Although you must check beforehand due to landslides during the rainy season there is an old trading trail from Saraguro to
Yacuambi taking around 3 days to trek down the sloped hills of the Andes to this jungle town. The route begins up from farmlands in Saraguro and on to a swamp area with lakes and any local will point the way to help you get started. Past the lakes are stone paved areas of track and a stone bridge on route that affords spectacular views of the Amazon basin below which was traversed by the early Oriente settlers along with the Saraguros.
When to go.
To avoid the mudslides try to travel August to December periods.
Before embarking to
Yacuambi equip yourself with plenty of food in Saraguro. If you haven't purchased food prior, here you can purchase good produce from the markets or buy at the local stores. If you want a quick start to the entrances of the hiking trails, locals will take you there for a financial payout or you may contact
Residencial Armijos through his owner who will take you in his truck for a few dollars.
Once you have hiked to
Quingueado the trail takes you down to
Rio Quingueado and ascends to a notch with an intermittent stoned walkway. Continue on this trail till you cross over
Rio San Antonio and onto
Rio Negro via a further bridge constructed from stone. The trail will then descend down to a
Y junction, turn right here and head upwards towards
Tutupali village to a ridge passing
Cerro La Voladora hill along with its boulder land marking your position till you reach the 3 lakes and others.
For water supply you are recommended to go south east of the
Cerro Condorcillo which has clean drinking waters. You may also wish to camp here and will be awakened by the gorgeous sunrise over the Amazon basin the next day.
From
Cerro Condorcillo head over
Rio Corral Huaycu for an hour and into heavy concentrated steep descending cloud forest keeping to the main ridge trail and look for a waterfall land marker in the distance [
Rio Garcelan valley].
Around 5 hours or less from
Cerro Condorcillo you'll turn left at a main intersection, if you miss this turning you'll only have to go back as a trench will appear which in effect becomes a dead end.
The golden rule is to stay on the track and not divert into the pastures below running parallel to Rio Garcelan because they wont lead you to
Yacuambi where the
Tambo Loma locals reside. Once you hit the notch you'll see the
River of Yacuambi before moving on to several switch-backs that take you to a suspension bridge over the aforementioned river and onward to the end of gravel roads and onto
Yacuambi only 30 minutes ahead. After this final 8 to 10 hour trek from
Cerro Condorcillo you should take advantage of the only hotel with good well priced food close to the Plaza or take the bus back to Saraguro leaving each evening at 20:00 hours.
