Northern Ecuador Tour: 5 Days to Otavalo, Cuicocha and Las Lajas

This northern Ecuador tour takes 5 days from Quito to the Las Lajas Sanctuary on the Colombian border, with Otavalo, the Cuicocha crater lake and the northern Andes on the way. Prices start at $647 per person.

This northern Ecuador tour turns the Las Lajas Sanctuary — usually a brutal one-day sprint from Quito — into a proper 5-day journey. It’s the Las Lajas Sanctuary tour done slowly: Otavalo’s market, the Cuicocha crater lake, Ibarra, the Chota Valley and Tulcán, and only then the border crossing to the sanctuary itself. Everyone rushes Las Lajas as a brutal one-day sprint from Quito — 4am start, ten hours in a van, ninety minutes at the sanctuary, home after dark. This trip does the opposite. You head north slowly, the way the region deserves: Otavalo’s market, the Cuicocha crater lake, the ice-cream lanes of Ibarra, the Afro-Ecuadorian Chota valley, Tulcán’s surreal topiary cemetery — and then you cross the border to Las Lajas with time to actually take it in. Five unhurried days through Ecuador’s north, ending at one of the most dramatic churches in the Americas. No death-march days. Just the good stuff, at the right pace.

Prices shown are indicative starting rates per person; final pricing is confirmed at booking based on travel dates and group size.

Highlights

• Otavalo's Plaza de los Ponchos market and Peguche waterfall
• Cuicocha, the turquoise crater lake
• Ibarra, the white city, and its paila ice cream
• The Afro-Ecuadorian Chota Valley
• Tulcán's topiary cemetery
• The Las Lajas Sanctuary, visited unhurried over the Guáitara canyon
• El Ángel reserve and its giant frailejón páramo

Itinerary

1. Day 1Quito → Cayambe → Otavalo

   

   Head north out of Quito with a stop in Cayambe for its famous bizcochos, cross the equator line, and reach Otavalo by afternoon to settle in and wander Plaza de los Ponchos.

   Overnight: Otavalo — Hacienda Pinsaquí (tentative)

2. Day 2Otavalo → Cotacachi → Cuicocha → Peguche

   

   A full Otavalo-region day: the market at its liveliest, the leather town of Cotacachi, the turquoise Cuicocha crater lake (rim walk or boat ride), and the Peguche waterfall with a weaving workshop.

   Overnight: Otavalo — Hacienda Pinsaquí (tentative)

3. Day 3Otavalo → Ibarra → Chota Valley → Tulcán

   

   North to Ibarra, the white city, for its colonial streets and hand-churned paila ice cream, then into the warm Afro-Ecuadorian Chota Valley for lunch and music before continuing up to Tulcán.

   Overnight: Tulcán — Hotel Espíndola (tentative)

4. Day 4Tulcán Cemetery → Rumichaca Border → Las Lajas Sanctuary

   

   Start at Tulcán's astonishing topiary cemetery, cross the Rumichaca border into Colombia, and reach the Las Lajas Sanctuary with time to walk the bridge, see the image on the rock, visit the museum and ride the funicular. Back to Tulcán by evening.

   Overnight: Tulcán — Hotel Espíndola (tentative)

5. Day 5Tulcán → El Ángel Reserve → Quito

   

   Return south through the El Ángel Ecological Reserve, a high páramo forested with giant frailejones found almost nowhere else, then back to Quito by afternoon.

Prices per person