El Cajas National Park, National park and nature reserve in Azuay Province, Ecuador.
El Cajas is a protected area in Azuay Province that spreads across several Andean valleys with lakes and wetlands. The terrain sits at around 3,600 meters (11,800 feet) elevation and covers an area with hills, rock walls, and open meadows of yellow grass.
The government established this park in 1996 to protect the watersheds and forests. Sections of an old Inca road run through the valleys and once connected the city of Tomebamba with the coast.
The name Cajas comes from the Kichua word cassa, meaning gateway to the snowy mountains, or from caxa, cold. Twenty-eight archaeological sites, including the Paredones control point on a pre-Incan trade road, show Cañari and Inca use of the passes.
Warm clothing and rain protection are important, as temperature swings between minus two and eighteen degrees Celsius (28 to 64 Fahrenheit). Fog rolls in often, and snow sometimes falls between July and September.
The violet-throated metaltail, a hummingbird, is found only in Cajas and the surrounding valleys. The park's bird list runs to 157 species, and the giant hummingbird, the largest in the world, feeds here on agave flowers.
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