Sangay National Park, Nature reserve in Morona-Santiago Province, Ecuador.
Sangay National Park protects a range from 900 to 5,319 metres, from tropical rainforest and cloud forest up through páramo to the glaciers of the Sangay and the snow-covered peaks of El Altar, whose caldera holds a lagoon. Its 327 lakes feed a wetland system of 31.5 square kilometres, and the Guamote–Macas road crosses the park from west to east.
Sangay National Park received its UNESCO World Heritage designation in 1983. In 1992 it was placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger because of poaching, extensive grazing, unplanned road construction and encroachment on the park's perimeter. It was removed from that list in 2005.
The name Sangay derives from the Shuar word samkay, meaning volcano. The Puruha people, earlier inhabitants of these lands, called the Altar lagoons Colaycocha, 'lagoon of punishment or penance', and according to legend left wrongdoers there to die of hunger, cold or drowning. The Spanish named El Altar's peaks after church figures, from El Canónigo to El Acólito.
Most routes into the park are long walks along trails and tracks that deteriorate badly in the rainy season. The Baños–Riobamba road serves the western high zone, the Puyo–Macas road the eastern low zone, and the paved Guamote–Macas road crosses the park from west to east. The Tungurahua refuge is about four hours on foot from Pondoa.
Scientists discovered a new species of shrew opossum named Caenolestes sangay in 2013, underscoring the park's importance for biological research. Such discoveries highlight how much remains unknown about the wildlife inhabiting this region.
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