Excursão ao Parque Nacional Cajas saindo de Cuenca

I love the Cajas National Park. The ride from Cuenca was comfortable and being a private tour, I was able to spend time on my own. Amazing views of the lake, mountains and valley. The walking path was also beautiful and the guide moved according to our pace. Also enjoyed the local restaurant. If you love nature, you will enjoy this trip.

I booked this tour as a private tour because the agency claimed a group wasn't available. I got picked up by my guide Moises who was very knowledgeable about the fauna and flora of the area and made a few view stops on the way to the hike in the national park. The hike is not long (about 7km in total) but what gets you is the altitude (average of 3900 meters above sea level). After about 6 km, Moises turns to me and says "I see the hike is a bit straining for you because of the altitude, so I'll go the normal route and you go through a different route leading to the parking lot". He then proceeded to draw a map of the location we were at and give me directions of where to go. It all seemed very risky to me because it was just me and him but I trusted him as he said it supposed to be a 15 minute walk. He left, and I went on the trail he told me following his instructions. After 10 minutes of walking I felt something wasn't right and I realized that trail I was going through is unmarked - I was lost in the middle of the Andes mountains by myself. I then proceeded to scale the mountain and search for the highway and get some help. It took me several hours to find the highway, walking in the beating sun, climbing the mountain with bare hands and through cacti and other plants and all in high demanding altitude. Finally after reaching the highway I managed to stop a truck who rescued me to a nearby lookout where I could call the agency and get picked up. I was sun burnt, dehydrated, had cuts all over my body and completely strained. When my guide picked me up, he didn't take any responsibility for leaving me by myself, he just blamed me for not going on the right path. In addition there was no reimbursement or any form of apology from the agency. People there are a lot of tour agencies that offer this experience, do yourself a favor and get one that is responsible and has customer service awareness.

Eddy was our guide and the tour was fantastic. A beautiful park! See my review on Trip Advisor for more details!

Tour was professional and nice. Good talk and information about plants, animals and mountains. It was really interesting and great hike. I recommend the long hike 4 hours

Diego was an amazingly informative guide. Couldn't be happier with the trip. The altitude Hit me hard but Diego was super patient.

Highly recommend Eddy for birdwatching as he is exceptionally knowledgeable; recognizing bird calls, naming each species and able to lure many out for viewing. He’s also punctual, a safe driver and an all around great person. We will use his services again.

Excellent excursion with excellent, professional guide, Flavio, extremely knowledgeable on the flora and fauna and climate of the Cajas. Very patient, with me taking photos on the beauty of Cajas. Carlos, our driver was very professional and safe driver. Five stars for Flavio Carlos, and Polylepis

In just over 2 hours Flavio brought us closer to nature with the flora and fauna of Cajas National Park. All our (many!) Questions were answered. We were impressed by Flavio's great knowledge. He showed us the smallest flowers we wouldn't have seen without him. Of course, always with the Latin name! His excellent English impressed us. That we met another llama family with a young animal (enclosed photo) was the icing on the cake.

The trip booked with Polylepis is very well organized. I had a small question and was able to drop into the office in cuenca (so nice to physically meet people too) The park itself is beautiful and my guide Eddy has a particularly broad knowledge of birds, plants and flowers! He also knows how to tell the history and origins of Cajas national park, its surroundings and local culture in detail! Very informative and very nice trip! Thank Eddy and the rest of the organization!

End of September 2018, my wife and me enjoyed the private day tour to Cajas NP by Polylepis tours. The website information is correct and precise, booking at the tour office in Cuenca was easy and straightforward. Edy (Edison Juca) was our guide. Organisation of the tour and the tour program was flawless (actually, we admittedly profited of a nice day, too), and Edy turned out to be a guide with absolutely impressive capabilities. He adapted the choosen hiking trail perfectly to our physical conditions, he was able to name and explicitly describe all plants and birds which we recognized on our tour, and he virtually named every single species with its English, Latin and Spanish name (which was rather helpful in view of our German origin). He provided sound information on the geologic, historic, and cultural background of the area, and - on our way back - we enjoyed a comprehensive, detailed and very informative discussion with him on the actual political and social situation in Ecuador. Taken together, this was an outstanding highlight during our three-months tour through Ecuador. Thank you, Edy!