Chimborazo Reserve
General
The Chimborazo volcano (20,703 feet), the
highest of Ecuador, stands side to side
with the little-visited Carihuairazo volcano
(16,471 feet). The Reserve has extensive dry
paramos that are used by the local Indian
communities to feed their cattle. There is a
project going on to reintroduce the native
american camels (vicunas, llamas and
alpacas) because their grassing is not
destructive to the native paramo vegetation.
The project is trying to make local Indians to
use this species instead of the far more
destructive goats and sheep.
Access
You can access the reserve using the road from Ambato to Guaranda. From Mocha you can also
go to the Carihuairazo area.
Species
Some of the most common species are white-tailed deer, paramo deer, rabbit, condor,
sword-billed hummingbird and the chimborazo hillstar. The llama, alpaca and vicuña are also
very important.
Plants
The flora is characteristic of the Andean highlands, pumamaqui, quishuar, quinua, chuquiragua
and paramo grasses.
