of the small quinua tree can be found in Cajas National
Park, just west of Cuenca. More of a shrub than a tree, the quinua
provides habitat for a variety of unique plants and animals. There are
also unusual hummingbirds, unique to this region, living among the
hundreds of tiny lakes and lagoons. Other magnificent creatures in-
clude condors, mountain toucans, giant conebills, deer, rabbits and
pumas.
To the southeast of Cuenca, closer to the city of Loja, lies the massive
expanse of PodocarpusNational Park , with awide range of ecolog-
ical life zones that stretch from upper páramo down to the limits of
the upper Amazon Basin. Varied topography and weather have cre-
ated evolutionary patterns favorable to numerous endemic species.
Here you can find animals typical of the páramo merging with the
more tropical flora and fauna of the southern Oriente. In addition to
being a birder's paradise, the park is also home to large mammals
such as the puma, mountain tapir, and the rare spectacled bear.

Getting Here &
Getting Around

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any travelers enter the region surrounding Cuenca
by continuing south from the Central Highlands via
the Pan-American Highway. The other land route is from
Guayaquil and the southern coast. The Quito-Guayaquil
and Guayaquil-Cuenca roads meet in El Tríunfo. If you're flying in,
the Mariscal Lamar Airport , located on Av. España, is close to
town and offers weekday flights to and from Guayaquil and Quito. If
you're heading for the coast, change planes in Guayaquil. For the rest
of the country, fly to Quito first. TAME airlines has a desk at the air-
port, 7-862-193, as well as an office downtown, at Grán Colombia,

down the alley between Hotel Presidente and Hotel Conquistador,

7-827-609. TAME offers two flights daily between Quito and